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Hunter Pro C problems
I installed a Hunter Pro C controler last year with 12 stations. All worked well on this system until recently. Several stations in a common ground vault stopped working at the same time. I checked each valve manually as well as the wiring in the vault. When I chaecked the controller I found something odd. When stations that worked fine were checked I read a line voltage of 25.7 volts ac at only that contact point. When stations that were not funtioning properly were set to run I would read 25.7 at several contact points. Any help you can provide would be appreciated.
Sounds as if you have some wires making contact with each other. Lets say, zone 5 is on and you are seeing voltage on zones 4,5,6 and 7, then the implication is that somewhere the bare wires are in contact with each other so that the voltage can jump from 5 to 4,6 and 7. I have seen this happen if someone strips off too much insulation on the wire at the controller and the bare wires end up touching, or in the valve box. I'd check those spots first. If you spliced any wires when you did the install, you may need to dig them up and check the splices.
Good advice from Bob, you'll want to check the obivious first. Make sure the wiring in your valve boxes and at the controller terminals are not touching each other. You'll also want to make sure your common wire isn't touching any of the zone wires. I would assume if you don't have splices anywhere else, and you haven't dug in the yard and knicked any other wiring, the problem probably lies in one of those areas. Another thing, I doubt the problem lies within the controller if it is only a year old. Have you done any work on the system recently?
Tony Posey
Ridge Run Landscapes
I checked things out & here are my findings to date. There are no splices, I ran a single wire per valve and a common ground per valve box all buried about 18". When I turned on a staion, and took a reading at the controller I still get a 25.7 volt indication not only from the staion that should come on but others as well. There are no shorts at the controller as each wire is well insulated from the others. At the valve box I separated all other valves except the one being run at the time from the common wire. When I checked I got 0 volts. After this I disconnected the valve wiring and took a reading from the wires coming from the controller. At this point I get a reading of 25.7 volts. Could it be possible that I have faulty solinoids. Additionally, what would be causing a reading od 25.7 volts at different station point at the controller whenever a faulty station is on? Could this be a short coming back through the common ground from the solinoid? Thank you for your help.
Start reading resistances of the wiring and solenoids. Voltage readings aren't as useful. Flag the wires at the controller, disconnect them from the controller, and take resistance measurements between the common and the individual zones.
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