Hi there,
I'm about to start my sprinkler installation at the end of this month and I was hoping for a little wiring advice for the "common" connection between valves. The diagrams, explanations, and installation instructions say that this is a "daisy-chained" (a.k.a. serial) connection between valves. In my installation I have two valve boxes (each with three valves) pretty far apart, so in order to daisy-chain this exactly as in the installation instructions for the controller, I would need to run a single conductor wire between the valve boxes, from valve 3 to valve 4. Please reference the following diagram to see what I mean (this will look exactly like the diagram from any controller installation manual):
However it's pretty inconvenient to do this as I'm sure you all agree. I was wondering if I can wire each valve box in parallel, and serially between valves in the same box? Please reference this diagram to see what I mean:
So can I do this, or will something go wrong with the installation? I'm sure many people have encountered the problem of multiple valve boxes in distant locations. Even if you had two valve boxes side by side it seems sloppy to route a single wire between them to continue the serial "common" connection. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance for your help.