SPRINKLER TALK FORUM - You Got Questions, We've Got Answers

Test your wiring for resistance and continuity.

First check the voltage at the controller terminals for each zone. Should be around 27- volts AC. That will tell you if you have juice coming out of the controller. Not too familiar with the SRC, but as far as the rain sensor goes, when you disconnect the wires from the rain sensor terminals, I believe you will still have to run a jumper wire across those two terminals or insert a jumper clip that comes with the controller.

One of the easiest ways to determine if there is a problem with the controller is to take it totally out of the loop. Connect the wires for one valve directly to the transformer that powers the controller and see if the valve turns on without the controller. Of course there's always a chance there's something wrong with the power source (bad transformer, GFCI receptical that has popped, etc). So one other option to completely remove the power source and controller from the equation is to try three 9 volt battereis. Connect 3 batteries in series to get the 27 volts needed to open the valve. If you can't open it with batteries, then your batteries are bad, the selinoid in the valve is bad, or there's a problem in the wiring.

If using 9-volt batteries to trigger a solenoid, it would be more customary to use two batteries in series, to eliminate the possibility of overloading a solenoid. In fact some makes of solenoids note that they will function on 12 volts DC, if the supply pressure isn't too high.