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Rain Dial problem with station one

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Brassguy

New Member

Posts: 3

1

Sunday, February 26th 2012, 4:36pm

Rain Dial problem with station one

Just joined the forum. Couldn't find this in a search, so I apologize if it has been covered.

I inherited a sprinkler system with Rain Dial controller. I don't know how old it is, but it seems to work except for station one. That station is wired separately to the common terminal and it's quite a distance away from the controller. The sprinklers at that station come on when the valve is opened manually. The wiring for station one was cut, and the program runs fine when station one is not connected. When I connect station one and run the program, the display blinks and it immediately advances to station two. I don't see any error message, but the display reads "OFF" if I turn the dial to that station. I replaced the solenoid, but it still does not work correctly.

Now here's the strange thing - If I disconnect the wiring at the solenoid, then start the controller program, it runs station one as it should. If I then connect the wires WHILE the program is running, the sprinklers operate correctly. It's only when station one is ALREADY connected that it fails to start. Any ideas why this would happen?

Thanks.

Wet_Boots

Supreme Member

Posts: 4,102

Location: Metro NYC

2

Sunday, February 26th 2012, 5:11pm

do a resistance test of the wiring - you find open circuits and short circuits that way

Brassguy

New Member

Posts: 3

3

Monday, February 27th 2012, 12:36am

How do you do that?

Wet_Boots

Supreme Member

Posts: 4,102

Location: Metro NYC

4

Monday, February 27th 2012, 12:52pm

with a multimeter you can get for not too much money, at Radio Shack, or Harbor Freight, or even a large auto parts store

wsommariva

Supreme Member

Posts: 332

Location: Northern New Jersey

5

Monday, February 27th 2012, 1:33pm

Make sure zone 1 wire is secured in controller. Do you have a manual for the controller? Make sure zone 1 is set right - e.g set for x minutes, right day, etc.

If you have multiple valves in a manifold that includes zone 1: See if you have an extra wire that's unused. Connect that to valve 1.

Brassguy

New Member

Posts: 3

6

Thursday, March 8th 2012, 10:09pm

I think it's a problem with the controller. I removed the wires from station one and hooked it up to 6 instead, leaving number one unused. Now it works fine.

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