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

Hi All -

I have a Rain Bird 8si controller - currently only 7 zones in use. I am splicing into zone ONE (8 heads) after the manifold to run 5 additional bubblers in a garden.

Can I wire this thing so that zone 1 continues to operate as it does now, and a new zone 8 for the bubblers will operate the original zone ONE valve at the manifold and the new zone EIGHT valve after the splice?

I realize that for the new zone EIGHT the zone ONE valve at the manifold will also need to be open - so this probably won't work.

Opinions welcome, however!

Thank You!!

OK - thinking about this - maybe a better (or additional) question would be:

Can I operate the same valve from 2 different zones? In other words, can I run a wire frone Zone ONE on the controller to Valve ONE and a wire from Zone EIGHT on the controller to valve ONE? Or will the current back feed to the controller and fry it?

Thanks again!!

Thanks for the reply -

I never even thought of program A & B. I bought this house w/ the system in place - took me awhile to figure out the controller which isn't terribly intuitive. Seems to me though - since I'll be installing valves on the lateral lines after the manifold, that it'll have to open two valves at the same time to accomplish what I want it to. Per your response, it's capable of doing that - so thanks again!

Al

I don't think I explained my idea well enough, so I'll add a drawing.

I'm working on zone one only, and have an unused zone available on the controller, and a spare wire available at both the controller and the manifold.

I want to isolate the new heads and have them be zone 8, w/o running a pipe back to the manifold.

In my scenario, I wire zone one and zone 8 to both open valve #1, which is in the manifold.

For zone 1 to continue to flow the same heads as it does now, the controller would open valve 1 and valve 8. Valve 8 would be wired to zone 1.

For the new zone 8 to flow, valve 1 and valve 9 would be open, and valve 9 would be wired to the available zone 8 on the controller.

So....

Zone 1 flowing - valve 1 and valve 8 open. Valve 9 closed.

Zone 8 flowing - valve 1 and valve 9 open. Valve 8 closed.

Thw wires to the two new valves would be a separate run - easily accomplished. I have an extra wire in the harness from the controller to the manifold to operate valve 1 using the zone 8 slot, which is currently unused.

I hope this makes sense. And thanks again for looking.

Al

Quoted from "Wet_Boots"

If you intend to split a zone by adding two more zone valves in the field, the original zone valve gets connected to the Master Valve terminal of the controller.

Thanks for the reply - I think I understand.

So in my case, I would move the wire from zone 1 at the controller to MV. I assume this valve would be open when the program is running and closed when not running.

I would then wire valve 8 to zone 1 and valve 9 to zone 8?

Thanks again!

Thank you for the help! Now back to digging