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

This has nothing to do with inside your house....

If a lighting hits your ground, outside.. It's sole purpose is to reach earth ground and ground out ( Release it's energy)

However if there is a piece of copper in the ground, it will cling to it. Thus traveling through out the entire sprinkler system.. frying everything

Well, god forbid there be a thread where someone didn't chime in to remind us all that lightning is powerful. As if one is foolish to install surge suppressors or something. Since seat belts don't do diddly if you slam into a bridge abutment at 75 MPH, I guess I won't bother wearing them anymore.

All the suppressors in the world don't mean diddly when a ground strike nails a system's field wiring

Well, for most strikes, a whole-house surge suppressor combined with a point-of-use surge suppressor will help. I do realize that they aren't absolutely effective. My area is under a severe thunderstorm warning as I type this (I'm shutting down very soon!), and before coming in I unplugged the controller. Unplugging is the best protection. Who knows, maybe the solenoids could still get fried but at least the controller will be OK... Unless it gets hit directly, which would almost be funny enough to make it worth it.

In other news, as I was out there unplugging the shiny new controller, I found that some bird saw fit to leave a nice turd right on top of it. I guess someone's not impressed with my handiwork.

Well there isn't too much that you can do when it comes to a nearby lightning strike on an irrigation system. The craziest I've seen is All the solenoids completely exploded and the controller exploded too

Found the problem. It was the expansion modules--the things the zone wires plug into. I had reused the old ones because they only give you 2 expansion modules (model number TSM-02), but I needed 4. So I figured, "Duh, why not use all 4 of the old ones?" There was a voice in the back of my mind warning me about it at the time, but I had forgotten it.

Oh well.

The two new TSM-02 modules make all the zones work. Now I just need to get a couple more of them.

I guess weird things can happen when those modules get fried.

Lesson learned: GET WHOLE-HOUSE SURGE SUPPRESSION INSTALLED, AND PUT THE IRRIGATION CONTROLLER ON ITS OWN STANDALONE SURGE SUPPRESSOR!

Thanks for the replies.

bust out a multimeter and start testing

I do have a rain sensor. I know the rain sensor is wired properly (and that nothing else is going where the sensor should be). Obviously not 100% sure the controller isn't faulty, but it is brand new...

Just making sure you have a Rain sensor and a Master Valve because you have those wired in....

To me- If you Plug in your controller and a zone kicks on as soon as you plug it in
It's either

1) You wired a common wire and zone wire wired into the Rain sensor ports- As this is a constant supply of 24 V -- this will kick on a zone.

2) The controller is faulty and is sending power out the the zones

Read through your manual

Sorry, didn't think the wiring would be relevant. FWIW, I was very careful to wire everything as it was before.