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Some sections will not work and others work too often

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larbec

Senior Member

Posts: 20

1

Monday, May 10th 2010, 6:09pm

Some sections will not work and others work too often

I just replaced my controller with a 12 zone Rainbird controller. Anyways....I have one zone that will not work in my back yard and I have one zone in the front that operates when I turn it to zone 3,4,6,8 and 9 (i think) What will cause this to operate in so many different zones? Do I have a bad control valve?

Thanks

mrfixit

Moderator

Posts: 1,510

Location: USA

2

Monday, May 10th 2010, 9:24pm

The wiring's messed up.

larbec

Senior Member

Posts: 20

3

Wednesday, May 12th 2010, 3:30pm

how

How is my wiring messed up, please explain. I have the gray and blue wires going to a different terminal on the block. The red and white going to the control valve

Wet_Boots

Supreme Member

Posts: 4,102

Location: Metro NYC

4

Thursday, May 13th 2010, 9:53am

If you aren't using color-coded cable(s) to connect the valves, then you could easily mess it all up.

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To make an extreme example, imagine all the wires are the same color. You would have to mark the ends of every wire currently connected to the controller's outputs with a numbered tag. Then you would take resistance measurements from each wire to every other wire, one at a time, and write down the measured resistance value on a grid chart. That can be a lot of measurements (45 measurements for 10 wires) - but it will pinpoint which of the unknown wires is the common. Once you are certain of the common, you can work out the rest.

larbec

Senior Member

Posts: 20

5

Sunday, June 6th 2010, 6:46pm

common

How do I know which line(s) is the common? Do I measure one of the 12 gray wires with the red lead and place the other black lead on the ground? Where do I place the leads to my measure and what am I measuring?

Wet_Boots

Supreme Member

Posts: 4,102

Location: Metro NYC

6

Monday, June 7th 2010, 8:34am

Just follow the procedure given, and write down all the resistance measurements. It will become obvious which wire is the common.

larbec

Senior Member

Posts: 20

7

Monday, June 7th 2010, 7:59pm

Thanks

I will try this and thanks.

Is there an easy way to find your valves in the ground? My home was built in the 70's and I am not sure they placed them all in a box...

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