Lightning, new controller, forgot to label the wires
Hello,
Last week my house was struck (or nearly struck) by lightning and a few small electronic items dies all at once. Soon thereafter I realized my sprinklers were not running on schedule. They worked fine before that day. I checked the controller box in the garage and it had no display. It was over 15 years old so I bought and installed a new controller today. Unfortunately, I didn't label my wires so now I don't know which wire goes to which zone. Yeah, I know.
I have 5 zones and none of them are turning on now. There are two black insulated tubes coming to the controller, inside of each are 5 wires (white, blue, red, green, yellow). Looking inside my valve box outside, I believe the white is the common wire, so I plugged each of the whites into the "common" terminal on the controller (one, then the other). I then tried just one other wire at a time in the #1 slot on the controller and set the manual run on for a few minutes. Nothing sprays out in the yard.
As I said, before last week, everything was working. Could this be bad solenoids now? If I want to test that, with the multimeter I own but have never used, how (exactly) do I do that?
Any thoughts on how to resolve the which-wire-goes-to-which-zone problem?
FYI - This is still a relatively new topic for me. I've been reading a lot on here tonight before posting, and I've learned a lot already. Thanks!