Feild Wiring Troublshooting

I have 13 station Hunter ICC with Hunter Valves

None of my stations will turn on, I wanted to run by you guys the procedure I was planning on following to isolate any potential wiring issues

-- From clock

Measure voltage from the common to each position on the modules, whats the expected voltage? AC or dc?

Measure the voltage across the transformer, 24 Volts I assume? What happens when you ASSUME?? :^D

I am thinking I have a common wire issue or clock issue as nothing works


In the field

- Whats best way to Ohm out the common wire?
- Is it possible to have common wire short to ground?
- I bought 500' roll of wire I was going to twist one end on the common in the clock and then pull it to furthest value and ohm it out, good bad Idea?

- would open between values cause all then to fail I woudl think not as long as we have return path to the clock

Best way to verify wiring between valves?

_ expected voltage at he value?

TIA

George

12V AC from station terminal to common terminal.


Check for 120V power hot to neutral (black to white) and check for an internal fuse.

power

NONE of the valves working implies the worst wiring job in history, or a problem with the timer, or a bad common wire. Check your controllers internal circuit breaker, not the main power. Check power at the "pump" terminal after starting a manual cycle, or check the power at the zone's terminal. It should be 24 volts, but if you have a problem with basic trouble shooting, it may be easier and faster to have a professional check it out.

What HJ said. The problem almost has to be between the controller and the first valve. Very possibly the fuse, after that I would carefully check the common wire, especially when it makes the split to the first valve. The splits are made with silicone wire nut and the first joint could be bad. I don't know the voltage. Could be more complicated that this, but this is where I would begin.

I installed the system myself, I did a good job wiring, I did not know about the internal fuse and was not sure of the voltages

I will double check them tomrrow

The voltage to the valves will be 24V AC, not 12. Actually anything between 24V and 28V is normal.

Each valve will have a resistance of somewhere between 25Ω and 60Ω. The most common is right around 30Ω

Wire in good condition with good connections has very little resistance. Less than an ohm for every 100 feet so I always ignore the wire.

Sounds like a timer problem. Check the output voltage of each zone to common before you troubleshoot valves or field wiring.

If you do have to troubleshoot individual valves, two 9V batteries clipped together to make 18 volts will open an irrigaiton valve. The positive terminal of one battery will snap into the negative terminal of the other.

good luck.

Do I measure the voltage with the field wiring off the station screws?

I will measure the voltage at the station block between the common and each ckt, so should I remove the field wiring to measure the voltage at the terminal

anyone know where to check the internal fuse?

check book / web cannot find it for ICC

Thanks so much for your help

George

I do not have trouble with basic troubleshooting just want to do it correctly


I troubleshoot for a living on computer networks Just want to ensure my methods are sound an what to expect so I do not waste time or go off half cocked

thanks for the feedback, I will be working on it tomorrow

First, turn on each zone at the timer and check for voltage a the terminal screws. No need to remove wires to do this. If there's a dead short in a wire, the timer will either shut down or show an error and if there's not a dead short, you'll be able to get a reading with the wire's in place.

This will tell you if it's the timer or something in the field.

If it's the timer, open it and look for something obvious like a fuse, if nothing obvious, thrown it out and get a new timer.

If it's in the field, take your meter to a zone valve, and check voltage there. Then try to activate the valve with the double 9V battery.

If all the zones aren't working, it's most likely the timer or a water problem.

Easy to make resistance measurements. Disconnect all wires at both ends. At one end, twist 2 together....green and red for example. At the other end, measure the resistace between green and red...should be zero to a few ohms. If this is good, you repeat the procedure...green black, green white, green orange, etc. An open or high resistance wire will be detected.

If you are not blowing the fuse, you probably do not have a short, but check for shorts by measuring between each pair, with both ends open.

zones

Forget about ohms through the circuit. That would only be a factor for a single valve. The only things common to ALL the valves are the common wire and the circuit board. It is somewhere in one, or both, of these.

Thanks all, for your advise

Heading outside to troubleshoot now, I just remembered my wife had left the door to the clock open, its mounted outside and may have gotten wet

maybe its the clock, I will measure all the voltages first, ICC has all those modules, any way to see if one is bad , I bought new zone module to see if it was bad no joy there


I have 120 as it turns on and off I have switch near it I put for servicing so I would not have to go back and kill break to power reset it.


I have update in few hours, Thanks again

ok , HERE IT IS

Turns out last year when running a 4 black pip for down spount I cut my common and the splice was bad I suppose, all I did was take it apart to ohom it out from the clock to the splice and when I put it back it worked.

Dunno why, I used the Blazzing connectors filled with silicon

http://www.blazingproducts.com/products/connectors/LV9/joiner.html

Says they are waterproof, it was buried, should I have irrigation box over then and not bury the splices?


No clue why that went open. was not disturbed.

The only issue I have now is my 2 drip zone will not come on with the ICC timer, I used Toro Valves,

is there an issue using Toro values with Hunter clock?

I get err on that clock with the Toro zones

Toro Valves

Just checked Toro web site

I have the EZ FlowII

says 24VAV Solenoid

I would think thats fine

Zones work manually

Clueless