Everything is off But My Solenoid is On

Posted on 12th January 2012 in Controllers, General, Never Seen That One Before, What's Going on There?

So what’s the deal when your retic box if switched to off and a solenoid is still receiving an electrical signal and is stuck open?

Honestly I have no idea…

But its happened to me 3 times now and today I was able to resolve it.

The first two times were with Hunter EC 2 station control boxes and I couldn’t find a solution and ended up changing the box over. It was a faulty box, but this time I had another 3 terminals to test before doing a swap. On terminals 4 & 5 the solenoid stuck open (there was negilible voltage coming from the terminals (4V) but when I switched the wires to terminal 6 the problem went away.

I have no idea what was going on but on each occasion it has been a Hunter control box that has been the problem. Today was a brand new X Core.

So if you find a solenoid stuck open despite there being no voltage going to it maybe you’re not crazy. Maybe its the control box doing some crazy stuff

 

 

 

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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Yanchep Capricorn Estate Reticulation

Posted on 23rd November 2011 in Installations, Installing, Never Seen That One Before, solenoids, What's Going on There?

I don’t know how many people have checked their water pressure in the Capricorn estate in Yanchep, but after working on a job today I was shocked at how poor the water pressure is.

In a backyard of 5m x 11m we would normally use one station of MP Rotators evenly spaced and have heaps of water pressure to spare, but today we needed 3 separate stations of Toro precision nozzles for that one small area. That’s the only option when the pressure is lousy and the flow rate is 10l/min. We tried putting 3 MP 2000′s on a line but there wasn’t enough grunt to make then get up.

The bigger drama was that the solenoids refused to seal because of the ultra-low pressure. We tried about 15 different Richdels and none of them would seal and ended up having to head down to the shop and grab some Hunters. Solenoids need a certain amount of water pressure to create the seal and this was so low that we couldn’t get that seal. It was almost a give up and call it a day scenario.

Persistence and a very gracious client made a hot, windy, difficult day a much better experience than it could have been. So if you live in Capricorn I’d be interested to hear if you have also had water pressure problems. I was due to do another backyard install in Capricorn tomorrow, but I have postponed it until we can find a way around these nasty water pressure issues.

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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Problems With a Shared Bore

Posted on 30th October 2011 in bore, Never Seen That One Before, solenoids

Shared bores are a great idea in that only one whole gets drilled and can serve two or three properties. But shared bores can also raise some interesting challenges – and can be similar to the dreaded ‘neighbourhood fence’.

The question of who is responsible when it breaks down can be tricky. The question of what happens if my neighbour can’t afford his share of the repairs is also a grey area.

This week I have encountered two problems with shared bores and the solutions are interesting and worth knowing.

On Friday a friend rang and told me that his sprinklers kept coming on even though it wasn’t his watering days. He is on a shared bore and the obvious solution is that he has a solenoid stuck open. So everyone on the 3 properties is then inconvenienced until he fixes his solenoid. That sounded like the solution but then it got weird…

He went home to replace the solenoid yesterday but after turning the pump on to test the system he couldn’t stop the water flow. He unplugged his control box and still the water kept flowing. Eventually he had to go next door to his neighbour’s place and turn the pump off at the mains to stop the water. When he turned it back on the same problem occurred. A chat with an electrician suggests this is a faulty relay switch on his line and that when activated it is unable to shut down.

Thankfully he was able to access the main switch otherwise it would have been a lot of water down the drain.

He is getting the relay switch looked at this week so we will see what develops

 

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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A Shared Bore?

Posted on 1st October 2011 in bore, Never Seen That One Before

So you’re considering getting a bore…

Personally I think that’s a great idea as it reduces the amount of scheme water spread across lawns and gardens, will save you money in water bills and is also a capital investment.

If you’re going that route then you may like to consider a shared bore. This is an arrangement by which 2 or 3 neighbours on adjacent properties access the same bore, but pay for their own running costs.

I haven’t seen too many of these around to know how successful they are, but my guess is they would need to be undergirded by a fairly concrete written agreement as to what happened when the thing broke down. I can see the potential for the equivalent of a fence dispute to arise with this issue.

However if everyone is amicable it could also be a good cost saving way of watering the garden for all parties.

By the way if you ask me to come and service your retic and you’re operating it from a shared bore then be sure to let me know. I arrived to do a basic service on a property last week not realising it was a shared bore. I turned the system on but got no water – not realising that the other partner on whose property the bore control was located had tuned it off!

The control box was still wired up to run a master valve so I figured this must be the problem. After locating the master valve and seeing it was operating ok I noticed the ball valve had been turned to off. Strange…

But I got the system up and running only to hear it losing water somewhere… That somewhere was thru a 25ml pipe to the neighbour’s property. Had the neighbour ‘hacked into’ my customer’s retic?…

It was only after I had cut the pipe and capped it that it dawned on me what was going on.

It was a shared bore and the mains ball valve had been turned off because of that.

All’s well that ends well, but it did end up costing more time and money than either of us had expected.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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Does Your Dog Dig Your Retic and Turf?

Posted on 14th June 2011 in Ideas, Installations, Installing, Never Seen That One Before, Sir Walter Turf, Turf

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Then here’s an idea for you!

I laid this Sir Walter turf today and the clients asked me to lay a grid of chicken wire over the top of the lawn.

The wire is approx 80ml squares and the idea is that the grass grows up thru it and the dogs are unable to dig because they cant get any grip.

I mistakenly put it under the turf initially thinking it would be better unseen, but i guess with Sir Walter and the way it grows it will soon be enveloped in lawn.

So if you love your dogs and love your backyard, but dont know how to stop them digging then this could be the solution you are looking for.

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Which One is the Common Wire to My Reticulation Solenoids?

Posted on 27th May 2011 in Local Knowledge, Never Seen That One Before, What's Going on There?

 

Sometimes you find yourself working on a job where the original installer decided to save money by simply using the same colour wire all around. Its ‘black’ wire to the master, the stations and the common rather than the multi-core version pictured above.

What happens though if your dog rips up all the rear solenoids and you are simply left with 4 black wires poking out of the ground? How do you work out which one is common and which ones are power?

Option A is trial and error and with just 4 wires the permutations aren’t too bad to have a chance of getting it right. But a smarter option is this:

a) Get a mate to help.

b) Run a new strand of wire directly from the contoller common terminal to the rear where the broken wires are. It might mean you need 30 m of wire.

c) Connect the new common wire to the common probe on your multimeter which you have turned on to <200V.

d) Have your friend stand at the control box and turn on each station in turn. Connect the positive probe from your multimeter to the other wires in turn. When you get 25 V or thereabouts then you know it is a power wire.

e) The one wire that produces no response is then the common.

Simple hey?…

 

 

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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The Green – Brighton – “My Retic is Lacking Pressure!”

Posted on 20th May 2011 in Ideas, Local Knowledge, Never Seen That One Before

If you live in ‘The Green” in Brighton then you will find this is a common complaint.

Sooner or later it will happen to you. You will start to observe dry patches in your lawn and it will look like your retic is lacking pressure.

 

I remember the first time I was called out to look at one of these situations I was complete puzzled as to what was causing the issue. I ended up ringing Total Eden who install all the new systems in the area and discovered that there is an inline filter right next to the master valve that regularly gets clogged up with mineral deposits from the bore water.

I removed the filter, cleaned it out re-installed it and the difference was huge. You can see a dirty one above.

If you want to do this yourself then you can follow this guide here that was recently uploaded to the Brighton Intranet.  Its worthwhile doing this procedure at the start of spring and halfway through summer to ensure all is working well.

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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Remote Control Reticulation

Posted on 11th May 2011 in Ideas, Never Seen That One Before, Products

 

Of course your control box operates automatically, but on a larger property / golf course it is really valuable to have a remote control to operate the reticulation while you walk around and service it.

 

At around $1500.00 just to purchase the unit these might be considered something of a luxury, but you only have to spend a few hours on your own walking around a large property checking, fixing and re-checking to realise that in time they will actually save you some money

 

I was doing a job today at a large apartment complex in Osborne Park and discovered they have a Hunter ICR  remote control set up.  Unfortunately they didn’t have any instructions and I had never used it before so I ended up doing a heap of walking and time wasting.

 

I have downloaded the product manual for next time I am there, which will save me time and the owner money. It is a large amount of money to spend, but in time it will come back to you simply in the time savings for retic contractors.

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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Low Water Pressure in Jindowie?

Posted on 2nd May 2011 in Ideas, Installing, Local Knowledge, Never Seen That One Before

I’ve only done a couple of jobs in the new Yanchep estate of Jindowie, but what is most noticeable about this area is the very low water pressure.

I have no idea why the pressure is so poor, but I do know that at 15l/min you need to think carefully about how you go about things. Inevitably you will need to break your system into more stations and think about using drippers, miniscape and MP rotators rather than the stock standard pop-ups and microsprays.

If you are doing some DIY retic in Jindowie and wondering why your system is struggling then that could be the reason.

For help or advice with these issues call Andrew on 0400044236 or email brightonreticulation@gmail.com

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My Reticulation Goes Through the Whole Cycle and Then Starts Over

Posted on 30th April 2011 in Controllers, Ideas, Never Seen That One Before, Repairs

I have heard of this happening a couple of times. The whole program runs through as normal and then starts over and repeats itself on and on and on… not good.

Clearly the solenoid valves are opening and shutting and are not stuck on so the issue can really only lie with a fault in the control box.

On both occasions when this has happened I have replaced the control box and it has fixed the problem. So if this sounds like you then that’s most likely your solution!

For help or advice with these issues call Andrew on 0400044236 or email brightonreticulation@gmail.com

 

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