Orbit Controllers ‘Off Power’ symbol

Posted on 15th January 2012 in Controllers, solenoids, wiring

 

I got a call to look at this retic system where the control box was displaying the ‘off power’ water droplet symbol. (see the left side of the display)

I wasn’t sure what it meant or how it got there and the manual didn’t mention it. A brief google search suggested it may be the  box blowing a fuse and protecting itself against a faulty solenoid coil.

I called Scott at Total Eden and then he put me on to the tech heads at HR who weren’t totally sure either.

So I began to test it and discovered there was no voltage coming from any of the terminals. The fuse was intact and the battery was ok but the box just would not operate.

I attached a new control box as a test and it worked first time. The problem was in the box and whatever the source of the problem was, it had fried the whole box.

When the new one was installed I ran it thru the stations and it worked well on 1 & 2 but blew the fuse on station 3. Obviously this was the source of the previous problems and the coil needed replacing. As it turned out the whole solenoid was cactus and had to be replaced.

I repowered the Orbit box to see if the symbol might disappear but it was definitely a throwaway. So if you happen to see that symbol and your retic won’t work then chances are you will be looking for a new control box

 

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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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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Control Box Problems

Posted on 1st December 2011 in General, Local Knowledge

Every now and then you hit puzzling jobs. Today was one of those.

Yesterday I tested the retic, set the control and box and left with everything working well. Then just as I had got home the phone rang and it was the person who I had just worked for.

Their retic no longer worked…

What had happened in the 2 hours in between?…

Well… a bobcat had come thu and made a mess of one solenoid, but now the station that did work no longer worked. Strange…

I got there today to test things. The most obvious check is to test for power at the solenoids. I did that and we had it, then we didn’t, then we did again… and so on.

I suspected a broken wire because the only solenoid that would work was the master. However it too stopped working… So we went to the control  box and tested each terminal for power. One registered voltage and the others were dead.

After looking everywhere for the obvious broken wire (a bobcat had been thru so anything could have happened) we ended up coming back to testing the control box and discovering that it was the issue. We replaced the control nox and everything worked.

Bizarre… nothing very logical about it, but by a process of deduction we got there. So if you have similar problems it may be your control box.

 

 

 

 

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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Why Does My Solenoid Stay Open?

Posted on 22nd October 2011 in solenoids

If you have a solenoid that stays on with all of the other stations then 9 times out of 10 it is your diaphragm that is playing up. First check that you haven’t accidentally placed it in the ‘on’ position, then check that the small screw for flushing is done up tight. If these are all ok and there are no visible leaks then its usually the diaphragm.

This is the rubber piece in the middle of the solenoid and allows water to flow or blocks its flow. For some solenoids eg Richdel you can probably head down to your local retic shop, grab a new diaphragm and change it over. Other solenoids aren’t quite so easy and you may need to replace the whole unit.

If you are buying a solenoid then I recommend the jar top variety which you can screw on and off rather than the solenoids where stainless screws are used to join the two halves together. In my experience the solenoids that are screwed together are harder to separate and rejoin. Bits of dirt can get in between the surfaces, the gasket can break and it can just be  messier getting it all to line up again.

 

 

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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My Retic Doesn’t make Sense

Posted on 21st October 2011 in solenoids

Occasionally retic does weird stuff.

The good news is that being a ‘closed system’ there are only so many variables that can go wrong. If you have an analytical mind then you can solve most problems by a process of deduction.

Yesterday I went to see a client whose retic had come on and wouldn’t go off. They had been on holidays when this happened so they came home to huge water bill.

The logical answer is that both the master valve and the station valve had failed and stuck open simultaneously allowing water thru. But what are the chances of that? I’d be guessing one in a million so I started by testing the control box to see if there were any issues there.

Nope.

By turning the valves on and off manually I was able to detect that all 3 of the clients solenoids were faulty. The fault was intermitent, but it was there. The end result was 3 new solenoids and no more problems.

 

 

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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My Reticulation has Lost Pressure

Posted on 11th October 2011 in bore, Repairs

Ok so you have noticed a drop in pressure on your sprinklers.

Believe it or not the first place to check is your water meter. Make sure someone hasn’t turned the pressure down here. It happens… I have no idea why people do it but that’s the first test.

Then check and see if it is on just one station or on all.

If its ‘all’ then you have a break in your mainline – that’s the 25ml or 40ml main pipe that feeds to the solenoids. This should show up in a large puddle of water somewhere.  You may need to leave it on for a while if its just a small crack as it will take a while for it to show through.

If its just one station then you will have either a broken pipe in the line or a broken riser.

 

Check for pooling around the sprinklers as that will indicate a riser problem. If you can move the sprinkler then its likely the riser is broken. If not then you will need to check the line for cracks and breaks. This can be a long tedious process as you will need to locate the break and sometimes its not obvious.

A small crack can result in a significant pressure drop but can be a pain to find.

Here’s one my father worked on recently. His pressure on this one station dropped significantly and he ended up having to trace the line until he found the problem – a joint that had cracked.

 

If you have a drop in pressure then the only solution is to keep looking till you find it – or call us and we will look for you!

 

 

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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Why You Need a Master Valve on Your Reticulation

Posted on 2nd June 2011 in Installations, Repairs, What's Going on There?

 

Not every reticulation system in Perth has a master valve and that’s not such a good thing.

 

Here’s why it matters:

 

The master valve exists essentially to prevent you from losing water if any of your station solenoids leak. It is screwed directly onto the dual check valve / cut in tap.

 

Each time you run your reticulation you are actually opening 2 solenoid valves – the master AND the station valve.  Should you develop a leak in your solenoid at station 1 (for example) then it will not leak continually so long as your MV is functioning.

 

Occasionally people ring me and tell me that their retic is leaking continually and they can’t locate the cause. The first thing I check is whether there is a master valve installed. The easiest way to check this is to go to the control box and see whether there is a wire in MV/Pump terminal. If there is then you do have a master valve.  If not then you don’t.

 

A lot of older houses bypassed this part and while its not critical it does protect you against unnecessary water loss. It is possible to retrofit a master valve and might even be quite easy depending on the location of your ball valve for isolating your retic (usually by your water meter)

 

Essentially what would need to be done is

a) locate the cut in tap

b) install the MV onto it

c) wire it back to the control box

 

 

 

 

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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