Brighton Reticulation

Orbit Controllers ‘Off Power’ symbol

 

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

 

4 Comments

  1. Renae
    March 11, 2013

    Hey Andrew. We have a different controller (same brand) and this has just occurred to us. What precautions do you recommend should I take to stop this happening again if I change it to a new controller? And when you say the “coil needed replacing”, what is this referring to – coil in what? Cheers, Renae.

    • brighton
      March 11, 2013

      HI Renae – the coil is the round bit on the solenoid. I imagine replacing this should fix the problem

  2. Renae
    March 17, 2013

    How do we know which solenoid it is causing the problem though? Is it just a trial and error thing?

  3. brighton
    March 18, 2013

    It is a process of elimination Renae by seeing which station causes the fault to occur

Comments are closed.

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