Total Control James Hardie Irrigation: Was helping my neighbor to trouble shoot why theirs was not working. Substituted our transformer for theirs -- wella it worked! Unfortunately, a couple of days later, my transformer also gave up the ghost. (FYI, both of our systems are about 14 yrs old.)

Neighbor then told me that one of their stations was not operating prior to all this. However, if there is a short in one of stations, the unit is suppose to shut down that station and let all the others work -- according to the manual.

Took a look at all the circuit boards, etc. no obvious "burn" marks, etc.
Have no idea what the voltages/amps/ohms are supposed to be on the various componets.

Also, of interest, the installers didn't ground the unit -- same on my unit. They would have had to run another wire but it would have to back in through the wall in the garage... I guess it would have been too much work for the installers, plus, if it blows the unit... they get money for coming out and replacing the unit.

Any help would be appreciated.

Red


So, replace valve for that station?

Get new transformer? ( $40 ).

I would measure the resistance on each of the zones at the panel. Disconnect the shorted on, Could be the valve is shorted or the wiring.
If a short is seen then remove 1 wire at valve and see if it goes away.
Should be able to leave that zone disconnected until the problem is corrected.

Stratmando,

Thanks for your reply. Yeah, I did that, couldn't find anything... very perplexing. I think we will disconnect the suspected station and see how it goes.

Stratmando,

Thanks for your reply. Yeah, I did that, couldn't find anything... very perplexing. I think we will disconnect the suspected station and see how it goes.

Good Luck, $40 sounds high for the transformer?Her is the Manual if you don't have one:
https://www.lawngeniestore.com/Comer...talControl.pdf

Too late to help, but perhaps someone else will benefit...

Unless you measured the power output from the transformer, that is probably not the cause of the failure. The transformer is just a 24V AC transformer and there's very little to fail in it.

At that age, the most likely failure is any electrolytic capacitors on the circuit board of the controller itself. Failure of the capacitors will cause the controller to act as if it is no longer receiving power, because it will no longer be receiving usable power.

This may sound intimidating, but if you have basic soldering skills, or know someone who does, these three capacitors are fairly easy to replace. I will not write a soldering tutorial here. Many, many of them are available on the web.

On the Hardie model I have there were three capacitors that needed replacing, a 220uF, 35V, a 22uF, 35V and a 1uF, 50V. I had the 220uF on hand, but had to order to the other two. Set me back a big $3, and then, only because I bought a high temperature rated, long life capacitor for the 22uF part, which cost $2.50 by itself.

Unplug the power supply. Open the controller box -- unlatch and swing the controller forward/open. Unplug the ribbon cable which connects the controller to the backplane (board inside the cabinet with all the sprinkler station wires).

Carefully unsnap the controller assembly from the hinges. Remove the 9V backup battery if installed.

Now, I don't know if other models are just like my model, so keep in mind your controller may be different.

Examine the edges of the controller. Mine had three snaps/catches on each long edge and an inset ridge around the joint between the front and back. Pick a catch at a corner. While gently pressing on the barbed catch with a small screw driver (or similar) insert a medium flat head screwdriver into the groove between the halves, and slowly twist it to apply a force that separate the front from the back.

Once one catch is loose, move up to the next one, until all three on one edge are loose. Then undo the catches on the other side. Be careful when you separate the two halves of the housing, as the LCD may fly out. It may take a little force to separate the halves, even after the catches are undone, as the two halves may also snap together at the center of the dial.

Once you have the two halves separated, on my model, two phillips head screws held the circuit board in place. Remove those, and the circuit board should lift out.

Now examine the board for "electrolytic capacitors". If you don't know what to look for, use Google Images. They may have a lead coming out of each end, or both leads coming from one end, axial and radial, respectively.

The values will be written on the capacitors. You need the capacitance (uF) and the voltage (V). When replacing, you should use the same capacitance, but it is okay to use a larger voltage. Also pay attention to the replacement size. Digikey, Jameco or Mouser are good places from which to order replacements, although Radio Shack might have what you need.

From Digikey, I order part number 493-3285-ND for the 1uF cap. And part number 4237PHCT-ND for the 22uF cap. I already had the 220 on hand, but I would probably have used something like 4228PHCT-ND. 4141PHBK-ND would also work, and it's cheaper and a little shorter, but it is only rated to 85 degrees C, and not 125C like the other one. This affects lifetime.

Anyway, take the thing apart. Get the replacement caps. Desolder the old caps. Clean the board. Solder in new caps. (Tutorials on the web for the last three). Reassemble the controller and reinstall.

A couple of final notes.

1) On my controller the LCD panel was connected to the controller circuit board by a foam pad with embedded conductors. There were no wires. Just copper or solder pads on the circuit board. The edge of the foam pad presses against the line of contacts on the circuit board, and the far edge of the foam pad presses against the lower, connector edge of the LCD assembly. If yours flew apart during disassembly, like mine did, this may not be obvious. There's a little plastic shelf that slides in there and holds the LCD panel in place and sort of squishes the foam conductor pad. Won't hurt to give the pad and LCD a gentle cleaning with isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol (preferably 91%) before reassembly.

2) You may need to water a station before you fix your controller. The valves run on 24VAC. With the controller removed for repair and the power adapter unplugged, in the controller box where all the wires are collected, insert a wire between the terminal for a station that you can see from the controller, and one of the two power supply terminals. Plug in the power adapter. If the sprinkler station activates, great. Make note of that power supply terminal. If the sprinkler station does not activate, unplug the adapter, move your wire to the other power adapter terminal, plug the adapter back in. Now the sprinkler station should activate.

Unplug the power adapter. Move the station end of your wire to whichever station you wish to activate. Plug the power adapter in for however long you wish to water. If you have a master valve, you will also need to run a wire from the active power adapter terminal to the master valve terminal as well both to run and for the test above.

3) If your controller has multiple position switches, e.g. three position sliding switches, be careful during reassembly that the plastic "handle" for the switch mates properly with the switch on the controller circuit board. It can take many tries to get them mated just right if there are several sliding switches on the controller. You get one mated, and then it comes undone while you're trying to do the next one.

Forgot to mention, the electrolytic caps have a positive and negative terminal.

The negative terminal is marked with a stripe on that side for radial caps, or an arrow pointing in that direction for axial caps.

Note the polarity before removing the caps, although it should be silk screened (white print) on the circuit board with a little '+' next to one of the wires.

When installing the replacements, be sure to use proper polarity.

One last thing. There's a web site called badcaps which has a lot of information on replacing bad capacitors. It mainly focuses on computer electronics, but everything from VCRs and TVs to sprinkler controllers usually fail because the caapacitors stop working, not because any complex part failed.