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Sprinkler Zone Hook Up


jjackson

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I am trying to hook up a drip system that was installed in my new home. It is only 1 zone with one valve. I have connected the two wires from the valve directly into my HC500 Relay 2. My dealer has added the generic relay so I should be able to plug and play. I have plugged it in but am not getting any action when I open and close the relay. Any suggestions? On the back of the HC500 there is three slots per relay. I used the two outside ones because I have my fireplace hooked to a relay and my dealer used the two outside ones. I am sure I need some low voltage power to the valve am I doing it right. Thanks in advance.

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jjackson, I think you need to switch one of the wires from NO to NC. That is normally opened (NO) and normally closed (NC). When using relays you can't always reference the other relay for connection when they are different types of components.

EDIT: Wingzz explained it much better than me. See his post below.

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I think that if your dealer added the driver, the least he could do is trouble shoot the problem.

and yes you have it connected wrong.

Make your dealer fix it

Brent

I think this is the dealer attitude that we, as end users, find the most offensive. "Make your dealer fix it" actually means "Pay your dealer to fix it". The dealer added the driver, probably remotely, and most likely for little cost. Now, you're asking the end user to contact the dealer to fix an issue that he should be able to fix on his own.

Isn't this supposed to be one of the purposes of this forum? To help end users with issues that end users can fix using Composer HE?

Or have you just become so jaded Brent that you assume all end users that are trying to setup anything themselves have Composer Pro?

Rob

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Nothing of the sort.

even if the dealer did it remotely they have an obligation to make sure it is working.

Is this not what you pay your dealer for?

I do not want my customer's to have to go to a public forum to fix something I am involved with.

P.S.

I have stopped posting in threads where I think Composer Pro is involved. I don't want the arguments.

In this case he mentioned his dealer and I think that his dealer has a responsibilty to FIX this.

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Although I agree with you Brent that the dealer should be fixing this, from the user's point of view it is probably faster and easier to fix ourselves and with less headache for something as simple as this... If it still doesnt work after swapping out the connection then the dealer definitely needs to get involved, but rather than playing phone tag with a dealer I would much rather post on the forums and have my problem fixed in minutes rather than hoping my dealer will call me back sometime that day.

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Yeah, no doubt. I am sure his dealer added the driver for him at his (the dealers) convenience, logging into the system during a slow time and then shooting him an email to let him know it was done. This was probably done free of charge as it is such a trivial task. Then jjackson makes the physical connections and it doesn't work. If he calls his dealer, his dealer doesn't know the physical wiring that has been done so know he needs to drive out there, which is probably going to cost $100+. I am sure the dealer simply did him a favor adding the driver. he is not obligated to anything.

So Brent, how much would you charge him for this? If you added it for free remotely at your convenience, and he wired it incorrectly, would you go fix it for free? Of course not, but guess what - this forum will give him free guidance.

That is what a forum is all about. Everyone here knows calling the dealer is an option. We don't need you to come on here and tell us to call the dealer. In the time you took to post it was hooked up wrong, you could have told him how to hook it up right. There are only two ways to hook up a relay.

Sorry for the rant.....I just hate "call your dealer"...especially when it comes from *A DEALER*.

EDIT: TYPO.

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think of the relay contact as a switch, you need to apply power to the common and run a wire from the NO contact to your valve, run the other common wire from the power source directly to the valve.

Now you should have a wire going from power to the valve, and another wire going from the power to the C4 relay common then a wire going from the NO contact on C4 to the other terminal on the valve

Hope this helps

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Thanks everyone for your comments. Sorry that I haven't responded in a few days. You post when you have a few minutes and then don't get back to it. To clarify my dealer is a great guy and he does alot of freebies for me as described. I am the one that asked him to hook up the relays as I wasn't ready to use them yet. I did visit with him this morning and he is more that willing to come out and help but I told him I would try the forum and if I didn't get anywhere I would call him back. As for my issue, wingzz I appreciate your description the only question I have and I hope it is not a dumb one but I am sure the valve cannot handle 120v power. What are you using to send 12v or what is needed to the vavle. I was going to contact the valve manufacture and see what amount of power is needed but maybe someone can answer my question.

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Sprinkler zone valves are usually 24VAC.

RyanE

I can second this' date=' we looked all day at our shop for a 24v wall plug, when we were working on ours.[/quote']

That is a long time to look. After an hour or so I would have gone to RadioShack. :)

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I love having this place nearby called Discount Electronics Warehouse. It's like an electronics museum, only things are for sale. Where else can you find new, unopened copies of software for Apple II E or Virus Defender from 1997 on 4 floppies. Along with bins of misc. power adapters and other junk.

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Relay outputs have 3 contacts:

COM - Common

NO - Normally Open

NC - Normally Closed

You should connect one wire from the 24V transformer to COM, the other to the water solenoid. Connect the other wire from the solenoid to the NO contact on the HC300.

That way, when the relay is closed, the NO and COM connect together, and then the circuit is completed.

RyanE

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Having more amps available won't burn out the device, the valve will only draw as much power as it needs, it's built-in resistance limits the current.

Like a lightbulb, if it's a 60w bulb, plugging it into a 15A protected circuit lights it up the same (and it draws 60W) as if you plug it into a 20A circuit. In reality, there's probably more like 200A available to that same bulb, except for the circuit breakers.

RyanE

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Sprinkler zone valves are usually 24VAC.

RyanE

I can second this' date=' we looked all day at our shop for a 24v wall plug, when we were working on ours.[/quote']

That is a long time to look. After an hour or so I would have gone to RadioShack. :)

It was one of those "I know we have one around here" type things. Oh yeah, we found it. snap.

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