Sprinkler system no longer coming, on any ideas?

[themoon]

My sprinkler system no longer comes on. It just suddenly stopped working. The control box I set the timer, the date, etc, seems to be working fine. It even indicates that it is watering the lawn yet none of them turn on. I can manually turn the solenoid (or is it called a valve?) on and they work that way. So I feel that the water itself is fine but for some reason the electrical is maybe damaged. I'm not aware of any yard work going on so I don't feel like anyone would have cut a line.
Does anybody have any suggestions on how I might go about troubleshooting this?

[themoon]

I also checked the wires in the control box and they all appear to be set in their 'clamps'. (Not sure what to call it..) it is also plugged in and not running on a battery. Although I'm not sure if it even has a battery. (I'm just going through the Google's and trying everything I find)

[jteneyck]

When the control says it's watering do you have voltage at the solenoid?  If you do, then the valve solenoid is dead.  The valve could be stuck, too, but you said you could operate it manually so that's not likely it.  If you don't have power at the solenoid then you've got a break in the wire somewhere or a loose connection.  Or it could be that even though it says it's watering, it's not sending any power to the solenoid. You should be able to check for voltage where the wires going to the solenoid connect to the control panel. If those terminals have no voltage then the relay, or whatever it is in the control panel, is bad

John

[themoon]

There are 9 zones though. And I have multiple selonoid s. None of them come on via there control box, but I can turn all of them on manually.
I will try your voltage idea. I assume I turn it on via the control box, then go to the selonoid and see if the wires are receiving any power?

[Robert Adams]

If it's digital and works then you have power. So then I'd  be looking at a bad board assuming you checked all connections and voltages inside it.

    If it doesn't have a digital screen it may have a dead transformer.

[themoon]

Yes, it is a digital display. Yes it shows information and indicates it is working. I'm looking for a voltage meter to try that suggestion out....

[woodhead]

Time for a new controller.


Al

[themoon]

So I am wondering if you guys are right. I went out there and turned it off and used my voltage meter and didn't get any readings obviously. I just wanted to get a Baseline.
Then I turned on Station 1. The rain sensor and the common wire had power running through them but none of the stations lit up. I tried every station and I could not get any readings off of any of the wires. The common wire always lit up but none of the station numbers. Does this mean that my board died?
My wife did mention to me that the power went out a couple days ago and popped breakers, maybe this had something to do with it??

[goaliedad]

When you say the common lit up- you had voltage between the common and ground? If so the individual stations would not show voltage to ground, but should show continuity to ground. ???

[Robert Adams]

Bad rain sensor thinking it's raining all the time? If so then the valves would never open.