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2 wires into each zone terminal

navigatn

Unregistered

1

Monday, July 9th 2018, 5:03pm

2 wires into each zone terminal

I have a Rain Bird ESP-SMT Smart Modular Control System. The previous owner connected 2 of the same color wires into each zone terminal. 2 blue wires into terminal 1, 2 yellow wires into terminal 2, and 2 green wires into terminal 3. There is also 2 white wires going into the common terminal. I've only found 3 valves outside. 1 valve controls 2 sprinklers in the front yard, and 2 other valves seems to control drip systems in the side and back yard. Yet, there are 6 different zones set up on the control system. Is it possible that the 6 controller zones are actually controlling the 3 physical zones, and thus the duplicate colored wire connected to each terminal? Why would there be a need to do this? What if I just disconnected each of the duplicate colored wires and just enable zones 1-3 in the controller?

RichMoney

Active Member

Posts: 42

Location: Washinton

2

Monday, July 9th 2018, 6:20pm

To operator a valve, you only need a common wire and a hot wire. That being said I have seen people do some crazy stuff. Like doubling up the wire on a solenoid valve, maybe because the wire size was small?
I have also seen wires in the controller jumped to other zones.
Here is a very basic test to see if the valve is actually wired.
  1. Unwire the zone wire in question
  2. Turn the zone on in the controller
  3. then lightly touch the wire to the terminal screw, if it is wired in the field you should see a slight spark.
  4. Once you see the spark you can go outside and see what is watering or verify the water source is running, like a well pump.

https://sprinklerresource.com
https://sprinklerresource.com

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