Netro Spark 16: Issue with sprinklers not firing, then not turning off

Howdy!

I recently purchased a Spark 16 and have wired it in to a current srinkler system which was working fine with an old Toro controller. 


The Spark is acting very unusual, compred to the old system. As per the instruction booklet, I wired 8 wires in Zone 1-8 for the 8 sprinkler zones which are being used. I then wired the 24VAC and Common wires (x3)  in without an issue.


At first, both manual, smart and program modes worked with no issue.


I then tried to run a manual start with each zone runnig for 1 minute as a test. The app seemed to not be able to turn off the manual program if I hit the stop button in the app.


The unit was acting like there was no issue (valve test and server test on the app all looked fine), but if a program was due to run, the unit woudl display that a zone was active/watering, when it clearly was not watering or active.


I then did a full reset and install of the unit, and am still having the same issue.


The sprinkler wiring has 3 common wires - if I wire them all into the left hand side C wire port on the Aprk, it seems to struggle with turning on any zones at all, but intermitterntly. If I wire two of them into the left hand side C port, and one of them into the right hand side C port, the spark cant seem to turn off the sprinklers after they have turned on.


Help! It seems to be a common wire issue, and the app/unit also seems to be buggy.

Answer From Wency Pan

19
Wency Pan
 Updated at 2021-12-16 07:40:27 UTC

Hi Dave,


As you have more than 2 common wires, please use wire connectors to do the wiring and see if it helps.


You can test your controller through the following steps:

Please check the wires. Are they loose or disconnected from the slots? Please also check the common wires and the master valve if you have one. If you believe the wires are correctly installed,  please check if there is a main valve/faucet that is turned off manually. 

To test if the controller is working properly, use a multimeter (AC voltage mode) to test the voltage between the common wire and the zone wire when the zone is active. Normally the voltage should be between 24V and 28V.

You might also want to check whether there are shorted zones or open zones. You just need to use a multimeter to measure the resistance between the common wire and each zone (remove the wires from the slots before testing the resistance). The normal reading would be 20-60 Ohms. If the reading is less than 10 Ohms then you might have a shorted circuit in the solenoid and if it is larger than 80 Ohms you might have an open circuit. 

Please let us know if it works. You can also send us email to support@netrohome.com and we will have our technician look into this issue. 


Thanks
Regards, 
Netro Support
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3
davejburton@gmail.com
 2021-12-16 09:22:15 UTC  
Thanks - I will check, using these steps