Hi everyone. My sprinkler system has not been working since February. We had some really heavy rains but the last month or so it has been dry and the grass is turning brown. I finally set about fixing the sprinkler system with a new Iro. I just got my Iro working but let me share some of the problems that may be of help to others:
1, The previous owner of the house has a HAI OmniPro automation system and the sprinklers were run through this. Of course, it was a dumb timer and I wanted the system to be smart and check with the weather. When I looked at the system it seemed to have 9 zones so I bought the 16 valve control box. Later on I found out that there are only 8 zones and the 9th was a replacement for one that was no longer working. In the future I may add some drip watering for pots but for now I have 8 zones too many so spent $96 more than I needed to on the Iro (8 is currently on sale on Amazon).
2, The Iro set up and was connected and visible but would not switch the valves - the blue status LED never lit. Also, any changes made in the app would not save but there were no errors or warnings. Finally I found a post here that said to delete the Iro and re-install. Everything worked perfectly from there.
3, I have no idea on my soil type. I did some googling and found the National Resource Conservation Service as part of the USDA. They have maps and databases of soil types. Perhaps this is something that the system can reference as part of the setup to give a sensible default value? Apparently I have Norwood Silty Clay Loam! Literally just south of me (my neighbour) has Asa fine sandy loam. Great data available with Google maps or earth.
4, The initial setup had my watering 8 zones taking over 6 hours. This seems to be very long - far too long. I set the watering to minimums to try and manage the total water. We’ll see how that pans out. I have some cameras that cover the yard so may set them to take pictures at the same time every day to compare.
Hi
Thanks for this info.
I have a similar HAI OMNIPRO system as well that is not smart and has already cost me over $2000 in excess water bills. SMH
I just purchased a Rachio 3 and am in the process of converting everything over.
Would you happen to know or show me in your system where you found the common and master valve wires!!?
Hi,
I have inherited a similar HAI Omnipro system. My struggle is that I can’t locate the common and/main wires on my HAi system to then disconnect and reconnect to my new Rachio3 system.
Would you please tell me how you found those wires in yours?
It looks like the sprinkler field wire bundle is the larger black cable that exits down right by the battery. One should account for every wire in that bundle.
From my reading of the picture the Common wire looks to be the black wire connected to the C terminal at Relay 8 station (the orange wire is connected to Relay 8’s NO - normally open terminal).
Label all the wires, like it looks like you have, so one can put Humpty Dumpty back together again if necessary.
A Master Valve is opened along with each individual valve when the system is running. A Master Valve isolates the irrigation system from water pressure when it is not running to help reduce water leaks due to a leaky valve or a pipe break. Do the LED’s above each zone (e.g. D1, D2, …) light up when that zone is active? If so, run the irrigation system using the HAI OMNIPRO and see if two LED’s are lit when a zone is watering. One LED should be for the Master Valve (if it is installed) and the other LED should be for the individual zone. When the irrigation system is advanced to another zone, the Master Valve LED will still be lit when the new zone is watering and a different LED should be lit for the specific zone.
Not all sprinkler systems have a Master Valve.
Another quick test is to move one zone wire and the common wire to the Rachio and run that zone from the Rachio panel. If the zone waters, then there is not a Master Valve installed (or it is fixed open).
Hope this helps. Post back with any further questions or success.
Rat’s nest is an understatement
Thanks for taking the time and explaining things here…
So I moved the black wire near the battery and moved it to the Rachio common wire and tested one of my zones with it as you suggested but nothing happened meaning no sprinkler got initiated.
There may be a master valve somewhere here too which I am not sure which it could be.
Any help is much appreciated
We are very close - just hunting for one more common or master valve wire here
The same back one by the battery. It was actually the main valve the black wire, you pointed out, and the one next to it as part of the larger group of insulated wires ended up being the common wire.
Thanks to you I have configured all zones, took pictures of each zone and scheduled my daily flex.
