driving motorized ball valves

[jimfackert]

has anyone made an adapter to drive DC motorized ball valves from open sprinklers 24ac outputs?
these valves have 3 wires and need 12 volts on one wire to open, and on the other wire to close.
We are working up an adapter board to do this, because solenoid valves clog easily in our application using irrigation water with fertilizer injected.
Any interest?

There are automatically closing valves but they are more expensive… though they have the advantage of closing without power.

[BinaryOS]

Do the ball valves have internal limit switches that stop the motor operation once in the closed/opened position?

You could drive from a 24VAC relay. On the normally closed relay contact drive the valve close wire and on the normally open relay contact drive the valve open wire.

[jimfackert]

That’s a good idea, thanks!
Yes, they have limit switches. There are a bunch of kinds…
-two wire reverse polarity to open or close
-three wire, common and + to one ot open, + to the other to close
-two wire spring return – + to open, 0 to close. (more expensive but failsafe)

24vac dpdt relay driven by open sprinkler output, with a dc supply to drive the valves could be wired to any of these types.

Also open sprinkler DC would run the spring return type directly, I believe… but i would have to replace my ac units.

we will probably make up a relay board.
We might also add a fifth relay to drive a clean water flush valve to clear the fertilizer water from the plumbing between runs. it gets complicated!

[BinaryOS]

That should be fine then with limits, I was just concerned if it didn’t have limits it would sit there humming away after its already on position.

You may be able to drive direct with the spring type if you use a bridge rectifier – take care to use fuses. I’m driving a 24VDC relay from 24VAC open sprinkler through a bridge rectifier. I’m only doing that as I had a 24VDC and not a 25VAC relay on hand 🙂 (And the bridge rectifier came from old dead computer power supply)

[excalq]

For those like me from the future internet, I’d like to re-raise the original question given the update to OpenSprinkler since, such as the DC controller and Latching versions.

Specifically, as I’m automating a solar powered off the grid setup, I’d love to use motorized ball valves with OS. The two-wire auto-return in theory should work with the standard DC OS version, as these spring to close when de-energized. I’m curious if the DC latch version works with 3-wire valves, which require a change in polarity to re-close? It may however be the case that latch control is too different in the specifics. I’d be interested to hear what capabilities around motorized ball values now exist.

[Ray]

Regarding the 3-wire type: DC Latch version cannot directly operate it — if you use DC Latch version, it should work with the 2-wire reverse polarity type, with some minor modifications of the firmware. Instead, 3-wire type has a common cathode, and two anodes one for opening the valve, one for closing the valve. So it can work with the OS DC version, with a slight hardware modification. Specifically, OS DC uses common anode (the common wire is the positive), and each zone is a cathode switched by the control signal. This logic needs to be flipped via a transistor per zone so that each zone becomes a switched anode. This way, a 3-wire motorized ball valve will take over 2 zones, one for opening it, one for closing it.

[ashima]

I know the actuated ball valve manufacturer, they have wide range of ball valves. They are manufacturer and exporter of manual valve as well as motorized actuated ball valve.

[CoenJC]

Hey is there any update on this?

I don’t have enough head pressure on my regular solenoid to actuate that sits before my master pump.

I was thinking of going this route of using a motorised ball valve on my AC OSv3

[Ray]

US Solid make a variety of motorized ball valves. Some of them are AC/DC auto-return 2-wire type, which can be directly used with OpenSprinkler.

[Pancake2290]

I have OpenSprinkler 3.0 DC-powered, year 2018, service replaced in 2019
My only US-Solid motorized ball valve has been working fine since 2019. It now has an error after I recently upgraded from Firmware 2.2.1(2) to Firmware 2.2.1(4). What is the best solution to resolve this issue?

OVERCURRENT detected! | 4997mA > imax limit: 3000mA.

I see this was discussed in regard to a similar ball valve, though this brand is mentioned here in the forums to be specifically supported.

Standard Port, 9-24 V AC/DC, 2 Wire Auto Return Normally Closed

Model USS-MSV00017 Brand U.S. Solid
Wiring Type 2 Wire Auto Return. Operating Time 3 – 5 Seconds
Working Voltage 9 – 24V AC/DC. Max Power 5 W
Max Torque 2 N m. Life Expectancy 80,000 to 100,000 Cycles
Operating State Normally Closed

Thanks, in advance.

[Ray]

The best solution is to go to Edit Options -> Advanced, set the overcurrent limit to maximum, thus disabling it. The overcurrent detection is not really necessary for DC-powered controller because DC power adapters internally have current limit protection. And, it tends to be sensitive to motorized ball valves (because the ball valve sometimes needs momentary charge of its internal capacitor which is analogous to a shorting). For that reason, just disable the overcurrent detection (by setting the limit to the maximum value).

[Pancake2290]

Thank you. That resolved the issue.

[Author]

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