Find Solenoid valve function

[jgrylls]

Hi Ray,
What do you think about adding a function to all Open Sprinkler versions to assist in finding hidden/lost solenoid valves? What I had in mind was the option to select a station and continuously toggle it on and off at such a rate that the solenoid could be heard chattering from nearby. Some experimenting would be necessary to determine the optimum rate.

[Ray]

I couldn’t help smiling at your request 🙂 Is it because you couldn’t find out which valve a wire goes to? I am just trying to understand in what situations you need such a feature.

[jgrylls]

A fair question.
I have moved to a new property twice in the last ten years and each time have had a great deal of trouble finding my below ground level solenoid valves even when provided with a rough map of their locations. Mostly installed at the same level as the underground piping they quickly become buried by soil, fallen leaves etc, and or overgrown by grass. The situation is further complicated by the fact that I am now in my sixties and my memory is not as good as it was.
I believe that commercial landscape gardeners use such a device to locate the existing solenoid valves of their clients.

[Ray]

OK, now I understand it. Very interesting, I had not thought about it. By googling ‘locate sprinkler valves’, I found some typical ways of how this is done. It’s not entirely clear to me if the device they use to locate valves works by turning on/off valves repeatedly. But if this is the way, it should be pretty easy to implement such a feature.

[jgrylls]

I too have now googled “find sprinklers” and I am sure it is done by switching the operate current on and off fairly rapidly. One user even invented a modulating device by including a coarse saw blade and a bolt in the cct. One side of the loop connected to the saw, the other connected to the bolt, he would scrape the bolt across the teeth. I’m not sure whether it was a square wave generator or a saw tooth generator 😆

[Barry]

I realize this topic has been inactive for a while; but I concur that it would be a nifty feature to have (perhaps under a tools section of the interface. This is something that I have seen on a number of higher-end residential / commercial controllers.

The reasoning for this feature is that over time (especially with larger systems) valve boxs are often buried by growing vegitaation. This makes it very difficult to locate a specific valve box for repairs. (I live on several acres; some landscaped, some natureal. The way the valve boxes were originally installed does not make complete sense; since a valve box may be located 150 feet away from the zone it controls … very frustrating.)

On systems that offer this feaure; they mention that they rapidly switch the solenoid on and off; which creates a detectable noise to aid in locating the valve.

Not my number one requested featue; but something that could have saved me several days of hunting down valve boxes when I first installed my system.

[Author]

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