WinterDeere
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2011
- Messages
- 14,409
- Location
- Rural 'burbs, north of Philly
- Tractor
- John Deere 3033R, 855 MFWD, 757 ZTrak; IH Cub Cadet 123
Attention @Complete Turf Care, this one is right up your alley!
I'm running an old 1990's Rainbird system with only 6 zones, and I have it max'd out, with a need now to add another two zones for new gardens created around our pool and patio. The installers only pulled a single 7C cable from controller inside, under several gardens and concrete or flagstone walkways to the nearest junction, so even pulling another control wire is going to be a non-trivial task.
Before I go either disconnecting zones that may be well-established enough to go without irrigation, or pulling new wiring for a larger controller, I figured I should ask... are there controllers that use serial addressing like a bus system, which might work over old 7x22AWG wiring? This couldn't be any high-speed affair, the wiring ain't particularly "clean", with several wire-nutted "break-ins" and extensions due to mod's made over the last 30 years. But even without serial comm's, just static AND/OR logic, you should be able to address up to 64 valves with 6 + 1 conductors.
The down side is that I don't want to be digging up zone boxes to replace valves, so it'd have to be something already compatible with Rainbird CP100-type valves, like a simple screw-in solenoid replacement.
And yes... before anyone asks, I did consider just putting the new solenoids in tandem with an existing zone. But I'm trying to manage flow rate within capacity of a 10 gpm well, on a system with some relatively large zones. It might be doable, but I want to exhaust other easy options, before resigning to that.
I'm running an old 1990's Rainbird system with only 6 zones, and I have it max'd out, with a need now to add another two zones for new gardens created around our pool and patio. The installers only pulled a single 7C cable from controller inside, under several gardens and concrete or flagstone walkways to the nearest junction, so even pulling another control wire is going to be a non-trivial task.
Before I go either disconnecting zones that may be well-established enough to go without irrigation, or pulling new wiring for a larger controller, I figured I should ask... are there controllers that use serial addressing like a bus system, which might work over old 7x22AWG wiring? This couldn't be any high-speed affair, the wiring ain't particularly "clean", with several wire-nutted "break-ins" and extensions due to mod's made over the last 30 years. But even without serial comm's, just static AND/OR logic, you should be able to address up to 64 valves with 6 + 1 conductors.
The down side is that I don't want to be digging up zone boxes to replace valves, so it'd have to be something already compatible with Rainbird CP100-type valves, like a simple screw-in solenoid replacement.
And yes... before anyone asks, I did consider just putting the new solenoids in tandem with an existing zone. But I'm trying to manage flow rate within capacity of a 10 gpm well, on a system with some relatively large zones. It might be doable, but I want to exhaust other easy options, before resigning to that.
