Field Services Valve Testing Instructions

Valve Station for Valve Control

1. Formulate test plan. Check your test plan with the grower. You must have grower permission to turn pumps or valves ON. 
2. Contact Network Support and let them know which devices and properties you will be testing. 
3. Manually open at least one valve for pressure relief. This valve will be your “Safety Valve” and must be open during the entire test to avoid over pressurizing the system and causing damage.  
4. Turn the pump on to pressurize the irrigation system. Do not start the pump if there is no safety valve open.
5. For valves you want to test make sure the small 3-way selector valve (HOA) is set to Auto.
6. Schedule the valve to open for 5 minutes when you will be there. May take more than a cycle for the schedule to be applied if cellular reception is spotty.  You can climb up and press the Reset button on the modem board to trigger the schedule to update. Note that the schedule button will turn from red to black once the schedule has been updated in the ST160.
7. At scheduled time listen for the solenoid to ‘click’ open. Water should discharge from the vent tube on the valve. 
8. Check for leaks around the pressure transducer.
9. Contact Network Support to verify the pressure transducer is operating correctly. 
10. Network Support:
1. Confirm device has cellular reception
2. Confirm valve station is charging via solar
3. Confirm firmware is up to date
4. Confirm interface matches use case
5. Confirm pressure transducer readings exist
11. Check valve closes properly when the scheduled event is done. Listen to solenoid ‘click’ closed. As the valve closes the sound of water running inside should change and then stop.  After 30 seconds turn the 3-way selector switch on valve to ‘Open’. If the valve closed correctly, you will see water discharging through the vent tube on the valve. 
12. Leave the 3-way selector valve in the ‘OFF’ position when you are done testing. 
13. When you have tested all valves except for the Safety Valve, open a new Safety Valve before turning the last valve to auto for testing.  
14. When testing is complete, shut off the pump.
15. On the safety valve, leave the 3-way selector valve in the ‘OFF’ position when you are done testing. 

Troubleshooting

Field technicians have encountered a problem with solenoid wires occasionally being color coded backwards.  During testing, pay close attention to the times when the valve is scheduled to change states.  If you observe that the valve is closing when it is scheduled to open, or opening when it is scheduled to close, trace the wiring from the solenoid back to the junction box and reverse the wires (black to red, and red to black) inside the junction box.