The Wasser-Controller

[Wasserpest]

That is not a power supply, just a housing with switches. While this is Jens' improvement and he can comment on this, I am pretty sure there is nothing in there that can get warm or fail if all is soldered and connected correctly.

The irrigation controller itself has a power supply that gets warm, but nothing unusual.

Things that can fail in this setup -- the controller itself, and the relays. That said, for me it has been running for over a year without a hitch.

[MoparMuscl]

Originally Posted by Wasserpest

That is not a power supply, just a housing with switches. While this is Jens' improvement and he can comment on this, I am pretty sure there is nothing in there that can get warm or fail if all is soldered and connected correctly.

The irrigation controller itself has a power supply that gets warm, but nothing unusual.

Things that can fail in this setup -- the controller itself, and the relays. That said, for me it has been running for over a year without a hitch.

Cool. The reason I called it a power supply is because on all the websites I have looked at it is called a power supply. I know it is nothing more than an individually switched power 'strip'. I just like that all the plugs are in the back. I am a neat freak and am looking for a way to clean up my electrical. Right now my two Coral Life timers have cords going everywhere and I hate it!

BTW, great idea on the Wasser-controller!

[MoparMuscl]

Wasserpest...where did you get you Dig 8006 controlller? The cheapest I have found them is for ~$55 shipped.

[Wasserpest]

Home Depot, they have them for $35 over here.

[lovingHDTV]

Here is my version. I bought a 6 outlet power strip from Fry's and installed the 24AC relays inside the power strip to control the outlets. I hooked up the relays using a cat5 network cable that I cut one end off.

I then bought a cat5 punch down connector and hooked it up to the controller. I can now easily disconnect the controller from the power strip if the need arises.

It all works great except for one thing. Only outlet 4 works when I tried it. Turns out the store I bought my relays from, gave me 5 120VAC coils and only one 24VAC coil. So I have to disassemble the entire thing, return the wrong relays and get correct ones, then put it all back together. ARGS!!

But outlet 4 works great!!

[Regloh]

Very neat! I love it...

[Wasserpest]

That's an awesome idea. I was actually looking for something similar... a long time ago, folks would use these power switch boxes for their computers, where they would plug the computer, monitor, printer etc in the back, and in front there were those lit switches, and the monitor would sit on top. We had a bunch of them at work, unfortunately, when I asked, they had just a week or two prior thrown them away as being obsolete.

But this powerstrip is actually nicer, takes up less space, and it all fits in there. Plus the outlets are spaced for some of the bricks that are used with nightlights and such.

Great design! Sorry to hear about the relays, I had a similar issue where two of the four that I used were DOA. Probably a good idea to test them before soldering.

[lovingHDTV]

after I get it all working, I plan on integrating the cat5 socket into the controller. There is just enough room to put it below the wire connection panel in the controller. For me there is a QC sticker, but I'll make a nice square hole and mount the socket there. That will clean it up a bit.

But off to the electronics house to get 5 more relays.

[lovingHDTV]

Got replacement relays and get it all hooked up.

I'm seeing one issue with the controller. It appears that I can only have two zones active at the same time? I thought that this controller allowed you to have all six zone active simultaneously?

Hopefully someone that has it working can tell me what I"m doing wrong.

thanks,
dave

P.S. - well crap. Feature #16 on the back of the box. "Valve wait mode: The controller allows for up to two valve to be open at the same time, and if a third valve is scheduled to open, the third valve will enter into a wait mode. The valve will open when one of the two open valves close."

Does this mean the more recent controllers are different than the original Wasser controller?

[Wasserpest]

You should have looked up the link in the original post...

All other irrigation timers only allow for ONE valve open at a time. This one does two, which should be sufficient for most situations. You don't have to do everything at once... Dose micros after lights out... Macros before lights on... etc.

In order to have six valves open at the same time, the irrigation controller would need a larger power supply. For irrigation purposes, usually you don't want more than one circuit running at the same time, otherwise the water pressure might go down. In other words, two valves open simultaneously is probably an exception with these sort of devices.

[lovingHDTV]

Originally Posted by Wasserpest

You should have looked up the link in the original post...

All other irrigation timers only allow for ONE valve open at a time. This one does two, which should be sufficient for most situations. You don't have to do everything at once... Dose micros after lights out... Macros before lights on... etc.

In order to have six valves open at the same time, the irrigation controller would need a larger power supply. For irrigation purposes, usually you don't want more than one circuit running at the same time, otherwise the water pressure might go down. In other words, two valves open simultaneously is probably an exception with these sort of devices.

Yeah I went and re-read everything. What I'm trying to do is control low lights, high lights, CO2. So I need three relays at once. For now I just ganged two relays together and have just "lights" and reduced their total on time, and CO2.

I don't dose ferts or do automated water changes.

I looked around for controllers that do more simultaneous relays (i.e. 4), but they are like $250

So far it works as advertised so I'll use it until I find or make something that allows me to use three relays simultaneously.

thanks,
dave

[Wasserpest]

Dave, what I do, I combine CO2 with one of the light banks. Say you have half the lights on for 1 hour, then all lights for 9 hours, and then the other half for 1 hour. You could run the CO2 with the first half of the lights. That way the level will be good when the second half comes on, and turn off and slowly taper out during the last hour.

Just an example of course. Everyone does that a bit differently.

[outcast]

lol lots of the wiring and exposed leads has the electrician in me cringing. Why not spent the little bit extra and get the sockets for the relays? way better to screw to terminal screws than solder. Plus when a relay fries, its a quick swap. Im a big fan of clean electrical, especially under a tank full of water. What i've done was bring the power from the wall socket into a GFCI under the tank, and i have a box nippled to it with 3 duplex receptacles. Giving me 6 controlled receptacles and 2 always on.

the 3 gang receptacle bank is filled with x10 receptacles that let me automate the control from a different location, i opted for the computer option. So lights and pump on/off times are easily fine tuned from the PC and uploaded to a transmitter thats powered independantly. I hate crouching under that tank :P

[Wasserpest]

Originally Posted by tmclane

Hello there,

I was attempting to follow in your footsteps on the wasserpest-controller DIY and I had a question about the relays.

I see in the thread where people are saying that the relay (KHAU-17A11-24) handles 30A.
I am confused because the specifications on the main sites say they only handle 3A.

Does this change based on the actual current being used?
If so what is this value based on?

I found some relays on ebay that say they can handle 5A but I want to be able to get around 30A capacity so that I don't melt the thing when I try and run CO2 and my lights on one relay.

Thanks in advance,
-Travis

Hi Travis, the max amps for a given relay don't change. I would go by what the manufacturer (Tyco Electronics) suggests which is 3A.

Sorry about the false/confusing information. Looks like the place that I got the relays from was a bit over optimistic.

Keep in mind that while the coil voltage is 24V, they switch 110V. So the max wattage would be around 330W, which is quite a bit. The CO2 solenoid only draws around 5W (might be different for different models) and if you split the lights into two banks, you should have plenty Wattage.

Of course, if your tank has three 150W HQI lamps over it, you would need a different relay.