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Post by pepperhead212 on May 12, 2014 20:32:37 GMT -5
in fact, when I looked it up EVERYWHERE it was discontinued, and it was not in stock anywhere! (I gave up on about the 5th page). I figured I could at least save the valves, and use them on the new one, as they usually come with just two, and this way I would have extras. Oh well, these things happen, and at least it was when I was checking it out now, and not in the middle of the summer, when it could have been disastrous. Somebody on ebay is selling a used one, but the bidding went too high, so I just went and got a new one. I got one of the Melnor 4 way timers, since I like the one I got for the EBs, and they have 7 year warranties, though, I'll admit, the Orbit lasted WAY longer than that.
At first I thought that I had just put some cheap batteries in it, as the low battery thing came on, when I tried to start it up, then it would turn off, for good. So I put some new duracells in, and the same thing happened, so I figured its time had come. I may still take it apart some day, though I doubt I'll know what I am looking at! LOL
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Post by spacecase0 on May 13, 2014 10:13:39 GMT -5
look for corrosion on the battery connections, that can make the low battery signal show up when the batteries are good, use a pencil eraser to clean the connections, and if it is not that, at least it is easy to check
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Post by pepperhead212 on May 13, 2014 18:28:21 GMT -5
I checked the terminals, and even though they looked shiny bright, I polished them with some 1000 grit silicon carbide paper, but to no avail. Maybe there will be some corroded looking wire contacts that I can correct, when I open it up, but I'm not holding out any hopes.
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Post by spacecase0 on May 13, 2014 19:43:46 GMT -5
in that case look for cold solder joints, they will be dull and not bright and shiny like they should, the other way to deal with that is to resolder every connection it takes some time, but fixes many things,
one radio I got, i resoldered every connection when I got it, and it has run very well for the last 20 years, component failure is less likely than the rest of the build
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Post by spacecase0 on May 13, 2014 19:44:43 GMT -5
forgot to say that cold solder joints show up in the 3 year range, give or take 6 months, so if that is when it failed, then you likely know the cause
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Post by pepperhead212 on May 13, 2014 20:28:58 GMT -5
in that case look for cold solder joints, they will be dull and not bright and shiny like they should, the other way to deal with that is to resolder every connection it takes some time, but fixes many things, one radio I got, i resoldered every connection when I got it, and it has run very well for the last 20 years, component failure is less likely than the rest of the build That's the kind of thing I am thinking of doing, but not now - maybe after I have everything planted and built, and have time to try to fix it. Then, even if it seems fixed, I'll have to test it on something that doesn't matter too much. Maybe it will last another 10 years! It really doesn't owe me anything. LOL
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Post by pepperhead212 on May 14, 2014 13:56:14 GMT -5
The new timer I got to replace this - the Melnor 4 zone - is much more versatile as far as programming. While the old one would simply water all of the areas one after the other, with the only difference you could set being the times that each was watered, with this one each can be set totally different, with one being watered more than once a day, while one is watered every other day (or even less often). This can definitely be useful when planting new seedlings or direct seeding.
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