Sonoff 4CH Pro with DC Hunter Solenoids

[L__D]

I had a Hunter XC Hybrid that ran off a 9V battery for 10 years on three DC solenoids with a PGP valve.
Then suddenly it started draining my batteries in less than a week where it use to be a year.
Contacted Hunter but they gave me no hope of getting this looked at. This accelerated my move into Sonoff.

The old wiring had the all the blacks from the solenoids joined and into the common pole. Red was running individually to the solenoids.

There is no AC in this spot and I ran my solenoids from the Hunter controller with just a 9v battery.

The wiring on this 4CH Pro model can take DC as input. My uncertainty is how do I wire the DC solenoids after I successfully powered it up?

This is my diagram at how I think it should look like after a lot of reading and looking at wiring diagrams.

Please help with some advice....




OR does it need to be wired like this:

 

[fxit_man]

Try this

https://imgur.com/a/zbVtUvp

9V in your case.

I was using this method with a 24v transformer and 24v valves until both my 4ch pro r3's blew. (unrelated)

Your solenoids are the DC latching ones. I also have some here I've been meaning to try for something else, not sure if the would be wired to NO or NC to be honest. Try both I guess.

 

[krieg]

Try this

https://imgur.com/a/zbVtUvp

9V in your case.

I was using this method with a 24v transformer until both my 4ch pro r3's blew.

I wonder why, it clearly states it can handle 24v.

 

[fxit_man]

No no, that wasn't the reason. It totally can take 24v.

I think mine was a surge/lightening strike while I was away... was working for a while almost a year.

It was powered via 220v, and then I was using a 24v transformer for the valves. Could have just powered the sonoff from the 24v as well I guess.

Now went the Hunter X2 controller route with the WiFi wand.. Much more expensive but didn't want to risk 2 x Sonoffs possibly blowing again if they are sensitive.

It's not bad.. Sometimes it doesn't switch valves on/off properly when triggering manually. I prefer the sonoff route as it was 100% reliable and it was local + cloud (Hunter is cloud only). Also the Hunter Hydrawise thing isn't great. The available weather stations to link my controller to in my area aren't that great, and it doesn't really have very accurate rainfall reporting which is one of the main reasons I went this route too.

But it's working for now and I have the entities in Home Assistant.. Granted because it is cloud only there is some delay and also with updating the states (on/off/watering etc.).

 

[fxit_man]

@L__D - another thought. You say you have no AC there. Not sure how long that Sonoff would last on 9V as it's constantly powering WiFi. I guess you'll need a decent battery in there. One option is using 9v for valves only, and another stronger battery (e.g. 12v/24v lithium) for powering the Sonoff

 

[L__D]

@L__D - another thought. You say you have no AC there. Not sure how long that Sonoff would last on 9V as it's constantly powering WiFi. I guess you'll need a decent battery in there. One option is using 9v for valves only, and another stronger battery (e.g. 12v/24v lithium) for powering the Sonoff

Currently there are three Samsung lithium 18650's. They provide ample power and phase two I will add a small sun panel with a voltage regulator to keep it topped up.

 

[L__D]

Try this

https://imgur.com/a/zbVtUvp

9V in your case.

I was using this method with a 24v transformer and 24v valves until both my 4ch pro r3's blew. (unrelated)

Your solenoids are the DC latching ones. I also have some here I've been meaning to try for something else, not sure if the would be wired to NO or NC to be honest. Try both I guess.

This assumes that the AC wiring is the same as DC? AC solenoids have two red wires- you can take anyone but the DC solenoids have a black (negative) and red (positive) wire. This is the tricky part, how to wire the DC power side of things into this DC only setup.

 

[fxit_man]

Ok in that case I will wait for you to figure it out before I attempt mine

 

[L__D]

Ok in that case I will wait for you to figure it out before I attempt mine

LOL!!!

 

[L__D]

Can someone shed some light on the Sonoff wiring for each relay

 

[krieg]

Can someone shed some light on the Sonoff wiring for each relay

Connect each NC and Com to a solenoid.
NC = normally close
NO = normally open
COM = Common

 

[fxit_man]

Did you figure it out @L__D ?

 

[L__D]

Did you figure it out @L__D ?

Getting very close- I am getting a time delay relay tomorrow which is able to pulse the solenoid at 250ms. This is a key step in making the DC solenoid work. I will post a more comprehensive set of instructions once I have it working.
<<Update>>
The time delay relay had nothing to do with this. See updated post further down wat eventually worked.

 

[fxit_man]

Getting very close- I am getting a time delay relay tomorrow which is able to pulse the solenoid at 250ms. This is a key step in making the DC solenoid work. I will post a more comprehensive set of instructions once I have it working.

I see. So the 0.5s inching on the PRO R3 not working for you? Interesting, seems the 4CH PRO used to have 0.25s inching.. But I just checked my 4CH PRO R3 and it only has from 0.5s and up.

 

[L__D]

After much reading I managed to get one solenoid to work. The polarity has to be switched to open and close a DC solenoid. AC solenoids are different in the sense that it stays open as long as there is power.
DC only needs a pulse with +- in one direction and -+ to close. So you use two relays to operate one solenoid.

 

[fxit_man]

After much reading I managed to get one solenoid to work. The polarity has to be switched to open and close a DC solenoid. AC solenoids are different in the sense that it stays open as long as there is power.
DC only needs a pulse with +- in one direction and -+ to close. So you use two relays to operate one solenoid.

Awesome please share your wiring with us as I'd like to try my 9v ones

 

[Jack_ZA]

what i ended up doing 3 years ago. Bit of a hack but works as should.

 

[L__D]

Awesome please share your wiring with us as I'd like to try my 9v ones

So the key to this was to reverse the polarity. This is what I used to get it to work. A half second inching setting in the respective relays is all that you need.
You can only do three solenoids per 4 station Pro. The first one is used to send a "close" pulse to all the channels at once.




This is the end result

 

[fxit_man]

So the key to this was to reverse the polarity. This is what I used to get it to work. A half second inching setting in the respective relays is all that you need.
You can only do three solenoids per 4 station Pro. The first one is used to send a "close" pulse to all the channels at once.



This is the end result

Thanks for sharing! Looks neat. what is the board in the bottom left? 9v supply? Mind sharing where you got that?