When I purchased my home it had a sprinkler control system with some x10 hardware used as an extension cord. It is set up like this:
Sprinkler control -> low volt to 110 relay -> X10 transmitter -> X10 receptacle -> 110 to 220 relay -> pump
The "X10 transmitter" has Catalog No. 6315 on the back and the "X10 receptacle" has CAT. No. 6227 (Leviton) on the back.
The reason they did this is that the distance between the sprinkler control is ~500' and it's another 250' to the sprinkler pump. I don't think the low voltage from the sprinkler control could reach all the way to the sub panel with the sprinkler pump relay.
When it is working it works great. The sprinkler control sends power to the relay and it connects the blue and red wires from the X10 transmitter which turns on the X10 receptacle and that brings in the motor starter and the pump runs.
However, every time we have a power outage it takes me weeks of experimentation to get things working again and I'm never sure what ultimately made it work. The problem is that after losing power, the pump runs constantly (deadheading and getting really hot since the sprinkler control is not trying to water the lawn and has all the solenoids off.)
Here is what seems to help (sometimes):
- running the sprinkler control through a cycle with the pump unplugged
- unpluging the transmitter 110v supply for a while and then plugging it in again
- turning off the 110v power to the X10 receptacle for a while and then turning it on again
or some combination of the above.
Question: Is there a specific sequence, pause time, rest procedure or similar I should follow to get these things playing nice together?