Step-by-Step Guide
Understanding the Four Key Components
Before beginning the chassis replacement, it's important to identify the four key pieces of a WeatherTRAK controller:
- Transformer: Provides power to the controller
- Chassis (or mini chassis): Contains all valve wire terminal boards and electrical boards
- Panel: The front interface of the controller
- Antenna: Enables wireless communication
During a chassis replacement, you will keep the antenna, panel, and transformer, and only replace the chassis or valve wire terminal board.
What Is a Chassis?
In WeatherTRAK terminology, the chassis contains all of your valve wire terminal boards and other electrical boards that make up the boards of the controller. Some people call it a valve wire terminal board or a motherboard, but WeatherTRAK refers to it as a chassis because the back plate has all of the components mounted to it. When installed on the enclosure, the grounding lug connects to a grounding source using a number six bare copper wire to ground all of the electrical parts of the chassis.
With a wall mount controller, WeatherTRAK uses what is called a mini chassis to fit inside the smaller enclosure box. However, WeatherTRAK offers many different types of enclosures. If your controller is out in your landscape, you have what is called a pedestal mount enclosure, and those pedestals come in all different shapes and sizes. WeatherTRAK has many different chassis that fit into many different types of enclosures.
While this guide demonstrates how to replace a mini chassis on a wall mount controller, any WeatherTRAK chassis attaches to its enclosure using the same four bolts described in this example.
Unboxing Your New Chassis
When you receive your chassis, it will arrive in a box containing the new WeatherTRAK chassis wrapped in bubble wrap and the corresponding ribbon cable.
Turning Off Power to the Controller
1. Before removing any wires from the controller or working on the controller's hardware, turn the power off. Some controllers have an easy switch where you can simply turn off the power.
2. If your controller doesn't have a switch, you may need to pull the power from the board or find the breaker where the controller is powered and turn it off. This ensures you can safely pull wires from the board without causing further damage to your controller.
Removing the Front Door
1. Remove the front door of the controller to give yourself plenty of room to work. This provides better access to all components during the replacement process.
Labeling and Removing Station Wires
1. Take wire labels and begin labeling each station wire. For station one, pull out the wire from station one and put the sticker right on top of the wire. This ensures that when you plug it back in, you know that station one goes back into the station one port.
2. Continue labeling wires from station one through all connected stations (in the example shown, 33 stations were wired in), pulling them out carefully and labeling as you go.
3. Be aware that WeatherTRAK controllers may have a master valve, flow sensor, and/or rain sensor. All of these wires need to be labeled so that they go back into the correct ports.
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💡Pro tip: Take all of your stickers and place them around the controller, as getting them out of the book is the hardest part. This is one less thing to juggle during the process.
While labeling the wires is the recommended practice, it's not the only way to keep the wires straight. The most important lesson is that all wires need to be pulled out of the old board and put into the same terminal on the new board so that the valve sequence remains the same and none of the programming in the controller is affected.
Alternative method: If you don't have wire labels, you can use a Sharpie and some duct tape as a good substitution. Labeling your wires is one of the most important things you can do when replacing a chassis. |
Removing the Panel from the Controller
1. Once all wires have been labeled and pulled out of the board, turn down and loosen the finger screws that hold the panel in place.
2. Be careful when loosening the finger screws because the last finger screw that you release will release the panel entirely from the controller.
3. The panel will pop off and is attached to the controller by both the antenna and the ribbon cable.
4. Unscrew the antenna from the panel.
5. Disconnect the ribbon cable from the panel. The panel will now be free, and you will hold on to it for the reconstruction.
Removing Station Keys
1. Pull out the station keys from the board. These little rubber station keys are plugged into the board and determine how many stations your board is capable of listening to.
2. When replacing a chassis, replacement keys are not sent, so it's important that you pull these station keys out of the old board to save and put back in your new board.
3. Pull all of the station keys out and hold on to them for reinstallation.
Disconnecting the Transformer
1. Locate where the transformer plugs into the board. There is a little adapter with a yellow and red wire coming out of it.
2. Pull the adapter out to disconnect the power from the board. If you hadn't killed the power previously, this is a great way of pulling the power from all the important components.
Disconnecting the Wireless Rain Sensor
1. Locate the adapter where the wireless rain sensor is plugged in.
2. You can keep all of those wires plugged in and just pull the adapter out. You will replace the adapter in the new board.
Removing the Old Chassis
1. Once everything has been disconnected from the board, use a 7/16th nut driver to remove the four bolts that mount the chassis to the enclosure. You could also use a socket set or, if necessary, a crescent wrench or channel locks, though these are not as successful due to the tight space.
2. No matter what chassis you're replacing, it's always held on by four key bolts.
3. Keep the bolts in a safe place where you're going to find them again. Make sure they don't fall into the rocks or cracks below.
4. Notice that the last bolt on the chassis has the grounding lug in it with the number six bare copper wire that grounds the controller and provides an earth ground.
5. You may need to loosen the earth ground to get the number six bare copper wire out of the way before you continue to pull the final bolt off.
6. Once you pull the final bolt off, the chassis is loose from the enclosure. Very delicately grab it, support the weight, and pull it off of the four bolts that hold it to the enclosure.
7. It's important to notice that the power wire coming from the transformer runs up the back side of the board. Pull that wire out to reuse.
8. You have now completely removed the board that you're looking to replace.
Installing the New Chassis
1. Take your replacement board and identify the places where you'll attach it to the four bolts.
2. First, take the power cord and pull it up, making sure that it gets put in behind the board. If you don't do this correctly, you'll have to repeat the process.
3. Once the power is pulled through, attach the board, making sure the power is in place.
4. Flatten the chassis to the enclosure and replace the bolts to tighten the chassis back down to the enclosure.
5. Remember that on the last bolt, you're going to have the grounding lug that attaches to that same bolt and touches the chassis. Make sure that you put the grounding lug back on before you bolt it tightly to the board.
6. Once all of the nuts have been put back on, use your nut driver to tighten the bolts and secure the chassis to the enclosure.
Reconnecting Components to the New Chassis
1. Make sure to put the grounding wire back in the grounding lug.
2. Take the rain sensor and pull the rain sensor adapter out of the old board. Reuse the rain sensor from the old board by plugging it into the new board. You can also disconnect the rain sensor and put it in the new port if you suspect that port is bad.
3. Replace the station keys that you pulled out from the old board. Put them back in the place that you pulled them out of, making sure that they make a good tight secure connection. For example, if you have four station keys, this means you have a 36 station controller.
4. Replace all of the field wires, making sure that they go back in the ports that you've labeled they came out of. For example, station 33 goes into port 33.
Replacing the Ribbon Cable and Reattaching the Panel
1. Once all valve wires are connected, the chassis is bolted down, the rain sensor is in, and the station keys are attached, you are ready to attach the face plate and complete the installation.
2. Take the ribbon cable that came with your new chassis and replace the old ribbon cable. Sometimes the problem is in the ribbon cable, so it's important to replace it.
3. Take the ribbon cable and make sure the connectors match up, then connect it back into the spot on the board.
4. Connect the antenna to the panel.
Powering Up the Controller
1. Wait until everything else is plugged in before you connect the transformer. This ensures all connections are secure before power is restored.
2. Connect the transformer adapter to the board.
3. Turn the power on (in the example shown, this was done using a switch).
4. You will see the board start to light up once power is restored.
5. Attach the finger screws fingertight to secure the panel. Never put a screwdriver on the finger screws.
Verifying the Connection
1. For good measure, go to the COM 13 menu and watch the controller connect.
2. Look for GPRS status and verify that the status says online, which means that it's now connected to the cloud.
3. The chassis replacement is now complete.
Finishing Up
1. Close the controller enclosure and put the rain sensor back in its proper position.
2. Put the enclosure door back on.
Returning the Old Chassis
1. The last thing you need to do is send back the chassis that you're replacing.
2. Look in the bottom of the box that the new chassis came in. You'll find a return shipping label that will send this component back to corporate headquarters for review.
3. Pack the old chassis and the ribbon cable into the bubble wrap and into the box.
4. Seal up the box and put the return shipping label on it.
5. Drop it at your nearest FedEx location.
Video Walkthrough
Video originally published August 2024.
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