Question
I have an Irritrol Kwik Dial KD 6 at my rental house.  When I go to try to set the system up, e.g. set the date and programs, the controller acts erratically.  If I try to set the date/time, the system flashes several characters (too fast to note them all) and then defaults to Sunday, not allowing me to set the time.  Similarly, when I go to set each station run time/day, the system erratically skips around...but does let me turn on and off the days to water, if I am patient,  and keep skipping to different programs until the system (intermittently) puts itself in a stable state.

One piece of possibly related information is that it appears that my ex-renter let the system run with the water main turned off.  I am not sure if my issues are related to the lines being dry (e.g. did it drive anything into some kind of electrical fault).  Unfortunately, I can't get the water turned on until after the holiday, so I can't test any fix.

I was going to simply do a system reset.  If the reset brings the controller back to baseline, I was going to set it up (time date and programs), turn off program/days to water, and wait until I get the water turned on to test.

Does my general approach read like a reasonable first step?

Answer
Hey John, you're on the right track. First of all, normally if the water is turned off to the system, it will not affect the controller. I would suggest re-setting the cotroller (put a screwdriver blade in the back of the controller between the re set bar). If once the system is re set, and you still have intermittent programming issues, the controller is probably faulty, and you need to replace it. Once you re set it, and you don't have issues, turn one station on at a time. If there is a fault on either the wire to the valves, or the solenoid on the valves, the controller will automatically skip this station, and when it is done running, it will flash "fuse" and the faulty station number. This way, you can  determine if the controller is okay, and then pinpint which station you are having issues with (if you are having any fault issues?). Hopefully this will get you started, if you have anymore questions let me know. good luck and have a great day.