Once a functioning battery is connected, the board can be woken up by pushing one of the buttons.
The board will not function with just the V3186-06 transformer,
if you don’t want to use a battery
then you would need a different board
and cover like a V3108 board to convert to non-solar operation of the valve.
See non-solar replacement Board V3108 here:
https://www.softenerparts.com/ v3108.htm
And the matching cover for the V3108 board = V3175-01 cover,
https://www.softenerparts.com/ v3175-01.htm
