Replace Jandy RS remote with wired control panel

[BigPoppa]

I have a Jandy RS wireless remote that I'm afraid might have finally gone belly up. We bought our house about 2.5 years ago and the pool was installed in 06. The remote has always worked but been painfully slow. I have seen glaciers move faster than the menu on this remote.

Finally the other day it got stuck on "Waiting". I went through the process in the troubleshooting guide for resetting the system. Tried it a couple times just to make sure and it didn't do the trick. I then looked at the connection from the antenna unit inside the control box and everything looked good. I pulled the lid on the antenna box and the LEDs were on. I tried the process for learning the code and it will never learn the code on the remote. It just keeps flashing the LEDs in learning mode.

So from all the research I have done it looks like the most likely culprit is the antenna unit. I can pick up a new one for several hundred dollars but I would be back in the same boat of teaching my kids and the neighbor kids new curse words while I deal with this incredibly slow remote control unit.

So I have two questions that I can't seem to find on the internet.

1. Could the Antenna be the reason the system is so slow? I would assume yes, but I would like to hear from others that have this unit.
2. Can I replace the whole remote with a wired control panel? I found a guy on craigslist that has alot of these panels for the Jandy systems. I'm thinking I could probably spend the same or less on a wired control panel and have a more reliable control unit that is faster, won't get lost, left out in the rain or dropped in the pool.


Anybody with experience on this?

 

[thundalicious]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. If it makes you feel any better we just finished a pool last month and have the latest Jandy Aqualink system with PDA remote. I have the same issues, poor connection, screen lag on PDA, etc. My remote sensor for the system is about 20 ft from where we normally use it.
Pool tech is in the ice ages. It is embarrassing.


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[Matrioux]

I just went through the process (my antenna was broken off) and ended up doing an full upgrade to the iAqualink 2.0 system IQ20-RS. This gives me control from my computer, tablet, and phone. It's quite a bit more expensive (around $500), but gives a much quicker interface. The big downside (besides the price) is that it uses the zodiac servers, so if they ever shut them down or your internet is out, you lose access to your pool.

The other option I though about was the Autelis jandy/PDA unit. This will also give you remote control via computer/phone/tablet using the unit itself as the internet host (not dependent on external internet services) and costs quite a bit less. The downside being that I don't think the interface moves much quicker then the old PDA did. The cost of this unit was about the same as I could find a replacement antenna unit for, and would allow access from so many more devices.

The PDA only chipset in your RS unit is the speed culprit. The iAqualink unit replaces the control board and antenna unit, the autelis uses the current board. I ended up going the the iaqualink, I tend to tinker so the PDA slowness really bugged me. If you only need to use the PDA once a week or so, the autelis is much more reasonably priced. I also wanted a single tablet for controlling the pool, music, and other things in a waterproof case by the pool itself and both of these solutions would do that and do away with the pool only PDA.

 

[thundalicious]

Let me be more clear, I had the Jandy/Zodiac RS-PS6 controller installed with PDA and iAqualink 2/0.
It still is a joke. For me, the PDA is buggy, slow, and suffers from connection issues. The iAqualink phone/computer/tablet app has very limited capabilities compared to the PDA. You can only turn on and off functions (heater/spa/lights/features, etc.) but you cannot do any scheduling like you can on the PDA.

Does it differ for anyone else, am I missing something? Options beyond on/off don't exist on my web portal or phone/tablet app?

It is better than nothing, and there are limited alternatives. Hopefully it will get better.
Unfortunately you can tell the pool industry is way behind the curve with regards to technology and "smart home" functions.

On a positive note, BigPoppa, it is probably a significant upgrade from your current hardware!

Apparently an update to the app is coming in "early October" so hopefully the app/computer/web controls will gain more functionality, at lest get on par with the PDA.

 

[Matrioux]

While I agree the iAqualink app is certainly lacking, if you hit the rightmost tab on the app it takes you to the web interface which does allow full programming/scheduling. It's the same interface that directly accessing the iaqualink.com website accesses and it can do everything the PDA could do plus some and is much quicker.

Once you are on the web interface (either through the right tab on the app, or directly through the iAqualink website) hit the menu button along the bottom of the screen. There you can schedule, set the aquapure if you are using one or go into system setup. If you don't see those options or don't see the menu button along the bottom, I will try to add some screenshots and we can see if we are not seeing the same screen.

I really like the web interface, and tend to skip strait to it from the app unless I just want to check temperature or turn the main pump on or off.

 

[BigPoppa]

Thanks for the replies. I had read that about the iAquaLink but had seen the same issue with their servers being the slow link in the chain. I had read that some people couldn't even control their pools during holiday weekends. I hadn't seen that there was another option in the Autelis unit. I'm assuming I would have to get the new remote and antenna?

I'm a software engineer by trade so I looked to see if anyone had been able to hack the interface. Drop a raspberry pi in the control box with wired connection into the router to control everything. It looked like a few had come close. At this point, I would rather go on the side of a wired control panel that would be more reliable and I would certainly hope, faster. I have 4 kids so I have a built in remote to go turn the pump or lights on when I need it (As long as one of them is within shouting distance.)

Does anyone know which control panel I would need (or if there is even one that would do everything that the remote does)

 

[thundalicious]

I must have a problem. No option for this on the app or web app. Might have to call Zodiac! Thanks for the info.
Here are my screenshots!

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[thundalicious]

While I agree the iAqualink app is certainly lacking, if you hit the rightmost tab on the app it takes you to the web interface which does allow full programming/scheduling. It's the same interface that directly accessing the iaqualink.com website accesses and it can do everything the PDA could do plus some and is much quicker.

Once you are on the web interface (either through the right tab on the app, or directly through the iAqualink website) hit the menu button along the bottom of the screen. There you can schedule, set the aquapure if you are using one or go into system setup. If you don't see those options or don't see the menu button along the bottom, I will try to add some screenshots and we can see if we are not seeing the same screen.

I really like the web interface, and tend to skip strait to it from the app unless I just want to check temperature or turn the main pump on or off.

OK, so I called Zodiac. Apparently for the higher level functions I need the "RS" chip installed in my controller, not the "PDA" chip. Apparently, with the PDA chip, the PDA is the main unit. With the RS chip, the web/app portal becomes the main controller and the PDA essentially functions as on/off (as my web/app does now."

I've called my builder to rectify. I paid for iAqualink 2.0 so I would expect that bill came with full functionality!!

SO, I guess if your builder installs the right hardware the iAqualink web/app portal will be everything I need and more ... we will see ...

Thanks Matrioux for the info!

 

[Matrioux]

No problem. I hope you can get it resolved, the web interface isn't perfect, but its a whole lot better then what you have access to now! It sounds like your builder added the antenna only to the PDA system (IQ20-A), rather then the correct part which includes the correct chip (IQ20-RS)