Strange Pentair EasyTouch Schedule Issue

[MarkNC]

Hi fellow TFP'ers

After 3 years with my pool I recently installed a home power monitoring system. As expected the pool is the main energy consumer but what I found strange is that there is a 20 minute cycling in the power usage level during the pool filter time (9am-5pm in the image below).


On further investigation it turns out the floor cleaner is cycling on at regular intervals to cause this. The standard pool cycle runs the IntelliFlo VS pump at 2000rpm using around 450W whereas the floor cleaner mode runs the pump at 3450rpm using around 2000W. The floor cleaner was only scheduled to run from 10am-11am each day - it just seemed to cause the small disruption in the pattern at 10am. I have been experimenting with the the schedules to try find why the floor cleaner is coming on but nothing seems to change this behaviour - whenever the pool filter schedule runs the pump, the floor cleaner cycles on and off every twenty minutes, even when no floor cleaning schedules are programmed?

I'm wondering if I'm misunderstanding how things are supposed to work, or if I am unaware of some configuration setting that is causing this, or perhaps if there is just some weird bug in the EasyTouch2 controller. Can anyone offer any explanation or ideas as to what is going on here? Any insights or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[bdavis466]

Since you have ScreenLogic can you post a screenshot of your pump schedule?

It definitely sounds like a programming issue.

 

[MarkNC]

Hi Brian, thanks for responding to my post. I have been experimenting with the schedules since the original power graph I posted, so please see below my current settings and corresponding power usage plot from today:


The remaining (hidden in the screenshot) Feature circuit Egg Timers are all set to the default 12 hours 0 minutes.

In the power plot you can see the floor cleaner ran from 3-4 pm as expected. The strange behaviour is where it also came on for those alternating 20 minute intervals from 11am-2pm when only the pool circuit should have been running.

I have also posted the flow settings page. The 'Pool' setting is currently active as I have just enabled it manually - what I did find, is that when I clicked the 'Pool' setting in the Screenlogic Intelliflo tab, both the 'Pool' and 'Floor Cleaner' settings were highlighted green, so I then clicked the 'floor cleaner' setting to disable it before taking that screenshot. I am now waiting to see if in manual pool mode, the 20 minute cycling still happens... will post what I find.

If there is any further info you would like to check just let me know.

 

[bdavis466]

Go to configure ScreenLogic and select the floor cleaner circuit. Under Circuit Function, is it assigned to pool?

The circuit name and function should say floor cleaner.

If that's the case and still running in POOL mode, try changing the floor cleaner function to generic and see if that makes a difference.

Does the main filter pump drive the floor jets?

Can you post a picture of the equipment and pool? I'm a little intrigued...

 

[MarkNC]

With the the pool running manually, the floor cleaner did continue with the 20 minute floor cleaner cycling behaviour.

I checked the configuration as suggested and the circuit function was set to floor cleaner. I have changed it to generic as per your suggestion and will check what happens. I've attached a screenshot following the change FYI:


Is any kind of reset/power-cycle recommended after such changes?

The main filter does feed the floor jets - I dont have a pic on hand and it's pouring with rain but will post a pic tomorrow.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Mark,

A very interesting issue. Tell us more about your pumps. I was under the impression that you could only have two Intelliflo pumps connected to a EasyTouch at one time. Pump Addresses 1 and 2. Are you running all three pumps using the serial control cable? What are the pump addresses?

On the surface, even if you had something programmed wrong, I'm not seeing anything that would cause your 20 min on and 20 min off cycle.

Thanks for the puzzle.

Jim R.

 

[MarkNC]

Thanks so much for the friendly help!

It seems like Brian's suggestion of changing the floor cleaner circuit function from 'Floor Cleaner' to 'Generic' is making everything behave as expected. I've put my schedule back to normal and will check that everything works correctly tomorrow. I'm a relative novice with EasyTouch so this could be something obvious, but it does seem strange that it was doing that. Would be nice to understand why... but if the solution works I'm happy!

In answer to Jim's post, only two of the pumps have the serial connection to the EasyTouch. The third pump is just switched by an Aux relay with the speed under manual control on the pump directly. I've never liked this arrangement and have been thinking about ways to improve this. (I'm an electronics guy so thinking of doing some experimentation.) I like the idea of somehow connecting the 3rd pump to the RS485 bus as a listen-only device so that it matches the speed of pump 2 - this'll require an active 'RS485 splitter' which allows the responses from only one pump to get back to the controller. The unknown is whether this would actually work, and since the protocol is not available it's difficult to know without trying...

 

[bdavis466]

I recommended changing the circuit function to generic because when the floor cleaner function is assigned, the programming is set to "rotate a 3 way valve every 20 mins alternating flow between two cleaner system valves that feed the pop up heads" (from Pentair). Not sure of your floor ststem but I doubt its set up to function in this fashion.

That's where your 20 minute spike came from...

Do you return the water to the pool through the pop up heads during pool mode?

 

[Jimrahbe]

Mark... I was shooting for two pumps with the same address issue, but I was just grasping at straws as I had no idea there was any 20 min cycle hidden in the EasyTouch. Your idea of a listen-only splitter sounds like it would work until things got out of sync. I have not heard of this type of device. Is this available or would it be something you'd have to make or modify?

Brian.. Great catch. You are a troubleshooting king.... :king:

Jim R.

 

[MarkNC]

Well I can happily confirm that Brian's fix works perfectly! With the Floor Cleaner circuit function set to generic the 20 minute cycles no longer happen and my power usage is as I expect it... see the graph copied below FYI as well as my equipment set-up.



The floor cleaner is on the main pool pump return line (not too clear in the pic) so receives the flow in pool mode.

With regards the RS485 listen-only, I'm not aware of anything off the shelf that will do it. I have ordered some bits on eBay so will hopefully get do some experimentation sometime in the not too distant future.

Thanks again for the help!