I need iAqualink / VSP advice

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Squeeken

Squeeken

0
Apr 23, 2013
23
San Diego, CA
I've been reading here for some time, but this is my first post. Thanks for your help.

My end goal is to replace my single speed pump with a variable speed pump.

My current system will not support a VSP. It is a Jandy Aqualink PS4 PDA system installed with the pool/spa construction in 2007. (~18000 gal salt water in San Diego, CA) The spa waterfalls into the pool when the pool pump is running. I have no other water features, and no solar at this time. 4 relays: pump, booster pump, pool light, & spa light.

I plan to purchase the iAqualink IQ900-RS in order to upgrade my control board so that it will support a variable speed pump. This seems to be the least expensive way to do that. My understanding is that this will actually upgrade my system to a PS8 with the ability to add relays later if needed and that the new control board supports only Jandy or Pentair variable speed pumps. I also understand that I will lose the ability to program my system with my existing Jandy PDA and it basically becomes and ON/OFF switch.

I have several questions:

1. Which Jandy or Pentair pump is best suited for my setup?

2. Will I still be able to set the spa temp with my existing Jandy PDA? I'm fine with programing my system through the WiFi interface, but I'm not crazy about having my cell phone/ipad near the spa to control temp.

3. I thought they were coming out with the IQ900-PDA, so that I could still use my Jandy PDA in addition to using the WiFi interface, but I can't find it. Is that no longer coming to market?

4. If there are better ways to accomplish my goal of integrating a variable speed pump, I'm all ears.

Thanks again for your help.
 
Squeeken said:
I've been reading here for some time, but this is my first post. Thanks for your help.

My end goal is to replace my single speed pump with a variable speed pump.

My current system will not support a VSP. It is a Jandy Aqualink PS4 PDA system installed with the pool/spa construction in 2007. (~18000 gal salt water in San Diego, CA) The spa waterfalls into the pool when the pool pump is running. I have no other water features, and no solar at this time. 4 relays: pump, booster pump, pool light, & spa light.

I plan to purchase the iAqualink IQ900-RS in order to upgrade my control board so that it will support a variable speed pump. This seems to be the least expensive way to do that. My understanding is that this will actually upgrade my system to a PS8 with the ability to add relays later if needed and that the new control board supports only Jandy or Pentair variable speed pumps. I also understand that I will lose the ability to program my system with my existing Jandy PDA and it basically becomes and ON/OFF switch.

I have several questions:

1. Which Jandy or Pentair pump is best suited for my setup?

2. Will I still be able to set the spa temp with my existing Jandy PDA? I'm fine with programing my system through the WiFi interface, but I'm not crazy about having my cell phone/ipad near the spa to control temp.

3. I thought they were coming out with the IQ900-PDA, so that I could still use my Jandy PDA in addition to using the WiFi interface, but I can't find it. Is that no longer coming to market?

4. If there are better ways to accomplish my goal of integrating a variable speed pump, I'm all ears.

Thanks again for your help.
Click to expand...

1. I have the same setup you do w/out the spa. My PDA is a lot newer so I can run the vs pump. I have the jandy e-pump 1.5hp and it work great.

2. I don't think you can from what I got from jandy it is basically a on/off remote no programming what so ever. You might want to give them a call. Checkout autelis pool control for the PDA. You could possibly just upgrade your PDA firmware to make it compatible w/ the vs pump.

3. Jandy abandon the i900-PDA. Not 100% sure but my guess since the PDA is limited in what it can do they thought it was better to just not do it or it wasn't cost effective for them and the consumer.

4. See the end of post 2. The autelis is $239.00 and works fairly well. You can still use your PDA to program the system. Though I would look at seeing what it would cost to upgrade the PDA firmware, plus the pump and the autelis v/s the iaqualink and the vs pump cost. It maybe a wash in price plus you should look at what features you want to keep. The autelis needs to have a direct connection to a router and then aqualink RS control panel. I had to install a router by my pool equipment, but now I have wifi in my entire back yard. I use the router for other things as well.

If I was going to upgrade I would get the iaqualink.

Jerry


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Thanks Jerry.

The upgrade kit for my firmware is $635 which includes the chip and a new Jandy PDA. The IQ900-RS kit costs $470 and includes the entire control board (not just the chip) and upgrades the system to a PS8 with Rev. 6 firmware and WiFi access, which is why I was leaning towards the iAqualink kit instead of a firmware update kit. The downside is the loss of Jandy PDA control, which is fine with me except for the fact that I will now need my cell phone or ipad poolside to adjust the spa temp while we're in it. I would much rather have the waterproof Jandy PDA for that one purpose.

I will check out the autelis system, but if I need to do a firmware upgrade to incorporate the autelis system, it defeats the purpose. I could just do the firmware upgrade and continue using the included Jandy PDA.

What made you choose the epump over the intelliflo? I can't really tell much difference between all the different models, and what differences I do see, I don't know if the added features will benefit me or if I would just be throwing my money away for features that I don't need.
 
My PB uses only jandy equipment he didn't really offer any choices at the time plus we were fine with what he was putting in. We did do research on the jandy equipment to make sure we got what we wanted from him. We had no clue about other manufactures of pool equipment this is our first pool. I can say I know about them now after being on the forum daily.

I don't blame you about wanting to keep the PDA. The waterproof feature is nice but man that thing is slow. You could look at getting water proof cases for you ipad or iPhone and just use them when you are in the spa. H2O audio makes waterproof iPhone cases and I know there are more on the market.

Doing the autelis and firmware upgrade would cost you more but it does allow you to use you PDA. If you want to see mine in action just let me know and I can take video of it for you. It is easy to wire up.

Jerry


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Jerry, you are absolutely correct, the Jandy PDA is painfully slow and it eats through batteries at a pretty good rate. Those are my 2 biggest complaints about the PDA.

On a happier note, I called Zodiac today and found out that I was wrong about how limited the use of the Jandy PDA will be after upgrading to the iAquaLink IQ900-RS. She said that I will still be able to use the Jandy PDA for everything except pump schedule programing. That is great news.

Unless I find out new information, I will be buying the IQ900-RS upgrade kit ($490+tax), a Pentair 011018 pump ($815 no tax), and 2 pump union fittings ($24 +tax) tomorrow. Total bill with tax and free shipping should be right about $1370 minus a $200 rebate from SDG&E. I'm figuring an electric savings of about $70 month. If that's accurate, it will pay for itself in less than 18months. That's not bad.
 
Squeeken said:
Jerry, you are absolutely correct, the Jandy PDA is painfully slow and it eats through batteries at a pretty good rate. Those are my 2 biggest complaints about the PDA.

On a happier note, I called Zodiac today and found out that I was wrong about how limited the use of the Jandy PDA will be after upgrading to the iAquaLink IQ900-RS. She said that I will still be able to use the Jandy PDA for everything except pump schedule programing. That is great news.

Unless I find out new information, I will be buying the IQ900-RS upgrade kit ($490+tax), a Pentair 011018 pump ($815 no tax), and 2 pump union fittings ($24 +tax) tomorrow. Total bill with tax and free shipping should be right about $1370 minus a $200 rebate from SDG&E. I'm figuring an electric savings of about $70 month. If that's accurate, it will pay for itself in less than 18months. That's not bad.
Click to expand...
Wow I was told by lots of people including Jandy it would just be a on/off remote and lose all other functions. This would make my upgrade cheaper. I may still switch to iaqualink. I just hope autelis will add more features. That is a great pice. You definitely did your shopping. Thanks for the info about the PDA w/ the upgrade.

I can live w/out the pump schedule programming. I could do that with my phone plus once it is set no big deal.


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If I am not mistaken, the Jandy PDA is not waterproof. It is water resistant. You cannot let it just float in the pool. I was warned about this by my PB. I don't know what the manual says but I would not risk testing his warning of this being a bad idea.

I just checked out Jandy's website and it is indeed water resistant, not waterproof. See below.

http://www.zodiacpoolsystems.com/Produc ... k-PDA.aspx
 
Thanks for the correction ComputerGuy. I could have sworn that I read it was waterproof, but I have checked my entire manual and can't find it anywhere waterproof or water resistant, so now I'm not sure where I read that. I remember being surprised and telling my wife it was water proof. I'm glad I didn't test that. In any event, I would never float the PDA in the pool. I was more concerned about an accidental drop in the pool. I think the PDA would survive that no problem, but I don't think my phone or iPad would.

Jerry, I was surprised when she told me that, because like you, I had heard that the PDA would simply become an on/off switch. I am hoping to get all my equipment changed over before June, so I will report back here whether or not the PDA can still set the spa/pool temp after the upgrade.
 
I let mine float the other day just for about 15 seconds. I think where you will run into problems would be the battery door. If you don't get it to seal correctly of pinch something it will leak. I think I read it was waterproof before. It may have been on their site at one point but took it off due to people thinking it was waterproof and letting it float and then turning it in for warranty. I am close to pulling the trigger and changing out my autelis for the iaqualink. If autelis upgraded the firmware to where the menus were touch instead of up and down and then select ok if would be a lot better than the iaqualink. Well maybe not better but cheaper.


Edit: I just got my iaqualink for a good price and installed it today. It was really easy to setup and install. I made sure to take pics and wrote down my settings on my pda before i unhooked the old system and put the new in. The only issue I had was w/ my water fall and how it was setup on my PDA system. I found out I could use the spillway feature to run my waterfall. I was on the phone with jandy for about 20-30 mins. They were very helpful. Didn't run into you need to call your PB to help you. Really loving it and think it was well worth the investment.

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Well, my IntelliFlo 011018 pump and iAquaLink system IQ900-RS arrived today. I've installed the IQ900-RS and will finish the pump installation tomorrow (need to buy some 2" pipe tonight). I ran the IQ900-RS with my old pump still hooked up and I am happy to report that everything was working perfectly. The system can be fully controlled using my PC, iPad, and Gallaxy S III. The system is now a PS8 instead of a PS4 and it has a firmware R chip installed.

Also, my Jandy PDA is still able to turn on/off the filter pump, booster pump, pool light, spa light, and will still set the pool and spa water temperature. The only thing that I can NOT do with the Jandy PDA is set the pump schedule. I am very happy with the system so far, but I will need to test it with the new pump tomorrow. :cool:
 

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JKurl, I only have 2 JVAs, an intake and a return. I did not need to assign them since they were already assigned "Intake" and "Return" by default. Were you able to figure out how to assign your JVAs? I have noticed that the web interface is a little finicky. It doesn't seem to like it when you try to change more than one thing at a time. I have had the system lock up on me several times when I try to change multiple items before saving. Twice, I have had to remove all power from the pool pad via the circuit breaker panel in order to regain access to the web interface, crazy. It seems to work well when you make one change, then save it before making your next change. Have you tried assigning one JVA at a time? Assign one, save it, then assign the next one?

I am running the new pump at 2500 RPM for 3 hours each morning for the pool vac and then 1000 RPM for 13 hours daily for a total of 16 hours run time, and 8 hours off time. I am seeing bubbles in the basket, and I can hear the sound of water trickling in the return pipes which makes me think that there is air in there as well. How can I tell where the air is getting into the system? Monday, I am going to replace all 4 of the old seals (2 at the filter: inlet & outlet and 2 at the heater: inlet & outlet), and see if that helps. Its not normal to hear trickling sounds in the pipes right? I only hear it at the low speed settings (1000 RPM).

I am open to any advice on how to best keep air out of the system.

Also, my Jandy PDA still works, but it definitely has some compatibility issues with the new board. The Jandy PDA screen has displayed partial screens and mixed screens at the same time on several occasions. And it's still slower than molasses. I only use it for spa temperature control while we're in the spa. I'll use the ipad app or my pc for everything else.
 
I found out my board was a pool/spa combo board. I only have a pool. Jandy is sending me a pool only board so I can assign the jvas. Right now it works pretty good. Had to do some work arounds to get my waterfall going. I ran into the same thing w/ the Web interface. What I did was either hit the refresh on my browser or closed the browser and then opened it back up to finish the task. Didn't have to reset my breakers. I am wondering if the freezing is due to it having to register w/ the Jandy servers and then the equipment. Might need to report that to Jandy and see what they say.

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Yeah, I tried doing that, but had no luck. It kept saying "you must save your settings before leaving this page", but I couldn't click on anything to get rid of the message.

Another problem I was having was that it would randomly disconnect and reconnect, but a few times it wouldn't reconnect. Instead it would say "waiting for connection...", but never connect. My WiFi signal wasn't great near the pool pad so I bought more cable and ran the iAqualLink box all the way to the supply closet (about 45 feet from the pool pad) where my old router is located and mounted the box about 6 inches away from the router. The interface now shows my RSSI is 5/5 bars, and I'm having no more connection problems. I could just hard wire it now, but like I said it's working great now, so I'll leave it alone for now.
 
I have a router by my equipment. So I just hard wired it into the router. I could never get the wifi part to work. I had it hooked into my MacBook Pro and it all it would say if searching for iaqualink, so I said screw it and just ran the dedicated cat5 cable. I would rather have it that way cause my router by my pool is actually a router behind a router so it cuts out one less wifi connection. I ran into the disconnect reconnect once but haven't seen it since. It is so easy to program and operate. My wife opened her app and didn't even need to be shown how to use it. I do agree about the PDA being even slower but no big deal especially since I paid for it and can still use it. I just ran my PDA to the second 4 port spot since the iaqualink was using the first port. Thanks for your help.


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