Help troubleshooting Intellitouch Low Voltage Breaker Tripping

[ehuesman]

Hi all,

I have a ten-year old Intellitouch i7+3, with the MobileTouch handheld indoor controller. This evening, I noticed the green LED next to "Pool" on the indoor controller was illuminated. My pump is set to run early in the morning, so nothing should have been running. After seeing the LED on the controller, I looked outside and noticed the pump was not actually running. I pressed the button next to the illuminated LED, but it would not turn off. I tried pressing other buttons, but nothing else would turn on (sheer arcs, fill line, etc). I unplugged the controller and plugged it back in. While it was initializing, I went outside to the load panel and discovered all of the lights were off ("Auto") and one of the three small Low Voltage Circuit Breakers was tripped. It was the first one, labeled "Electronics". I reset the breaker and stood by while the load center went through its initialization, but the same breaker kept tripping. I tried several times with the same results.

From looking at the wiring diagram in the manual, I see this low voltage circuit breaker is supposed to be 12V, but I have no idea where to start trying to troubleshoot this problem. What would cause something like this, seemingly out of the blue?

Thanks in advance for ANY help or suggestions.

- Eric

 

[JasonLion]

The first thing I suspect is one of the valve actuators, or it's wiring. You could try disconnecting the valve actuator wires at the control panel (keep track of which is which) and see if it will power up then.

 

[ehuesman]

I'll give that a shot and report back, thanks.

 

[ehuesman]

Didn't make a difference, but what I did notice was that the low voltage breaker took longer to trip after everything had been off for a moment. Meaning, if I reset it right after it trips, it barely finishes initializing before tripping again. But when it was off for a few moments, it took longer to trip. I was actually able to switch it from "Auto" to "Service" and turn on the pump for a moment before the breaker tripped.

Not sure what it means, and my knowledge of electronics is so limited I probably shouldn't even hazard a guess, but I'm wondering if the low voltage transformer is going bad? Maybe the breaker doesn't trip until it heats up?

 

[ehuesman]

I just looked up the specs, the valve actuators (Compool CVA-24) are 24V. I know what assuming does, but I'm assuming that means the actuators would be on the 24V breaker, right? If that line of thinking is correct, what equipment would be on 12V?

I just bought the home a year ago, and they did have low-voltage landscape lighting installed, which was controlled by the Intellitouch. The lighting was, mostly broken and ugly, so I just ripped it out. BUT I did leave the wiring in the ground (thinking I might want it later), and I didn't unwire or unhook anything at the load center related to the lighting. Is that something that could cause the breaker to trip? I'm thinking along the lines of if the ground was wet and/or the wire insulation has degraded over the past year.

Maybe I'm stretching.....

 

[JasonLion]

Landscape lighting would be switched through a relay and would not share the control panels low voltage power supply, so is unlikely to be involved.

The next place to look is the communications connections, for wired control panels, wireless transceiver, etc. If that isn't it, then the problem could be in the control panel it's self.

 

[Pool Clown]

The 12V runs the electronics. Like Jason suggested, try unplugging comms first. As you open the board, on the left side labeled: comm port use either or both. 4 wire buss/plug pulls straight off the board. Unplug one at a time if two are used, and reset breaker. What it sounds like is the black wire and the red wire are shorting. Hopefully the comm wire has been chewed somewhere between the equipment area, and where it is mounted in the house. PITA if its that, but that would be the least expensive scenario. Just repair the wire and you are done. Be advised though, if wire was chewed, it can be chewed again until you catch the chew-er or is that chew-e?

 

[ehuesman]

Thanks for those suggestions guys, I will check into that when I get home from work this evening.

 

[ehuesman]

You guys are great!! When I got home this evening, I powered everything up (I shut off power to the load center last night) and at first it seemed fine. I was able to put it in "Service" mode and start the filter pump. It ran for about two minutes before that same low voltage breaker tripped (the one labeled "Electronics"). So I took the panels off and saw the plugs Pool Clown was referring to. My load center uses both ports, so I unplugged the first 4-wire plug, reset the breaker, and "Voila!" It's currently in "Service" mode and the filter pump has been running for about 30 minutes without problem.

I followed the wire from the suspect 4-wire comm plug and it runs into an underground conduit underneath the load center. I also followed the wire for the comm plug that I left plugged into the board, and it runs to the transceiver antenna mounted nearby. I'm not sure where that suspect comm wire runs to, but my guess is it would be the spa-side remote, which hasn't worked since we bought the house last year. Does that sound right? If that is the case, then I should just be able to leave that comm plug unplugged without losing any of my current functionality, right?

Thanks again you two for getting me this far. Unfortunately, buying a house with a 10-11 year old pool has not been a fun experience for me, and it seems like it has been one thing after another (and I actually paid for a pool inspection before buying!). This forum has been tremendously helpful, and people like you are the reason this was the first place I turned to last night when the problem occurred.

 

[JasonLion]

You are correct on both counts. A spa side remote that has not been working for some time could well be the source of the problem. If you disconnect that comm wire and the breaker doesn't trip you should be good, and only the one device connected to that comm cable will be affected.

 

[ehuesman]

I woke up this morning and everything seemed to be working the way it should be, meaning my automation program was working and the filter pump came on at 5:30 AM. At the risk of jinxing myself, I'm going to consider the issue solved.

Thanks again for the help!

 

[jcourt]

Same problem here. Electronics breaker was tripped and would not reset for more than about two seconds. About a year ago, my spa side remote started causing strange things like the spa lights flickering off and on - so I disabled it through the panel. I followed the instructions above, and once the spa side remote was disconnected - the breaker reset and all is good. Last time i checked that pentair spa side remote was still about $500.