Compool to Easytouch Upgrade w/ heat pump control over RS-485

[zbrozek]

I pulled a gas heater and replaced it with a Heatwave SQ150VS this week. The heat pump works just fine when everything is manually controlled, but I'm struggling to get it integrated with an Easytouch Upgrade (PCB dated May 30, 2012) via RS-485. The data lines are connected and the heat pump is set up to use them. The screen shows "under remote control" so I assume comms aren't trivially broken.

On the Easytouch, I installed a dummy 10k resistor on the "solar" sensor input (as per the heat pump instructions). The automation controller thinks that the solar temperature is 77 F. There is no solar heating system or valve. Both pool and spa are set to "heat pump preferred" heat source.

When the temperature is set high enough to want to kick on the heater, instead of the pump speeding up and the heater kicking on, the Easytouch clicks on the "solar" heat source and nothing else happens. Under the diagnostics menu, the heat pump says that it's in normal operation.

Have I done something wrong or is this a firmware bug? The Easytouch is running firmware 2.100, and after reading through this thread I'm not terribly excited to reflash it, though I'm not entirely opposed to it either. Except for the USBDM device, I already have all of the necessary hardware from other projects.

Any advice on steps that I may have missed to get this integration working?

 

[ajw22]

Welcome to TFP.

Did you set the heater to an UltraTemp in the EasyTouch?

Did you set a pump speed for the UltraTemp in the EasyToush.

Did you correctly wire the RS-485 connection?

Here is how an Aquacal was connected to the IntelliCenter - AquaCal Heat Pumps - Further Reading

 

[zbrozek]

Welcome to TFP.

Thank you! I've been reading posts here for a while, but haven't felt the need to post until today.

Did you set the heater to an UltraTemp in the EasyTouch?

There's no such option; there's just "Heat Pump Com", which I assume is intended to speak the UltraTemp protocol. Maybe a newer firmware changes the language?

Did you set a pump speed for the UltraTemp in the EasyToush.

I didn't; I had a setting for "HEATER" from when I had the gas heater, which didn't work. Turned out that I needed to add a pump speed connected to "SOLAR HEAT". Now it all works fine.

Did you correctly wire the RS-485 connection?

I didn't really have a way to verify, except maybe to swap the wires and see if it caused an error. That the Easytouch reported "Status [OP NORMAL ]" and the heat pump reported "Under remote control" suggested that I probably got it right. Now that it's all working, I think I can claim that I did correctly wire it.

Here is how an Aquacal was connected to the IntelliCenter - AquaCal Heat Pumps - Further Reading

Yeah, I had read that last night but didn't find a whole lot that I didn't already know. I think the key thing that I didn't understand was that the Easytouch would label and treat the heat pump like a solar heat source, which seems like a significant shortcoming and major point of confusion.

And as a PSA to other new Heatwave users: the documentation is way, way behind the firmware. There is no "Installer" menu any more. The settings you're looking for have relocated to system --> advanced.

Thanks so much! Your post made me think twice about the "SOLAR" indicator.