Lightning strike fries pool controller

[Katodude]

So we had a very large storm last night and a pretty close lightning strike.

The display on my Intelliflo is not working anymore. Actually I am not sure if the whole control panel is working or not. The pump is still running and I cannot change any speeds because the strike also fried parts of my controller.

Need to check if the pump is still under warranty. Then going to have to fix my controller to see if it is just the display or the whole controller.

 

[Katodude]

So we had a big storm and a very close lightning strike. The screen on my pump is not working but the pump is still running. There is a separate thread for that.

My controller is partially fried. I got the Pi up running but I think the MegaInd and relay board might be fried. I can remote into the Pi and PM2 says that the REM and Nixie are up. The nixie screen come up, but the REM does not fully load. My IXIAN board also looks fried.

When I try to access the relay board or the MegaInd from the command line they do not respond.

What is weird is the relay board is still driving power to the valve actuators. All the Intellivalves are still lit. The 3 LED on the relay board that drive those are also lit.

Of course I have to leave town tomorrow for a week, but I managed to Hotwire the SWG and the pump is running so I think I can survive the week.

@MyAZPool and @rstrouse any ideas?

The safe play when I get back might be to order a new SD card and re install everything. Also order a new MegaInd and relay card in case we cannot get those back and running. Are there files that I can pull off the Pi to save the setting to reload those?

 

[1poolman1]

So we had a very large storm last night and a pretty close lightning strike.

The display on my Intelliflo is not working anymore. Actually I am not sure if the whole control panel is working or not. The pump is still running and I cannot change any speeds because the strike also fried parts of my controller.

Need to check if the pump is still under warranty. Then going to have to fix my controller to see if it is just the display or the whole controller.

Turing the power to the pump off for about 5-15 minutes may allow the pump control to reset. Otherwise, Pentair won't warranty damage from a lightening strike.

 

[Newdude]

It is it's own gamble and bag of worms to risk a policy increase, but your homeowners might cover it if goes beyond your deductible.

 

[rstrouse]

@Katodude I would copy the data directories for njsPC and REM.
~/nodejs-poolController/data
~/relayEquipmentManager/data

If you have njsPC set up to regularly back up your files you will be able to find these files in
~/nodejs-poolController/backups

I would first try to image a new SD card and see if you can get the MEGA-IND and relay board back up. The I2c device files may be corrupted on the pi. The IXIAN is a bigger concern, it may have impacted the 4-20ma circuit on the IND. I would disconnect that just in case it is sending too much current out.

 

[MyAZPool]

So we had a big storm and a very close lightning strike. The screen on my pump is not working but the pump is still running. There is a separate thread for that.

My controller is partially fried. I got the Pi up running but I think the MegaInd and relay board might be fried. I can remote into the Pi and PM2 says that the REM and Nixie are up. The nixie screen come up, but the REM does not fully load. My IXIAN board also looks fried.

When I try to access the relay board or the MegaInd from the command line they do not respond.

What is weird is the relay board is still driving power to the valve actuators. All the Intellivalves are still lit. The 3 LED on the relay board that drive those are also lit.

Of course I have to leave town tomorrow for a week, but I managed to Hotwire the SWG and the pump is running so I think I can survive the week.

@MyAZPool and @rstrouse any ideas?

The safe play when I get back might be to order a new SD card and re install everything. Also order a new MegaInd and relay card in case we cannot get those back and running. Are there files that I can pull off the Pi to save the setting to reload those?

A.,
I'm really sorry to hear about this. I can only imagine...
I'm not really sure what to do about the pump. Looks like a few possible solutions are coming in that might be worth trying.

As far as your DIY controller/megaind card/nixie/REM are concerned. I was going to defer to @rstrouse anyway, but as I'm typing this, looks like he is all over it and you are getting some excellent advice.

I'm sure many of us DIY automation folks will be following, so when you get to a point where you can, please let us know how it went regarding solutions etc.
r.

 

[ajw22]

Welcome to the lightning strike club.

As I posted on another thread back in June I had a storm take out my IntelliCenter main board but not any daughter boards or the pump controls. And in different parts of the house I lost a Wifi garage door opener and the sound amp wired to outdoor speakers around the pool.

So there is no predicting what a lightning strike will take out and what will survive.

 

[Katodude]

Ok, I have disconnected power to the IXIAN. No change but will leave it disconnected.

I am going away for a week, so I am not going to cycle power to the pump. The pump is running and not going to risk it not coming back on. I have jumped the relay to the SWG so it is on. Right now I have a running pump and a SWG generating chlorine. I am in old fashioned manual mode until I get back.

I have copied the files from the the two data directories (two files from NodeJS and one from the REM). Go figure the backup directory was empty. Rookie mistake not enabling backups, go figure.

I am going to order a new SD card and will build an image when I get back. Depending how I feel I might just order a new relay card and MegaInd. It would not be the end of the world to have backups of those and in the grand scheme of things they are pretty cheap. Now that they have detachable connectors they are fairly easy to replace.

I will figure what to do about the IXIAN later. If that is blown I might just go and buy those other hats to monitor pH.

 

[Katodude]

Bless the junk drawer. Found me a spare Pi and an SD card.

Imaging it now with Raspian.

Next time my wife tell me to clean out my junk, I will tell her the junk saved her Spa time!!!!

 

[rstrouse]

Ok, I have disconnected power to the IXIAN. No change but will leave it disconnected.

I am going away for a week, so I am not going to cycle power to the pump. The pump is running and not going to risk it not coming back on. I have jumped the relay to the SWG so it is on. Right now I have a running pump and a SWG generating chlorine. I am in old fashioned manual mode until I get back.

I have copied the files from the the two data directories (two files from NodeJS and one from the REM). Go figure the backup directory was empty. Rookie mistake not enabling backups, go figure.

I am going to order a new SD card and will build an image when I get back. Depending how I feel I might just order a new relay card and MegaInd. It would not be the end of the world to have backups of those and in the grand scheme of things they are pretty cheap. Now that they have detachable connectors they are fairly easy to replace.

I will figure what to do about the IXIAN later. If that is blown I might just go and buy those other hats to monitor pH.

If you decide to get rid of the IXIAN then you should get the BAS. It is a much more versatile card. Unfortunately, it does not have 4-20ma capability but you may no longer need it without the IXIAN. You won't miss anything without the IXIAN.

 

[Katodude]

@rstrouse its been a while, does it matter if I install 64 or 32 bit version of Raspian?

 

[hexabc]

If you can remotely login to pi and the services are running in memory, I doubt there is any problem with the pi or the SD card.

 

[Katodude]

The wiki says 32 bit, so I went with 32 bit.

Once everything is installed I guess I move the old data files that I saved into the data directories

 

[rstrouse]

Yes you do not want 64 bit. There is no advantage and a whole lot of warts.

 

[KevMo]

Pentair won't warranty damage from a lightening strike.

Well, if you are really, really lucky they might. My system was only about 4 months old and I got a new Intellicenter PS main board, Pentair Mastertemp 400 control board, and two Intellivlaves replaced after a storm. It took three different service visits so maybe it didn't look like they were related.

I have a strong suspicion the Intellicenter board was taken out by lightning because it was dead the morning after a nearby strike during the night. The tech never mentioned anything about lightning when repairing the Intellicenter. He had never seen the RS485 connection to the heater I had done. He hought it was wrong and rewired it to use the fireman's switch like a generic heater. He told me about it before he left and I showed him in the manual how it could be done. He was excited about it and put it back like i had it. Except now it did not work. I don't know if the heater was working before he rewired it because I had not tried to use it. He replaced the heater control board. He might have thought it could have been messed up by his changes. While he was replacing the heater board he noticed one of the Intellivalve's electronics had failed. He said they have had a rash of early failures. He did not have one with him, so he said he would order a new one. Before he came back with it with a second one that was working had the same failure. He brought 2 with and replaced both.

I was prepared to be out thousands of dollars, but I am very grateful it did not cost me anything.

 

[Katodude]

So the pump was purchased in May 2020, so 3.5 years old. Out of warranty from Pentair. However, I remember when I bought it from Leslies they had a special with a 4 year warranty. However, I cannot find any documentation to back that up. Who knows if they honor it.

Did not have time to finish the build of the new software. So will do that when I get back.

We got a bunch of rain in the last few days and are expecting more so I added a bag of salt to the pool. Wife is home so she can do some basic checking of the pool.

I figure since I cannot send commands directly to the relay board I will probably just go ahead and order another.

I may replace the MegaInd with this board. I think that is what @rstrouse is recommending. I can probably eliminate another power supply from the box since it will run on 24VAC.

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Going to need something to replace the IXIAN but that should be fairly easy.

 

[rstrouse]

Yep the Building Automation V4 card was what I was referring to. The WhiteBox labs carrier board and EZO circuits round out all of the replacement for IXIAN.

 

[Katodude]

Ok, I ordered a new relay card and the MegaBAS. They should arrive around the same time I get home. I guess this is a good excuse for a system upgrade and moving the software to V8.

 

[Katodude]

Ok, got back home last night.

Ran a full set of tests this morning. Everything looks ok except CYA is a little low and CH is low. To be expected with all the rain we have had. I have a bit of CH in the garage but will order a bag from HomeDepot. I think I have a bag of calhypo that I should put in as well.

The new Relay card arrived while I was gone so going to install that and see if I can get the REM going on the bench with the spare Pi. The BAS should be here sometime this week.

Also going to try cycle power to the pump to see if that fixes the screen. Will use that time to also clean the teeny tiny filter I have.

 

[Katodude]

Well, for anyone that still following along. I imaged a new SD card and installed it in the old assembly. No love, the pi does not see the Ind or the relay board. So we have a hardware failure.

Anyway the new relay board is here and I have it working on the bench with the relays configured in the REM. The BAS is being delivered today. I will dig out an old 24VAC transformer to get that all working. And while I am doing upgrades I might was well upgrade the Pi. It is still running on a 3B so I just ordered a 4gig Pi 4. I know the 5 is coming out soon, but I figured this is enough power for now, and I would like to get his all up and running by weekend. The new Pi should arrive tomorrow.

Now I just need to order a Whitebox Labs hat and the Atlas pH monitor and the whole system will be back and running.

The pump is another story. I cycled power to it. The screen did not come back on. However, I checked it in the evening and the backlight is still working. Going to Leslies to day to see if they will honor the warranty. The actual pump did work, it primed and then went back to running at its 1200 rpm speed. Once the BAS comes in I will see if it will accept RS-485 commands.