Pentair Easy Touch Wireless Remote

[Bfassler]

We've had this thing for the entire 6 years that we've had our pool. It's always worked without fail (outside of a few comm interrupts occasionally, but they were rare and intermittent).

This year, I can't get it to connect beyond the generic pool info. It says "Auto" at the top and shows the time and pool and air temp correctly and the aux buttons will light up if they are already running, but when I try to touch any of the aux buttons or drill down to any submenus, it says "communication timeout" and returns to the menu. I can't get past this AT ALL.

I've tried the re-address function at the panel and it sends the address and the remote "finds" it, but nothing changes. I've looked at the little clamshell thing outside and the power button is on and the RF and other light (485 link or something like that) are both blinking. I've tried turning the remote off and back on and replacing batteries.

It won't even work right next to the panel.

I called Pentair and the girl said I needed a new remote. That was it, no troubleshooting or anything.

Anything else I should try before I give up?

TIA

 

[kimkats]

Can you control it at the unit? If so I would say the remote is the bad guy.

 

[isriam]

Had the same issue with mine. Installed screen logic this weekend and haven't looked back.

 

[Pool Clown]

Inspect and maybe even replace the 4 wire connection between the unit (EasyTouch) and the “clamshell”. What you are checking in particular for is the yellow and green wires. Those two are your data connections. The red and black are the power. A power only connection would display last known configuration only. A data connection allows changes to be made.

 

[ogdento]

Here are some more trouble shooting steps if your data lines are OK per pool clown's recommendation...

When you turn on a circuit at the outdoor controller, it sends out a packet indicating what was done... the packet gets to the transceiver via the green/yellow data lines and is transmitted... then the receiver decodes the packet and updates it's status (illuminates leds, updates temp/clock etc).

So... if the remote leds are illuminated for functions that are already running (i'm assuming they were started at the outdoor panel) then the receiver had to have gotten a packet. In which case I'm guessing 1/2 of the transceiver <> receiver link is broken... the transceiver can transmit and the remote can receive, but something is interrupting either the transceiver's reception or the remote's transmission.

These tests should give us a confirmation or at least a little more information:

- Once the remote is on, if you start another function at the outdoor panel, does the corresponding led on the remote illuminate after a second or two?

- You said that the time and air temperature are correct on the remote unit... if you change the time on the outdoor panel does it update on the remote unit?

- If you can get to the menu option on the remote, update the time there and see if the outdoor panel updates.

Figuring out which part of the link is messed up (remote or transceiver) should be easy if you can beg/borrow/steal another remote or transceiver to test with. Without that you could get a cheap usb sdr (software defined radio) and sniff around but it's probably not worth your time unless you're genuinely curious.