Hey
@Dirk, after looking at the iph from
@oakwater, i'm thinking what you've already done and what
@Flying Tivo has just reposted above is the way to go... I think this was all originally based on advice from
@bdavis466? and even though there's some cutting involved <gasp!>, it just seems to work. I read some other threads over the weekend where a few other members (maybe
@MyAZPool i think?) have done the same thing.
I was going around and around looking at different connectors, terminal strips etc. to kindof make a "drop-in part" to do what Tivo's done... but any of that could fail too, so maybe the simplest solution is the best? But to
@slickrock22 's point, maybe there's a market for replacement surge boards that don't cost an arm and a leg?
I can't argue that ditching the IpH controller altogether simplifies things, and results in less things that can go wrong, but I wasn't ready to give up on my IpH just yet (especially since I was able to repair it).
I have slightly different things going on, but I based part of them on
@bdavis466's principal (or whomever thought it up first).
I have the switch that can choose between the "factory" Iph/IC setup and the relay setup (bypassing the IpH Controller). So with the flip of that switch I have Felipe's setup. But for as long as my IpH board holds out, I can go back to the IpH controller when the water is warm enough for the IpH/IC combo.
I also added some niceties that Felipe and bdavis skipped: a regulator that supplies the IpH motor with the correct voltage, a digital volt meter that allows me to monitor that voltage, and a flow switch that helps safeguard against dispensing without flow.
Since I only use the "relay" setup when the IC is down for winter, I don't have to worry about injecting acid through an IC that is producing chlorine. When my IC is online, so is my IpH Controller, which then handles all that. And as I've mentioned many times, I like that the IpH Controller dispenses acid hourly, instead of once a day or a few times a week.
The other thing I had going for me was that my surge board came out of a Power Center. It's not the one that is included with an EasyTouch. This [hopefully] gives me two advantages: (1) there is no funky connector on that card, the fat wires are already soldered to the board, and (2) the board has an on-board fuse, but it's only 10A, not the 12A breaker that is included with the ET setup. So maybe those will help keep my surge card alive. And then, of course, I already eliminated the connector from the IpH board, so there's that.
There are other recent threads here that got me thinking. We know the ICs are pulling too much current, but I was focusing on the connector pins and how they exacerbate the over-current problem. We've discussed eliminating those connectors, or lubing them somehow to minimize the corrosion that might be advancing the meltdown. But that doesn't really explain why all the other parts are melting (the relay, the resistor, and chips). One guy explained he thought he had a power surge (lightning, I think), and so I wrote that board off to that. But now we've got slickrock who seems to have lost components (not just connectors) on
two boards, merely from the IC being used normally. And there's another thread here where some guy's IC40 was popping the breaker, and melting his board. He replaced his IC40 and all is well.
So I think there are several contributors, but they're not contributing consistently (if that makes sense) which is why this happens to some of us, but not all of us, and when it does happen, it's happening in various ways. So we know something is happening to those connector pins. That fries the connector, and the connection, and that is repairable. But we also see melted circuit board components, and I'm not sure how the pin problem could grow into that. Obviously the IC60 draws too much current. But not on everyone's setup. Same thing for the IC40. So are these ICs coming off the assembly line already predisposed to draw too much, while others come off and they don't? Or is something happening, over time, that makes these ICs draw more and more current, until the draw exceeds the parts on these boards? Which might explain that for some of us, the over-current symptoms don't appear for years.
And while I may have solved for my existing current-sucking IC, what if the next one I own comes off the line even hotter than this one?
So, Tom, are you resigning yourself to just setting up your acid tank and pump using a relay (and foregoing the purchase of the IpH controller)? And abandoning the possibility of somehow shoring up the IpH controller circuitry to better resist the overcurrent? That might be the prudent solution for you. Just let me know if you're going that route, and maybe I'll take on the boards and see what I can do for us IpH controller owners, ha, which might be just me at this point!!
www.troublefreepool.com
