Intellicenter, valve actuator, filter, - trying to figure out what models to buy

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Goshdurnit said:
Thanks Chris & Jim- this makes a lot of sense! My electrician is going to get me pricing to run #8 GA wire for 40 amp service going to the current panel (will need a new breaker swap), via the existing 3/4” conduit, (without having to trench or chip out the cement) if he can pull the line through.

To clarify- what exists in the 125 ft conduit run today is 12GA, so not currently 30A.

Seems like the best of both worlds! Fingers crossed the estimate $ comes up reasonable!
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Gosh,

I think this is a great choice. If the original conduit was installed to code your existing conduit should have 20% extra room or more so you should be able to pull a new 8 ga wire and not replace the conduit. Also, just to be clear. I think Jim is right that 30a will work if you have problems with pulling 40a; I would go that way if the budget is tight and this is certainly a better choice than adding a whole new power supply for the house.

Chris
 
Success - the electrician was able to pull 8 ga wire through the conduit :) The panel is powered to a handful of circuit breakers - but needs all the low voltage stuff, SCG, actuators, etc to get plugged in, which my pool guy is going to do on Friday.

He didn’t wire up the control transformer or the SCG transformer, saying it’d be better if the pool guy touched all that stuff. Do I need to know anything special about how to wire up the control transformer for the i10PS?
 

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Gosh,

The SWCG transformer MUST be wired to the load side of the Pump/Filter relay. The Line side can get it power from the main pump breaker, but I like having a breaker just for the SWCG. This allows you to turn off the power to the cell in the winter.

Both the System Transformer and the SWCG transformer can be wired to operate from either 120 volts or 240 volts. There is a diagram of which wires go where on the back of the enclosure door.

Make sure they don't wire the system transformer to the main pump GFEC breaker, or the lights GFCI circuit as often happens. This is because if pump or lights pop the GFCI, the entire panel will shut down.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
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thanks @Jimrahbe - super useful info.
Btw- my electrician said "your filter pump (VSF 011056) doesn't have a neutral wire so the GFI won't trip anyway, but you bought this fancy GFCI so we'll install it for you" - I dunno what he's on about. I wonder if he just wired it wrong... I think it means my pump isn't currently connected to the protected part of the GFCI though.

So- does this mean I should pick up breakers for the SCG transformer and the system transformer, or is it ok if they wire the control panel transformer straight to the main panel power?

I understand the specifics about the SCG transformer's load side -> pump relay and the line side -> pump breaker- will pass that info on to my pool guy.

I could go pick up like a pair of 20/20 1-pole breakers for the SCG and system control transformer if they're 120v, if that seems useful.
 
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Ok! It mostly works - just a few issues remain!
Firstly the heater - I have a mastertemp 400 but the model that doesn’t have an rs485 port. My pool guy wired the two wire comms cable from the heater into the intellicenter, removing the fireman’s switch jumper.

When I try to first turn on the heater from the heater itself, nothing happens. When I try to turn on the heater from the intellicenter app, it turns on for a second, gives an “r14” error and shuts off. I can _then_ press the pool on button on the heater, and it will go on.

Questions :
1) think the heater is mis-wired somewhere perhaps?
2) should I use the “mastertemp” profile in intellicenter2 app, or just “gas heater” ?
3) thinking of eventually running landscape lighting to the back area of my pool. If I want to control color + brightness from an app, anyone have recommendations for specific lights? I could prob run landscape lighting off the same outlet the dolphin is on, since the shed is already powered and it’s a short cable run to the landscape planters…
I have these in my front yard for holiday lights but prob overkill for landscape lighting, and not low voltage powered 😂
 
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Update! (About getting the heater to work with the intellicenter) :
Pentair sent out a tech- and switched some random jumper (?!) under the circuit board on the front of the MasterTemp. His wording, “idk what it does but I’ve had to switch it before.”
After he did that, suddenly the intellicenter can control the heater properly. Anyone know what that’s about? 😂
 
Thanks for the follow up! I suspect this is a manual switch that enables remote control. On Jandy heaters you select this using the buttons on the heater panel to configure for remote operation. I bet @Jimrahbe or @ajw22 will know. They are very familiar with Pentair products.

Chris
 
Looks like I was correct. There's actually a You Tube video here that explains how to do the remote start wiring. If the jumper is not removed I'm certain the heater will not go into remote control mode.

Chris
 

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Soooo… the mastertemp 400 heater randomly stopped being able to be controlled from the intellicenter. It worked for like two days and stopped- now when I set the heater to “on” from the intellicenter, it will flicker on with an r14 startup message and then shut off. Anyone have any other ideas?

I took a photo of the underside of the control board on the mastertemp if anyone finds that useful… I’ve also got the Pentair tech coming Friday again to look at it. I think I see the jumper he originally switched, in the middle there.
 

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I think the r14 is just indicating it's restarting. That's the firmware version. The jumper you show is the 3-wire/2-wire selector not the jumper I was referring to. Seems to me if it worked for 2 days then stopped you may have a connection problem somewhere. @Jimrahbe may be able to help more than I can.

Chris
 
@setsailsoon is it possible to do a 3-wire install to the intellicenter, with the old mastertemp version? I saw someone post something about connecting directly to the front panel’s spa/common/pool connector (the one on the lower bottom left of the front circuit board) but not sure exactly of how that wiring works and if it could help.
 
Gosh,

Commons sense applies... The automation just closes a small relay. Just like flipping a simple light switch. If the heater works by itself, then it should work with the automation when the relay closes.

Step one would be to connect the ends of the two wires right where they connect to the intelliCenter board. If the heater works you know the wires are good and the problem is with the automation.

The relay closes any time the automation calls for heat. You should be able to adjust the set point temp you want in the IntelliCenter and relay should close when water temp is less than the set point.

This sounds like some kind of set up issue with the IntelliCenter.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Gosh,

Please send a photo of where you are connecting the 2 wires to the heater control board. I ran mine this way for years on both an iAqualink RS system and then with an Intellicenter system. Have you configured the heater panel? It won't work unless you set up the heater for remote control. This "tells" the heater to ignore it's own thermostat control and just turn on and off based on the state of the 2-wire from your Intellicenter. *** Edit*** Ignore the crossed out words. It appears the Master Temp heater does not require this. I would guess the heater is configured for 2-wire when you remove the factory installed yellow jumper.

Chris
 
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Looks like you have to use the fireman's switch for two-wire. See instructions below from their installation manual and don't forget to remove the factory jumper shown in the second photo below :

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You should also be able to use the RS 485 since your heater uses the Pentair 485 protocol. I had to use the 2-wire since I had a Jandy heater. Either way should work.
 

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