Intellicenter Schedule Question

Jimrahbe said:

SS,

Are you wanting to shut off the SWCG, when you using your 'S2' ?? (No clue what S2 is... )

If not, I would schedule Pool Group from 10 am until 7 pm. Leave Sense Read scheduled from 11:30 to 12:30 pm..

The key is that when the pump sees two or more speeds, it will always run the fastest one..

There is just no reason to overlap by 1 minute.

Not sure if that will fix your issue, but worth trying..

Also make sure your egg-timers are set to the default of 12 hours..

Thanks,

Jim R.

Click to expand...

Jim,

Thanks for your reply. I originally had my schedule setup as you said in your message but i experienced a different problem where my SWCG would turn off after the sense read schedule ended at 1230. Im thinking i should just hardwire the SWCG to a breaker and not put it on a aux switch so its on all the time.

this is the Sense S2 =D

works incredibly well but requires a minimum amount of flow for the readings to be accurate. I have found that if i ramp up my pump speed during the time its taking its reading, the values are more accurate which is why i created the above schedule.

im sorry if i did not mention this before, but i am not using the pentair SWCG, i have a circupool external version. I have a circuit group that turns on the SWCG aux relay whenever the pool is on (this is all thats in my "pool group".

my overall goal is to ramp the pump speed up between 1130 and 1230 to 3450RPM and then ramp back down until 7pm.

i installed my own panel, im a control system engineer and have been designing, installing and programming industrial PLC control panels for 15 years so this was pretty basic to me, the user interface and program is just not intuitive.

i bought this house last summer and just dealt with the single speed pump, mechanical timer, etc last season. I had an inground vinyl pool growing up which was super basic so i never had to learn all this stuff. I got all new equipment this year (VSF3, intellicenter, spa/pool valves, multiport valve for my DE filter, etc)

so my pump is actually hardwired on all the time to a breaker, and im using the RS485 to turn the pump on and off (change speed, etc), We did it this way during startup because there was an issue with the timing when the intellicenter would turn on the pump AUX relay, the couple second delay before comms come up was too long for the signal to be sent and received so the pump never started. This caused me to have to put my SWCG on a separate aux circuit which is why i am having issues now. I have since moved it to the pump breaker so i dont need to include it in the schedule anymore.

im really bummed that the position control on the valves doesent work because i have a couple things i could implement that would solve some issues on my spillway etc. I read in the Australian intellicenter manual that they show you how to hook it up but not sure if that means theres actual firmware for using it. Everything i read says its on the back burner for pentair so we'll have to see.

here are a few before and after picts of my install if your interested (wife and i did the whole thing but still need to finish the lights, my existing hayward lights are non-functional just waiting on pentair ones to come in). Everything was ran in conduit, backwash line ran out to a ditch 30 yards away (previous owner just emptied it in front of the equipment and all those pavers sank). IM a big DIY-er so it was a fun project and im super techy so having remote control and being able to monitor things was a big deal for me (hence the Sense S2).

attached are picts of my valves, they are all labeled so you better get an A on your guesses





as far as my spillover goes, right now my home position on my spa valve is set per the above image. This allows a set % of water to go to the spa vs the pool return. This is the only way i know that makes sense to do this but i do have some questions:

1. is there any reason to return water to the pool other than from the spa spillover? the 2 reasons i can think of are increased PH from water aeration and heat wasted. in general i dont have a PH problem and need to add acid every ~2 weeks when it creeps up a bit.
2. I currently heat the pool from the bottom up to conserve energy. I have my valves such that heated water is returned primarily through the main drains and some of it via the spa spillover and intake comes back via the 2 skimmers.
-- is this the best way to heat to save energy?
-- if i could, i would close the spa spill over valve during heating to prevent heatloss from the water aeration but im not sure i can do that.
3. depending on the speed the pump is running, sometimes the % open for the spa valve is not enough to get the water to flow out into the pool and it will just trickle down the side of the spa. I have worked out the best speed vs % open ratio but i wish i could vary % open with pump speed as needed.
4. what is the best time of day to test parameters? does it depend on the amount of sunlight or how long the pump has been running for the day?