Hayward Goldline Actuators - Setup

[sredish]

Controlling with a Hayward Pro Logic. Trying to install some actuators... Having a hard time figuring it out. Is there a special way the main body is supposed to mount? Also, it appears that it always wants to go a full 180 degrees all the time and sometimes I just want it to go 90, not sure how to tell it to do that.

One example for instance, (with * = actuator)

............Filter In
.................|
..............SWG
.................|
.................|
.................|
.................|
Spa----->*<-----Pool

With the above scenario, sometimes I want all pool, sometimes I want all Spa (a 180* turn) but then sometimes I want spillover, a simple 90* turn, how can I get it to stop at the 90*.

Next:

Filter Out -----*----- Waterfall
...................|
...................|
...................|
.................Jets

I have an actuator at the asterisk. It's wanting to either 180 shutting off the filter or waterfall (shutting down filter bad), or if I move it over, it's shutting off jets or opening everything. I usually want the waterfall on with the jets, or off. This would be a 90* turn, not 180*.

I know it has cams, so do I use these to adjust? The instructions that came with them are HORRIBLE.

 

[JasonLion]

There are only two positions, but you can set it up so that the two positions are at any two angles of your choosing. That actuator drives all the way one way till it hits a stop, or all the way the other way till it hits a stop. You place the stops so that they stop the motion where you want the valve to end up.

You can't do three positions, all spa, all pool, or a combination of both with just one automated valve. Typically you set it up as all spa or nearly all pool.

 

[sredish]

There are only two positions, but you can set it up so that the two positions are at any two angles of your choosing. That actuator drives all the way one way till it hits a stop, or all the way the other way till it hits a stop. You place the stops so that they stop the motion where you want the valve to end up.

You can't do three positions, all spa, all pool, or spillover with just one automated valve. Typically you set it up as all spa or spillover.

and does this actuator have an adjustable 'stop' internally that I can adjust? in my figuring above, the all pool / all spa are 180, so that leaves no possibility for spillover, unless i 180 it at 'filter off' or spillover, and obviously that won't work.

 

[Guest]

Your controller should be able to do spillover which would be all water in to spa and all water returning through pool. That is how spillover is set up in the Goldline units. The actuators have a cam inside to adjust how far they move and they can go from 0 to 360 degrees. If you go to the Goldline website
http://www.goldlinecontrols.com/Support ... 92051B.pdf
you can download the instruction manual for the actuators if you do not have one.

If you check the operation manual for your Prologic controller it will tell you how to program spillover mode so it can be selected as an option in addition to spa only and pool only. Once again if you do not have the manuals you need you can download them from the Goldline website.
http://www.goldlinecontrols.com/Support/Manuals.aspx

 

[sredish]

cool, thanks guys. i do have both manuals, actually the Pro Logic one has 2, then there's the actuator one; but they're not very clear. I'll try and play with it. Got the timers and control work done with the Pro Logic, now just need to get them to do what I want.... lol

 

[Guest]

actually the Pro Logic one has 2,

Yes, the installation manual and the operation manual. I believe the programming is in the operation manual. You want to enable spillover mode in the programming then it becomes a selectable option. All water will return to the spa, which will overflow (spillover) into the pool and water will then drain out of the pool so you want to valve from the pump/filter output to go into only the spa and the skimmer/drain valve to only come from the pool. The actuators have a three way switch on the bottom. Center is off and the two side positions reverse the position of the valve. Set the system on pool only and flip the switches to put the valves in the corret position. Switch to spa only mode and the acutators should then turn both valves to spa. When you switch to spillover the return valve should turn to pool and the output should stay on spa if you have the switches in the right position. It's much easier to see when you do it then to explain it!

 

[sredish]

You want to enable spillover mode in the programming then it becomes a selectable option. All water will return to the spa, which will overflow (spillover) into the pool and water will then drain out of the pool so you want to valve from the pump/filter output to go into only the spa and the skimmer/drain valve to only come from the pool.

okay, all water will return. when i ran my spillover, i always operated the spa and pool together, which is required to operate the waterfall as well, and would sometimes do as well. it appears that I'll have to decide, spillover and no waterfall or waterfall and no spillover, unless I decide to go back there and do it manually. quite honestly, i never run the waterfall except for a special party really. so that wouldn't be too hard to deal with.

The actuators have a three way switch on the bottom. Center is off and the two side positions reverse the position of the valve. Set the system on pool only and flip the switches to put the valves in the correct position. Switch to spa only mode and the acutators should then turn both valves to spa. When you switch to spillover the return valve should turn to pool and the output should stay on spa if you have the switches in the right position. It's much easier to see when you do it then to explain it!

makes sense, again, wasn't thinking of the spillover as "to spa, returning thru pool"... I'll probably have to move the valve motor bodies around to set it up properly, correct? the instructions said something about a 'cam' but never really explained what it does, or it probably did and I didn't get it. I'll look at it more today.

I will say though, it's pretty cool being in the house, looking at the wireless remote and getting pool / air temps, salt ppm, and all the pertinent. man am i ready for some warm(er) weather.... ready for pool season.

 

[Guest]

For a while I set the cam in my actuator that returned the water to the pool and spa so it was retuning to both pool and spa when in pool mode. It gave me a small spillover.
When in spillover mode I got a much more powerful spillover. However, I was not getting as good a circulation in the pool because I did not have as much pressure coming out of the pool returns. Also, the spillover always ran so if I had the spa at temperature and wanted to run the pool the spa would cool back down. I finally decided that having pool only, spa only, or spillover was a better idea. I normally run in pool mode but I manually turn on spillover after the spa is used to 'change the water' or when I am adjusting chemicals (then I usually run the spillover overnight).

It might work for you if you want to try something like that. I didn't like it after living with it for a while. It does take a bit of trial and error to find just the right setting so be prepared to spend a bit of time moving the cam a notch and assembling everything to check yor results!

 

[Guest]

makes sense, again, wasn't thinking of the spillover as "to spa, returning thru pool"... I'll probably have to move the valve motor bodies around to set it up properly, correct? the instructions said something about a 'cam' but never really explained what it does, or it probably did and I didn't get it. I'll look at it more today.
If you take the top off an acutuator and look inside at the cams it becomes pretty easy to see what they do. Just watch out for the top o ring. It likes to jump off and get lost!

I will say though, it's pretty cool being in the house, looking at the wireless remote and getting pool / air temps, salt ppm, and all the pertinent. man am i ready for some warm(er) weather.... ready for pool season.

I like being able to control my lighting (both pool and spa AND the fiber optics effect lighting in the water features) as well as controlling my cleaner and different water features from inside the house! Best part is when I want to heat up the spa and get it ready before going outside on a chilly night!

 

[sredish]

I like being able to control my lighting (both pool and spa AND the fiber optics effect lighting in the water features) as well as controlling my cleaner and different water features from inside the house! Best part is when I want to heat up the spa and get it ready before going outside on a chilly night!

excellent info on this. i haven't found a lot of people who are really familiar with the Goldline automation stuff, doesn't help that I'm in the sticks. As far as looking at the pool while inside, my pool/outdoor area is not connected to the house, so I don't really have the pleasure of being inside, turning on the lights and stuff and seeing it. :| But, heating up the spa and turning the cleaner off and on will be nice to have once completed with setup.

On a side note, which remote are you using? The big blue one?

 

[waste]

Depending on your set up, if you wanted to be able to add the waterfall feature as well as the spillover/ spa option, it can be done by installing another actuator (a bit expensive, but it works)

*TIP - when you go to adjust the stop points, once the lid is off the unit, put the handle back on the shaft and use the toggle switch on the bottom to insure that the valve is stopping in the desired position!

Also, if you're not using the shutdown for valve changing mode, make sure that the valve doesn't turn to kill all flow to the pump or returns while it changes position!!

 

[sredish]

well, i just took a few min. and went home to 'play' with it. i had to move one actuator but the others were good to go, just had to 'sync'.

Right now I have it as waterbear suggests:

Pool - only pool jets and skimmers, no spill.

Spa - Spa, obviously, duh. Heater kicks on, everything's good except the blower in Aux2 is not kicking on. Tried setting it into Group with Spa, didn't work, tried using it with the Spa countdown, wouldn't come on. So for now, I have to manually do it.

Spillover - Spa jets spilling into pool with pool returns (skimmers) on.

Problems
1) getting blower to turn on with spa group
2) lights - after rewiring into the Pro Logic, somehow my spa and pool lights are not 'synced'; one will be red and one will be blue, or one will be scrolling colors and one will be green.
3) waterfall - as said earlier, it's going to be a manual for now feature unless I decide to buy a 2 port valve and actuator and fix that at some point, which I may do.
4) maybe just a fluke, but when I turned it to pool from the remote, it kept wanting to kick back to spillover. then, i'd turn on the 'cleaner' with the remote, it'd stay on for 30 seconds or so, then turn back off. I do have the cleaner to a timer, so was it turning it off because it wasn't 'time'?

otherwise, some good progress. i have the PH dispense, but don't have the PH and ORP sense controller. I'll probably buy that soon to play with, see how goes.

 

[waste]

Real quick on the #2 - Lights -- to resynch them Turn them on and let them do as they will for 2 min., then turn them off for 11 -14 seconds then back on (the 11 -14 second off/ on resets them so they will both then start off in the color display mode)

I'll leave the other issues sit for now, but if no one else comes up with better ideas than what I'm guessing, I'll attempt to answer the other issues.

 

[JimM01]

Waterbear,

Do you have to manually run the spillover mode periodically in order to ensure circulation of the spa water? (I assume you can set up the controller [Aqua Plus] to do this automatically) Or do you use your spa often enough that you don't have to do that?

For a while I set the cam in my actuator that returned the water to the pool and spa so it was retuning to both pool and spa when in pool mode. It gave me a small spillover.
When in spillover mode I got a much more powerful spillover. However, I was not getting as good a circulation in the pool because I did not have as much pressure coming out of the pool returns. Also, the spillover always ran so if I had the spa at temperature and wanted to run the pool the spa would cool back down. I finally decided that having pool only, spa only, or spillover was a better idea. I normally run in pool mode but I manually turn on spillover after the spa is used to 'change the water' or when I am adjusting chemicals (then I usually run the spillover overnight).

It might work for you if you want to try something like that. I didn't like it after living with it for a while. It does take a bit of trial and error to find just the right setting so be prepared to spend a bit of time moving the cam a notch and assembling everything to check yor results!

 

[Guest]

Waterbear,

Do you have to manually run the spillover mode periodically in order to ensure circulation of the spa water?

No, my pool is programmed to run for 8 hours a day and the spa for an hour. If I am using the spa it runs while I am in it also. It's all automatic.

 

[mikester]

Waterbear,

Do you have to manually run the spillover mode periodically in order to ensure circulation of the spa water?

No, my pool is programmed to run for 8 hours a day and the spa for an hour. If I am using the spa it runs while I am in it also. It's all automatic.

I had the same issue with circulation in the spa using pool vs. spillover mode. Probably my main gripe about the Pro Logic is how the spillover is handled. I wish I could tell it on the timer menu what mode to run in (spa, spillover, pool), but it just has timers for pool and spa, and the pool mode is always spillover or not, depending on the global setting in the config menu.

I ended up just programming the spa to run an hour a day, just like you are saying. The downside is that I used to have the temperature set on othe spa automatically, so just setting it to spa mode would kick on the heater and start heating it up. I can't do that anymore, since I don't want to heat the spa up every day when it's not being used.

I guess I could program a separate spa group that switches to spa mode, turns on the heater, and kicks on the blower. That's probably the "proper" way to do it anyway, I was just trying to keep things simple for the family to use (i.e. not 2 different ways to switch it to spa).

 

[sredish]

well, i can't figure out how to run a seperate group timer for the spillover.... i run the pool for about 8 hours a day but the spa gets no work, so I've been manually doing the spillover, but should I forget, it doesn't get turned over. I was playing with the menu and couldn't get an add'l setup for just the spillover. the spa is hooked to the heater and all, don't need that to run on a timer.