Had this as part of my 'newbie' thread, but breaking out in hopes of getting more attention/help in this area.
Background: Bought the house with pool late last summer, opening for first time this season. Pool was closed the previous 3 seasons. SWG pool. Mechanics appear to be in shockingly good condition (pump is fine, filter works, pipes not leaking, liner is good, etc).
What's NOT working well is the automation system. Appears to be an Aqua Logic AQL-P-4 from what I can tell. Immediate issue is that the display screen doesn't, um, display anything. It will backlight itself when you press buttons, but no text at all. You can imagine how difficult it is to use under those conditions!
Functionally, it seems to work. I can turn on the pump and lights through the manual buttons. Sometimes the pump on/off creates a bit of a 'stutter' or tripping sort of click and you have it hit it again to turn it on (or off), but in general, it controls things. Since there's no screen and I can't set things, obviously have no control over the SWG, which is going to be the biggest driver for doing something quickly. Still in SLAM, but sooner or later I'm going to need to plug that in and expect chlorine to appear in the pool.
The downside is that I have no AUTOMATIC control of anything. There's a timer running in there that I can't access, so it tries to shut itself off at like 8pm and around 330am. I've managed to get around that by using the Service button to bypass the timer and leave it on. Usually, hard to make sure I'm in that mode without much feedback.
Buttons also all blink when in operation. Service button blinks, check system blinks, pool blinks, and filter blinks. Only two lit in the photo, but trust me, all blinking when in use. Stop the filter/pump, obviously stops blinking that one, etc. The labels for Control and Light are backwards (apparently not a great attention to detail by the electrician), so it's the lights that are off for the time being, obviously power to the control system is applied. The LCD screen, as you can see, is not displaying anything. When you press buttons, the backlight for it comes on, but no text at all. Looks to be wired up for a wireless controller, but was not present/found when I bought the house. Had renters for 3 years previous, no idea if it ever existed or was lost/broken along the way. Guess I could buy one to see if that does the trick, but an expensive troubleshooting technique if the stuff has to be replaced anyway, or it isn't compatible with whatever new system gets put up.
Thoughts on where to go from here? Anything I can really run without buying more/new stuff? Opened it up to look at the board, everything seems to be connected just fine and no bulging caps or bad solder that I could notice quickly. Even worth spending the $200 on a replacement control panel to see if that works, or $350 or so on a new board? Or does it sounds fairly pooched and I should be thinking about new equipment? No idea how old this stuff is, house was built in 2005, best guess for pool would be 2008-2009 timeframe. Means salt cell is probably also due.
Help, please!
Background: Bought the house with pool late last summer, opening for first time this season. Pool was closed the previous 3 seasons. SWG pool. Mechanics appear to be in shockingly good condition (pump is fine, filter works, pipes not leaking, liner is good, etc).
What's NOT working well is the automation system. Appears to be an Aqua Logic AQL-P-4 from what I can tell. Immediate issue is that the display screen doesn't, um, display anything. It will backlight itself when you press buttons, but no text at all. You can imagine how difficult it is to use under those conditions!
Functionally, it seems to work. I can turn on the pump and lights through the manual buttons. Sometimes the pump on/off creates a bit of a 'stutter' or tripping sort of click and you have it hit it again to turn it on (or off), but in general, it controls things. Since there's no screen and I can't set things, obviously have no control over the SWG, which is going to be the biggest driver for doing something quickly. Still in SLAM, but sooner or later I'm going to need to plug that in and expect chlorine to appear in the pool.
The downside is that I have no AUTOMATIC control of anything. There's a timer running in there that I can't access, so it tries to shut itself off at like 8pm and around 330am. I've managed to get around that by using the Service button to bypass the timer and leave it on. Usually, hard to make sure I'm in that mode without much feedback.
Buttons also all blink when in operation. Service button blinks, check system blinks, pool blinks, and filter blinks. Only two lit in the photo, but trust me, all blinking when in use. Stop the filter/pump, obviously stops blinking that one, etc. The labels for Control and Light are backwards (apparently not a great attention to detail by the electrician), so it's the lights that are off for the time being, obviously power to the control system is applied. The LCD screen, as you can see, is not displaying anything. When you press buttons, the backlight for it comes on, but no text at all. Looks to be wired up for a wireless controller, but was not present/found when I bought the house. Had renters for 3 years previous, no idea if it ever existed or was lost/broken along the way. Guess I could buy one to see if that does the trick, but an expensive troubleshooting technique if the stuff has to be replaced anyway, or it isn't compatible with whatever new system gets put up.
Thoughts on where to go from here? Anything I can really run without buying more/new stuff? Opened it up to look at the board, everything seems to be connected just fine and no bulging caps or bad solder that I could notice quickly. Even worth spending the $200 on a replacement control panel to see if that works, or $350 or so on a new board? Or does it sounds fairly pooched and I should be thinking about new equipment? No idea how old this stuff is, house was built in 2005, best guess for pool would be 2008-2009 timeframe. Means salt cell is probably also due.
Help, please!
