Pentair EasyTouch 4 not communicating with VS pump

[Gmoney!]

So I had someone mess around in my control panel and my Vs pump won’t work now... control panel is a Pentair ET4. Attached is picture of what looks like two cables disconnected. One appears to be the Vs pump cable, the other appears to be a relay cable for the spa pump because when I connect it to j8 I think, it turns spa pump on but I kept hearing clicking sound so I disconnected

appreciate the help.

 

[kadavis]

Which VS pump do you have? The Pentair VS has a two wire communication cable

 

[Jimrahbe]

The cable that is disconnected does not appear to me to be the one that comes from the pump..

Go to the pump and follow the cable back to the ET to be sure you have the right cable.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Gmoney!]

The cable that is disconnected does not appear to me to be the one that comes from the pump..

Go to the pump and follow the cable back to the ET to be sure you have the right cable.

Thanks,

Jim R.

There are two cables disconnected... the first has those five wires in a grey plastic sleeve, the other one is the twisty black cable with black and red connector which I think connects to the auxiliary relays.

to follow the pump cable I’ll have to open the whole box so guess that’s next step... but what could the grey sleeve with the five wires be for?

are all repair men like this if you don’t use them to take care of your pool? The guy who installed my VS pump couldn’t fix anything he did after I told him I don’t need him to clean the pool anymore. Every other guy that has touched that board has screwed something up.

before this last guy came, everything was working. My only issue was my spa kept draining with filter pump off. I thought it was the check valve but now I’m thinking it might have been one of the actuators because after he screwed with my controller, the spa has not drained once. My remote worked, my pump worked and had two schedules for high and low rpm.

After he messed with the box and said it needs a new board, the remote wouldn’t work (I fixed that with pentair customer service help), the spillway wasn’t working (fixed that by changing switch on actuator), spa pump won’t work, filter pump only works if I control it on the pump display.

i have a pentair VS pump, couple of years old.

 

[Pool Clown]

From your picture, the top most black wire (non-twisty) looks like the cable from the pump. That should have a yellow and green wire. If it isn't, keep digging. (Because) thats what you are looking for, a black cable with a yellow and green wire within.

Its baffling, if your former pool guy put as much effort into taking care of your pool as he did in disabling the automation, he would still have a job!

 

[Gmoney!]

From your picture, the top most black wire (non-twisty) looks like the cable from the pump. That should have a yellow and green wire. If it isn't, keep digging. (Because) thats what you are looking for, a black cable with a yellow and green wire within.

Its baffling, if your former pool guy put as much effort into taking care of your pool as he did in disabling the automation, he would still have a job!

I don’t have a pool guy taking care of my pool I have been taking care of it myself. The guy who last worked on this controller is a pool guy but I just used him to fix my controller issue... actually like I said my only issue prior to this was my spa was draining every day when pump went off. Now that controller isn’t involved and I am manually turning it on and off, the spa is not draining. So I think it was a leaky actuator

 

[kadavis]

Almost looks like a Intellicom board in the rear where the pump com cable is hooked up and a 4-wire com to main board. Do you have a spa side switch?

 

[Gmoney!]

Almost looks like a Intellicom board in the rear where the pump com cable is hooked up and a 4-wire com to main board. Do you have a spa side switch?

There used to be one but there no longer is a spa side switch, I think they took it out before I bought the house

 

[Pool Clown]

Almost looks like a Intellicom board in the rear where the pump com cable is hooked up and a 4-wire com to main board. Do you have a spa side switch?

Nah, that's the board for the IC40 SWCG. But thanks for pointing that out! The pump is hooked up! But i would like to see that COMM cable for the pump wired directly to the main boards' COMM BUSS, but that is just me.

Gmoney, make sure that the 4 wire cable that runs from that boards' buss to the main board buss has good connections at both ends. Including the two wires from the black cable (yellow and green). And see if you can post a picture of the equipment too.

 

[Gmoney!]

Nah, that's the board for the IC40 SWCG. But thanks for pointing that out! The pump is hooked up! But i would like to see that COMM cable for the pump wired directly to the main boards' COMM BUSS, but that is just me.

Gmoney, make sure that the 4 wire cable that runs from that boards' buss to the main board buss has good connections at both ends. Including the two wires from the black cable (yellow and green). And see if you can post a picture of the equipment too.

Here are close ups of the IC board and main board. As you can see the pump wires go into IC board as mentioned, and then there is a grey jumper wire that connects those two com ports. Why did they do that? I see the main com port on main board has a thin white wire with black and red cables in it that’s connected to main board com port as you can see.

I still dont get why one one of those relay ports for my spa is disconnected it wasn’t before.

See anything bad here? That little LeD light on ic board is off, and bent... I have noticed my ic sometimes isn’t on even with filter pump on. Isn’t that weird? Is it possible I have a bad IC board and not a bad main board?

 

[Gmoney!]

Also i have a blinking red light on my Aux 1 button on my easytouch display. I press the button and doesn’t do anything. That used to be button for spa pump to turn on and as I’ve shown it’s relay is disconnected. I can reconnect but pump sounds weird, like it’s following the blinking light, keeps clicking.

is there anything I need to do on the VS pump display to connect it to the ET4? Or if cables are connected it should automatically connect and display not active should show on display?

 

[Jimrahbe]

G,

It could be that the com port on your main board is bad.. One way to tell is disconnect everything connected to the com port (Obviously note what is connected and how it is connected)

Then connect one item at a time and see if any of them work. I would connect just the pump to the main card with everything else disconnected. If the pump says "Display Not Active" when connected to the main board, you will then know that the main board com port is working and the pump is working. Make sure you are not in the Service mode... You need to be in Auto..

Assuming the pump works when connected by itself, then than means one of the other items connected to the buss is bad.

The jumper between the little IC power supply board and the main board is to connect the com port on the IC board to the main board. It is how the main board talks to the SWCG and anything else attached that connector.

Thanks,

Jim R.

- - - Updated - - -

I can't think of anything that would cause your Aux 1 light to flash... If it is flashing, I would assume the relay would turn on/off with the light. This is why the last tech unplugged the relay.

 

[Rocket J Squirrel]

The blinking Aux 1 light normally indicates the relay is in a delay state. Once the delay expires, the relay closes and the light stays on. The booster pump for my Polaris sweep is set up as Master Cleaner on Aux 1 and behaves this way. To test whether this is what’s happening, go into the menu, do Delay Cancel, and exit the menu. Normal behavior would be for the relay to close & the light stay lit.

If the relay is actually clicking open and closed in sync with the blinking light, something is broken.

 

[Jimrahbe]

rjs,

Thanks for the input.. that makes sense.. The OP says when he connects the relay it "sounds" like it is turning on and off with the light..

I believe that either the OP's mother board is bad or that the com port is hung up and keeping things from working.

Jim R.

 

[Gmoney!]

Thanks guys. The technician did say he thinks board is bad.

I just don’t get how it all worked fine before he showed up and now it doesn’t.

I’ll try the delay cancel suggestion and see if it does anything.

 

[ogdento]

If you think the board is bad anyway, you could try to swap the socketed uln2803 chips on the board... they drive the relays. It's possible that the guy tinkering with your board blew up the chip. If the relay works when you swap them, you can buy a new chip for a couple of bucks

 

[Pool Clown]

I have noticed my ic sometimes isn’t on even with filter pump on.

That is an indicator that the VS pump is running independently, and not talking to the automation. Does the display on the pump say what Jim noted earlier "Display not active"? If not, check those 2 wires connecting to the IC40 board. There was a problem a couple of years back where the plug on the pump drive was defective and did not connect with the cable. Cable would plug in ok, just no talkie. If it were me, i would redo the pump cable connections on that buss in the second picture (Intellichlor board), they look kinda rough. But dont plug it back onto the board. If the IC40 board has an issue, it may interfere with other components using the comm port(s) i.e. pump drive, causing you to think it is the component that is being interfered with being the issue. Leaving the buss unplugged will take the IC40 out of the equation. See if that fixes things.

Otherwise...


Before you buy a new board. See if clearing the EEPROM fixes your wonky activity. You will have to rebuild the system after (time, date, schedules, labels, etc.), but this is a good last resort as the board isn't cheap.
Note: If you successfully reset or rather erase the EEPROM, you will know by the absence of any information. IOW, if after your erase, if the time and date are correct, or if there are any schedules, you have not successfully erased the EEPROM. Rinse and repeat.

 

[Gmoney!]

The blinking Aux 1 light normally indicates the relay is in a delay state. Once the delay expires, the relay closes and the light stays on. The booster pump for my Polaris sweep is set up as Master Cleaner on Aux 1 and behaves this way. To test whether this is what’s happening, go into the menu, do Delay Cancel, and exit the menu. Normal behavior would be for the relay to close & the light stay lit.

If the relay is actually clicking open and closed in sync with the blinking light, something is broken.

so I tried to delay cancel, didn’t do anything still blinking red. When I spoke to the pentair CS Guy, he didn’t sound too concerned about that.

another bit of info, so today I went out in dark and pressed the F button on control panel and noticed that it turned on the display for the heater. Is that normal? I don’t remember it doing that before?