Color Swim?

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geekfamily

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Feb 5, 2013
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Metro St. Louis
Our PB is getting ready to start our build. We will be having a VS pump, EasyTouch 8, 2 Intellibrite 5g LEDs, and 1 Intellibrite Landscape LED.

I was reading the EasyTouch manual, and it mentioned a "Color Swim" feature when using 2 5g led's in a pool. Sounds like the controller will give the illusion of colors "swimming" from one led to the other.

However, the manual mentioned some specific wiring considerations for this feature. Something about each 5g needs to be wired independently...which kind of makes sense if the controller will be sending different "signals" to each light.

Has anyone used this color swim feature? Not sure what to tell my PB to ensure this feature will work once it is wired up?

Any help would be much appreciated.
 
I can't offer you a definitive answer, as I'm in the same boat as you...on another thread I'm trying to figure a few specifics regarding the automation.

http://www.troublefreepool.com/personality-kit-which-one-t56359.html

I can tell you how I interpret the manuals. For color swim, it says the lights have to be on separate auxiliary circuits. Looking at any of the panel pictorials, aux circuits (AUX 1, AUX 2, etc) are labeled where the relays go. So my understanding is that to use Color Swim, each light will have to be on its own relay.
 
How did you wind up hooking up your lights?

I am in the same boat... it is my understanding that the Pentair landscape lights have a settable address, and can do the color swim when all on one relay... but the 5g pool lights, GloBrite shelf light and bubbler lights do not have addresses... and I assume need to be on separate relays to swim... I was planning on putting my bubblers on one relay, globrite on another and my 3-5g pool lights on a third... but, it seems that I would need to put each pool light on it's own relay to make them swim... and hence, each would need it's own transformer also... since I am using 12V 5g lights. That's two more transformers (in addition to my 4 I already have). Am I understanding this correctly?
 
We have the ET8 with the Pentair 5g color lights. The lights are 120v so they were wired into the ET on separate breakers then to separate relays. The relays are the Auxiliary circuits. So in other words, I have Auxiliary 2 as one pool light and Auxiliary 3 as another. I then added low voltage lighting with transformers wired into the ET so I could then use the other Auxiliaries to control lighting. With wiring this way, I can have each pool light on or off independently and then use the Color Swim; otherwise if wired to 1 Auxiliary/circuit then they wouldn't be able to be independent of each other. Pentair's use of circuits to describe their features is somewhat misleading. Do not think of an electrical circuit, think of it as a feature. Pentair mentioned to me that the Circuit Features were best used to control options for your pump/water features and the auxiliaries were more for lighting, etc.

jtech1: I have several low voltage lighting "zones" and each one had to have their own transformer since each transformed is wired to a breaker then a relay.

After some trial and error we were finally able to figure it out. The electricians were stumped so I had to do a little research and much time on hold with Pentair. Hope this helps!
 
jtech1: Our build was done last month, and it is much clearer now. Ksnewman explained it very well...and mine is very similar. Only difference is my 5g's are the 12V variety. So I have 2 5g pool lights but also have a 5g landscape light on an ornamental tree next to the pool...so a total of 3 12v lights. My PB used a single low voltage transformer (intermatic px300) for all 3 lights...but each light is connected to separate "aux" relays on the easytouch. Hopefully that is clear...as it is a little confusing trying to explain it.
 
geekfamily said:
jtech1: Our build was done last month, and it is much clearer now. Ksnewman explained it very well...and mine is very similar. Only difference is my 5g's are the 12V variety. So I have 2 5g pool lights but also have a 5g landscape light on an ornamental tree next to the pool...so a total of 3 12v lights. My PB used a single low voltage transformer (intermatic px300) for all 3 lights...but each light is connected to separate "aux" relays on the easytouch. Hopefully that is clear...as it is a little confusing trying to explain it.
Click to expand...

So can you control each of your lights independently with the 1 transformer? Pentair said I would have to have separate transformers in order to do this. But it would seem that wiring transformer to breaker then breaker to each of the "aux" relays would work and since they can be turned on or off, it would make sense that 1 transformer would allow each to operate independently. I just haven't had a chance to try this yet. After 9 months of retaining wall/pool/backyard construction, I just wanted to get in the water and enjoy. :paddle:
 
geekfamily, are you saying that your electrician wired aas follows:

breaker ---> transformer ---> back into ET panel into multiple relays ----> out of ET panel from each relay to one light

Are you saying they brought the low voltage transformer outputs back into the high voltage side of the ET panel to the relays? I thought that was a code violation.
 
Jtech1, yes...that is what they did. Not sure about the code part, as the building inspector did not question.

What would be the code way, per your understanding? With the 5g's being 12 volt and also needing to tap into the "aux" relays...how would you do that. Meaning how would the relay not be hooked up to the transformer low voltage some how? I am not very familiar with the code part, but would be curious of other/better/safer wiring methods :)
 

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I am not where I can look at ET right now, but will this evening to confirm exact wiring. All was done to code and works great.
 
I think the only code compliant way would be separate transformer for each light. A separate relay would control the high voltage to each transformer. Not an elegant or cheap way to do it.
 
I see your point.

Now I am worried about my current setup :( My PB has the low voltage coming from the external px300 transformer back into the easytouch high voltage area, so it can connect up to the relays for each light. Each of my 3 low voltage 5g lights are on a separate relay. This works very well from a functional standpoint as I can turn each 5g on/off since each is on a separate relay..all fed from the same low voltage feed. HOWEVER, if it is a big no-no for the low voltage trx/5g leads to be in the high voltage compartment...I am worried.

I know I can re-wire so the low voltage trx/5g leads go to the external transformer instead of the ET high voltage compartment....but the complication is those low voltage feeds are in conduit straight to the high voltage compartment. Would require multiple conduits to be cut/attached to the external transformer....a lot of work. I will post a pic when I get home of my setup.
 
Yes, the transformer is powered by the ET.

Specifically, the ET has a GFCI breaker that runs via conduit to the external transformer. That part seems good. The output from the external transformer runs via conduit back to the ET and to 3 aux relays. My 5g lights are hooked up individually to each of the 3 aux relays. It works very well....each 5g light can be turned on/off separately...since they are on different relays. I never knew of the "no low voltage wires should be attached to relays (aka high voltage compartment)" code. Guess I should have questioned my PB.

I am guessing the danger is if one of the low voltage 5g wires comes off the relay and touches a high voltage wire...that would be bad. If the low voltage 5g wires go directly to the external transformer, the danger becomes less.

I will upload a pic tonight. Not sure how to get my 3 conduits out of the ET and into the external transformer easily.
 
Yeah... I am not 100% sure on the code... on one hand, the panel specifically divides low and high V sections... and the transformers also specifically divide the low and high V sections with special barrier in the winding section itself. But on the other hand, the ET/IT transformer and the IC transformer sits in the high voltage section of the IT/ET panel... I'd really like to know what the code specifics are on this. I think that there is a code difference between communications circuits (phone, TV,e tc.) and power circuits. We are really only talking about 120VAC and 12VAC here. I have seen reference to NEC that states they can be mixed in the same junction box as long as there is a physical separator or at least 1/4" space between the wires. I'd love to hear a definitive answer on this.

I guess the other drawback to switching after the transformer is that the transformer is always on... and costing some number of pennies a day to run.
 
I have the same situation with 3 GloBrites running off one transformer. The transformer housing is isolated between the high voltage side and low voltage side so bringing the low voltage back into the high voltage side of the ET panel seems like a bad idea. I need to check with my electrician but I'm wondering about putting the relays inside the low voltage side of the transformer housing. Something like these maybe

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/e ... ND/1815577

I believe the relays are 24vdc relays in the ET but I'd have to check.

You could extend the relay drive from the ET cabinet on the low voltage side into the low voltage side of the transformer. I'd keep the control wires outside of the 120v conduit between the panel and transformer. Just a thought. Electrically it would work but I want to make sure it's safe and will conform to code.

Steve
 
jtech1 said:
I guess the other drawback to switching after the transformer is that the transformer is always on... and costing some number of pennies a day to run.
Click to expand...

Funny you mention this part, as that has always bothered me...the 300 watt transformer is always on. I did not mention this earlier to avoid over complicating things...but you are right.

I too would like to know what is best practice. I have no problem unhooking my 3 5g's from the ET and instead running to the external transformer. Each 5g has its own conduit running into the ET...and since I am not trained in this, guess I need to unscrew each of the 3 5g conduits from the ET, glue on a coupling, then extend each of them over to the external transformer. Wonder how many knockouts the PX300 has...will need to look when i get home. Then I will have 3 "holes" in my ET where the conduit used to be...hopefully there is a plug of some sort to seal it back up.
 

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