Antenna or Com Port?

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S

spondell

LifeTime Supporter
Jul 26, 2009
24
I know this thread is a year old but I have the same problem but I don't have an Intelliflo pump. How do I know whether the com port is good? I'll replace the antenna set if necessary but I'd hate to do that and then have to replace the main board too.

Sorry - this was originally in another thread. So, I have no lights on the receiving antenna and no Intelliflo pump. Do you think this is a com port or an antenna problem and how do I check?
 
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Have you connected the antenna and pump individually and seen if one of them works without the other connecting?

Did you measure the DC voltage across the two outside pins on the antenna connection?
 
S,

If you have NO lights on the antenna, then it is not getting the DC power from the com port connector.

Most com port issues are not due to the DC power.

If you have a voltmeter, test the two outside pins.. Red and Black and you should get about 15 VDC.

Do NOT test, or touch, the two inside pins (Green and Yellow)..

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
The voltage at the two outside pins is somewhere greater than 10 DCV - probably around 12.

The protocol adapter has a solid red light in the house and the inside antenna has a flashing power light.

The EasyTouch seems to work fine. It has held the last schedule and I can operate everything manually.
 
S,

Let's see what Tom has to say...

Calling @ogdento

Is the problem with the Inside antenna or the outside antenna???

I can't remember if the voltage is supposed to be 12 VDC or 15 VDC... :scratch:

I think the power light is supposed to be solid and not flashing, maybe Tom knowns why..

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
anywhere from 12-15 volts is fine, I think mine's 14 and change.

as far as I can tell the you've only got 2 devices that can connect to the comm port... a screenlogic protocol adapter and a wireless link (for the screenlogic). You said you don't have an intelliflo... do you have an is10/spacommand remote, a salt cell, or anything else that uses the comm port?

assuming you have nothing else but the 2 devices... if you're trying to see if the outdoor board or wireless link is bad, remove the wireless link altogether and temporarily wire the screenlogic protocol adapter/PA to the outdoor board and see if it works... if it can talk to the outdoor board then you know your antenna link is bad. you'll have to figure out how to connect an ethernet cable to the PA... you can either put the screenlogic near your router and run a long cable to the outdoor board, or put the screenlogic outside (wired with a short cable) and run a long ethernet cable or rig up a wireless access point.
 
There's only the antenna connected to the Easy Touch board. The PA is connected to the router in the house, and then connected to the indoor antenna. I'll have to think about how to direct wire this. It is a long way from the router to the Easy Touch. I may try to use my wifi extender out there for now and see if that can work.

Just to make sure we're talking about the same thing, the PA is hard-wired by an ethernet cable to the router in the house. The PA is hard-wired by a 4-wire connection to the inside antenna. The outside antenna is hard-wired by a 4-wire connection to the Easy Touch board com port.
 
Yep, I think you have the idea down... the indoor "antenna" powers the protocol adapter and - in conjunction with the outdoor antenna - wirelessly connects the data lines (yellow/green wires) to the outdoor board.

the outdoor board, the wireless link and the protocol adapter each have an rs485 driver chip that can be connected to the comm port's data lines (aka comm bus)... it sounds like your outdoor antenna is bad, but really if any of those devices fail then the whole comm bus can go down. so we're just ripping out the wireless link to make sure the protocol adapter can still talk to the outdoor.
 
OK. I moved a wifi extender out to the control panel, along with the PA. It worked in "remote", which is fine by me. So, now the arrangement is - router inside, wifi extender outside wired by ethernet to PA inside box, wired to com port with 4-conductor wire. All appears good. Now I need to figure out how to do that so that it is weather proof.
 
I have the setup you are now using for my Screenlogic. The PA I put inside the Easytouch box. I hang my wireless access point out the bottom of the box. Of course, were I live, we rarely have rain. You do not show your location, so you may have to do something more extensive.
 

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Thanks, mknauss and others. Yes, I have, at least temporarily, put the PA in the box. My electrical outlet is on side of the box on the outside. I have ordered a small extender and hope to be able to put it in a weather enclosure around the plug and run the ethernet from there up through the bottom of the box to the PA. We'll see how it works.

Do you use "remote" on the app or does "local" work in this configuration?
 
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