Aqua Plus Prologic Time of Day stopped

[JayHoov]

Prologic Controller has been losing time for a week and finally stopped all together. I've checked what I can with multimeter. Supercap C3 for power outage seems to charge up. Voltage (approx. 5VDC) on the U2 time clock chip when controller is powered. Time Display has 1 second blinking (Colon) ":" BUT time of day is stuck at where ever I set it. Have read other threads about parts people have just replaces (in lieu of buying a new board $$$). The candidate parts to replace are C3, U2, and the crystal (X2)? all available from DIGIKEY. [Note these are surface mount parts - requiring some skill to replace]. Any suggestions on course of action would be appreciated. For now, I AM THE CLOCK for the system, controlling pump circulation ON/OFF daily. UGH #@#@#

 

[ajw22]

You have the general idea. Your choices are:

1. See If they can repair the board...

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2. Try and repair the board yourself.

Aqualogic_Losing_Time

3. Buy a new board.

 

[JayHoov]

Fortunately, after I disassembled and evaluated the Prologic Controller in the clock timer circuit areas, and then reassembled it, the system was operational (but initially with no time of day clock updating.) After about approximately 12 hours of power on time, the time of day clock started updating and running properly. So the problem has gone away for the moment. Guess I will have to wait for the next Florida power disruption to see if the clock holds the time of day through the next outage. The timing of the restored operation could be related to the supercap charging time although it should not be a factor. Supercap is supposed to keep the time of day clock running for about a week (during loss of primary power). It is possible that the supercap charging time could be hours.
I will consider manually causing power disruption to test the time of day clock outage ride through feature (but not this week). From reading comments from others, a printed circuit board intermittent or bad solder connection could be the culprit. (since all of the parts seem to now be working).

 

[JayHoov]

UPDATE on Prologic controller clock running erratically; well as expected, the clock ran for a few days and then stopped again. Nothing from a control operation (programmed or manual) would get the clock to start up again. I could reset the clock time of day. SO all of the components seem to ben workable (as opposed to bad or burned out). Suspecting an intermittent connection, I went with one method I know (from my prior life). I ran a hair dryer (dry hot air) over the corner of the printed circuit board where the clock circuit is located. Didn't take much AND THE CLOCK STARTED RUNNING. So I now strongly suspect an intermittent, most likely a cold solder joint. When I have time, I will take the next step, remove the board again and reflow all of the clock circuit components (supercap, clock generator, oscillator. and surrounding parts). Will report back again then.