DIY Maytronics Power Supply

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p1zaul

p1zaul

Well-known member
Feb 10, 2016
77
Charlotte
Has anyone tried to build a power supply for their Maytronics? Mine actually works fine I just would rather be able to set my own clean schedule through a smart switch. It’s too bad the normal power supply does not start the cleaning cycle when power is applied, instead you must hit the power button first.

My current supply died as soon as I purchased it and they sent me a new one. I opened the old one to see how it worked and also took out the connector. Not sure exactly what it is all doing but I do know there are 3 wires going to the cleaner. 30VDC + - and then also one called "command".

I am interested if supplying 30VDC (180 watts) without the command line will make the unit run. It is possible all the brains of direction and what functions to perform are controlled by the power supply box, in that case it most likely would not work.

If this works then it would be possible to just hook at 30VDC supply to a smart wall switch and program it to go on and off.
 
Which cleaner do you have and how old is it? Maytronics has an option already available called “automation mode” in their current power supplies (2017 models and later) whereby the power supply will run as soon as it gets power from the wall socket. So you can put the power supply in “automation mode” and then plug the power supply into a “smart switch” and it will run whenever you activate it.


Check with Maytronics to see if your current power supply is compatible.
 
No, I had an old power supply and opened it up. The feed going to the robot had the the wires, so it possibly wouldn't know how to actually move around but might go in like one direction. I think of my power supply died I would definitely try it out.
 
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Sorry to necro this, but I wanted to do the same thing.

I successfully solved the problem via this 'SwitchBot' device:

The app only lets you schedule 5 "on/off" cycles per day, so I had to buy their 'Hub' as well, and then I integrated that with my existing smart-home stuff (Hubitat) to get full scheduling. Works flawlessly, and I'm just using the 'double-sided tape' adhesive that it came with.

And wow -- what a difference it makes to have the robot run 4 times a day, versus a few times a week (ie when I'm not too lazy to walk over and hit the power button twice). Highly recommend.

That said -- two notes!
  1. You'll need to clean your cartridges much more often if you schedule as aggressively as I did. I've owned my robot for a bit over 6 years now and I had never seen the cartridges so full from just 1 week of work -- the "aggressive" scheduling essentially means you'll be cleaning & rinsing the filters weekly.

  2. After ~4wks of the aggressive scheduling, my beloved 6-year-old robot ("Flipper" as he's known around the house) is no longer working. From my initial tests it looks like the issue is the power supply, I'm not seeing any DC voltage from the port. I don't know if it's because I was running it too much/too hard, or if it's just coincidence, or what. Flipper has been awesome for us the last 6-years, though -- had one repair, a month out of warranty, and I just had to pay to ship it to them ($40) & they covered the repair (was a cord issue) and the return shipping, had it back in just over 1 week. IMO getting 6 years out of it with only $40 additional money put in (and ~$75 on automation) over that time = money very well spent. I'll test the power supply further and either replace it (is how I stumbled on this thread; was wondering if I can just give it the proper DC voltage or if the PSU contains the 'smarts' too) -- worst case though, I won't hesitate to just buy another Dolphin.
 
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p1zaul said:
That's a good idea, so essentially you are having this turn it on and then off then back on again? It seems like to get it to run you need to power off then back on
Click to expand...
I use "Hubitat" as my main controller for automation stuff -- it's basically a little Raspberry Pi with a preloaded set of software for automation stuff.

I have a schedule setup in Hubitat to trigger a button push - my schedule is along these lines:
Push @ 1:00PM
Push @ 1:02PM
Push @ 5:00PM
Push @ 5:02PM
etc...

I could instead have used a smart plug + the button pusher, since it always starts up "off". Instead, I just basically run it under the assumption that it will always be "on" already and, i.e. if I pull it out to clean the cartridges, then I'll unplug it & clean them, put it back in the water, and turn it on. That way, if the next "scheduled run" starts soon after I'm done, it will first turn it "off" & then back "on" again -- so it will always get a full cycle in.

I'm sure there are better ways but it's been rock solid for me, up until the Dolphin died at least, lol. I have a new Z5 on order and I'm expecting it to get here tomorrow, so will be running the exact same setup again.

Only tangentially related (sorry!): My Dolphin worked out to about $22/month over the nearly 7 years that I had it, including the one time I had to ship it in for repair ($40 shipping, had it back in about 1 week). My new Dolphin, which is basically the exact same model (AFAICT at least) but with a different power-pack, was ~35% less expensive than my original one -- so, if I get the same lifetime out of it then it will end up running me around $15/mo. Pretty fantastic really, IMO at least -- and *really* great with the "switchbot" automation/running it quite a bit (~2-3 times a day). :)
 

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In case anyone else is attempting this, it does work with just the bot for up to 3 runs per day. By the next 8 hours the power supply has turned itself back off so the bot turns it back on. If you want more than 3 runs you would need to add a hub and some type of Google or Alexa automation.
 
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