Easytouch no longer controlling Intelliflo

[finethreads]

Hello all, I have an easytouch 4 controlling my Intelliflo VS Pump. Everything has worked fine since installation. Recently Intelliflo stopped running its’ easytouch schedule and cannot be run manually either. Display correctly shows Display Not Active so there is some communication between easytouch and pump.

I contacted Pentair and they advised that it was either the connecting cable, Intelliflo drive or easytouch motherboard. First, I replaced the cable with no change. Now I have disconnected the cable and am running the Intelliflo on a program and it is working fine. Before I replace the motherboard, is there a way to test it, i.e. moving my spa pump over to F1 to see if it works?

 

[Jimrahbe]

ft,

If the pump says "Display Not Active" that "should" mean the mother board is OK.. Otherwise the pump would just show the standalone pump pages.

Show me the following set up page...

Heater Speed.PNG

• Jimrahbe
• Jan 3, 2019

If your ScreenLogic works, the mother board has to be good.

I don't know what F1 is, but if your IntelliFlo is wired through the Pump/Filter relay, it is wired wrong.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[finethreads]

Thank you for your response! Here is my setup page.

 

[Jimrahbe]

ft,

Rats... I was hoping that the speeds had been erased.. If you change the pump type it will often erase all the speeds, but that is not the case..

Have you recently been adding any new schedules?

What does the "Delays and Alerts" page say?

The IntelliFlo is controlled by the cable and not the pump/filter relay, but the two do work at the same time.. It would be interesting to know if the pump/filter relay closed when it should, but the pump did not run.

When you schedule something like your spa or spillway, do the valves turn like they should, but the pump just does not run?

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[finethreads]

Hi Jim, no new schedules.

Delays and Alerts page shows
Pump 1: Communications Lost. That may have occurred when I disconnected the cable so I could run the Intelliflo on its’ own program.

I hooked the cable from easytouch to the Intelliflo and started the spa mode. The valves turned as appropriate and the heater light turned on, but no pump.

 

[Jimrahbe]

ft

I am not sure where to go from here.. If this were my pool, I'd want to know if the IntelliTouch scheduling was trying to turn the pump on or not.. In theory, if the pump's display say "Display not active" that means the ET is controlling the pump.. For the pump to start, a schedule has to do two thing.. Send a RS-485 command to the pump over the cable to run and it will also close the Pump/Filter relay and the little light above the "F" button should come on.. I'd watch the light above the "F" button and see if it comes on when the schedule says to start the pump. If it does, it means the scheduling system is working.

Unfortunately, it does not really tell you if it is for sure the pump's control panel or the board in your Intellitouch..

Let's see if Tom has any ideas on how to isolate the problem... Calling @ogdento

Before you buy a new board, I suggest that you PM Tom..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[mknauss]

Check the pump address. That seems to cause issues at times

 

[finethreads]

I will check the address. I assume it should be assigned #1.

 

[finethreads]

The pump address is set to “1”

 

[ogdento]

Hmmm, as I was reading all of this I had "check pump address"... and then I saw Marty's reply saying it! The intellitouch allegedly always sees a single pump as pump #1, but I'm not sure about the easytouch - I don't know if it has to be set at the outdoor panel as well as the pump.

It sounds like your outdoor board's comm circuitry might be working, but to be sure I want to know if you can control anything using screenlogic... you said you started spa mode and the valves turned, but did you start it using screenlogic or from the easytouch outdoor panel? if it was screenlogic, we can say for certain your Easytouch comms are good

 

[finethreads]

In the earlier post I did start spa mode at the panel. Just now I started spa bode using screenlogic. The valves turned as they should.

 

[ogdento]

ok, that's great... so the communication circuitry on the outdoor board is working. Pentair equipment uses rs485, and each device (pump, screenlogic, outdoor board, wireless remote, etc) has it's own communication driver connecting it to the rs485 comm-bus (aka comm port).

I'd shut everything off (pump, easytouch, screenlogic - you don't want power on the red/black wires on the comm port), and then do the following tests:
- test continuity of the two wires (green/yellow) on your pump cable
- connect ONLY the pump to the comm port on the outdoor board, then power the system back on. See if you still get "display not active" and whether the outdoor board can control anything.

btw, your signature still has intellitouch in it... do you have anything else connected to the comm port besides the pump and screenlogic?

 

[ogdento]

Hey Finethreads, where are you at with this? If you're up and running it'd be great to get an update in case others run into it

 

[finethreads]

Hey guys, I apologize for not keeping you abreast of my ongoing easytouch Intelliflo problem. I will do my best to update you. I disconnected the automation cable and put the Intelliflo VS pump into manual mode and set up my schedules and speeds that way. I ran it that way for about a month or so. The pump did not always start and stop according to the schedule and, following any power outage, it would lose the time.

So I went ahead and replaced it with a new Intelliflo VSF. At first everything seemed to work fine, but after a few days it started to act up again and the pump could no longer be controlled by the easytouch panel even though the pump showed “display not active”.

Yesterday my pool maintenance service said that they disconnected the pump from salt cell board and hooked it directly to the main board. Pump shows display not active as it should. Easytouch is now running schedules just fine. Pool service suspects the salt cell board may be causing communication issues.

Thus far I have replaced the Intelliflo and the comm cable. Is their a possibility that the swg board and not the main board is the problem?

 

[JamesW]

Yesterday my pool maintenance service said that they disconnected the pump from salt cell board and hooked it directly to the main board.

This is somewhat confusing. Can you post some pictures of exactly what wires are and were connected where?

 

[finethreads]

Yes, I will post pictures. I am relaying what my pool maintenance person told me he did. Pictures should help clarify. I will post them within the hour.

 

[finethreads]

Here are photos of the connections on the two boards; the main board and the smaller board located behind it.

 

[JamesW]

The Intelliflo connects to the J20 COM port.

The green wire connects to #2. The yellow wire connects to #3.

 

[finethreads]

Okay, great. The Intelliflo appears to be correctly connected to the J20 Com Port

 

[JamesW]

Does it work correctly now?