Hayward heat pump and Omnilogic integration

[jmbinette]

Hi to all,

I recently got a pool installed and I got the Hayward Omnilogic controller with a HP70AEE variable heat pump.
My whole home is automated using Home Assistant and the purpose of buying the Omnilogic along with a variable heater was to be able to control my heating settings from Home Assistant and/or the Hayward app.

When was time to wire the heater, Hayward informed me that it needs to be 2-wire remote control. So put the heater setpoint at 104F and let the Omnilogic start/stop the heater.
I then contacted Hayward saying that this was ridiculous because I bought a variable heater but this control scheme was not using the variable speed potential. This method is OFF or 100% speed.
The way the HP70AEE works :

• 100% if water temperature difference with setpoint is > 2F
• 80% if water temperature difference with setpoint is <= 2F
• 50% if water temperature difference with setpoint is <= 1F
• 20% if water temperature is at setpoint.

Then Hayward informed me of a new way ton control it : You need to set the variable heater to whatever setpoint you want and the Omnilogic heating setpoint to 4F higher to prevent short-cycling.

Now I have a brand new Omnilogic controller and heater and I cannot change the setpoint from my phone, I have to walk behind to my pool house to change the setpoint.
This make no sense.

After reading the R4.4.0 Omnilogic firmware release notes, I updated my Omnilogic to the latest release and was hoping for a feature that is not there yet.

I was wondering why the HP series can not communicate with the Omnilogic via RS-485.

The HP unit itself have a RS-485 VFD and also a RS-485 operator interface, Could we use the 3rd port to communicate with the Omnilogic as a smart heater ?
It makes no sense to me that both products are up-to-date (not in end of line), from the same manufacturer, with the technical specs ... but cannot communicate together.

I tried to contact Hayward about this numerous times (USA and Canada) without any success.

Anyone here have a contact at Hayward software dev team
Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[twillux]

If I’m reading the release notes right, the Omni will send an on/off, a temp set point, and possibly a speed setting via silent mode assuming the heater is configured as a smart heater. The published Omni manual doesn’t have the new configuration options for smart variable heaters, but this release note indicates that when adding a new heater, the option is presented to configure a smart heater if one is detected on an HUA. Did you happen to get that when configuring the heater, or did it only give you the option of a standard config via relay? Not sure if this was helpful but wanted to mention.

https://hayward-pool-assets.com/assets/static-content/pools/omnilogic-support/release-notes/Release%20Notes%20R4.4.0.pdf

As an aside, I’m also successfully using Home Assistant with my OmniPL with both a traditional gas heater and a glacier chiller, using the new v4.3.x heat/cool functionality, and it works great. No smart heater on my end however.

 

[jmbinette]

For now, no "smart heaters" are available. They told me probably in 2023.
Sound ridiculous to me.
Is there a way to discover the HUA?
I would suspect the HP heater firmware would need to be updated as well

I really would like to speak to a Hayward engineer

 

[jmbinette]

Sorry to bump but anyone could help me getting a channel of communication with someone from Hayward ? I tried both Canada ans USA technical support and nobody seems to understand what I am talking about !

Any help appreciated.

Thanks,