Hayward OnCommand losing time?

[RabbPool]

Thanks @DCWINTERJR, just ordered the part that worked for you. Any tips for a novice with electronics? How to safely remove the old capacitor? Is a soldering iron all I need? Thanks!

 

[skimmeratx]

I've had the same problem (board losing time, Haywood saying replace the board, pool people willing to do it (but with long lead times and $1k + labor).
Finally found a pool guy who has a Haywood contact who referred to this post and is happy to steer me towards this solution of replacing a capacitor.
I sourced the capacitor - looked at Mouser.com (out of stock as of 2022/07/17), amazon, tti.com, digikey.com ...
Finally ended up buying 2 on ebay 1 PCS Panasonic CAPACITOR SUPER .33F 0.33F 5.5V SUPERCAP Radial Super Cap 2050000757051 | eBay and will be installing next week.
"1 PCS Panasonic CAPACITOR SUPER .33F 0.33F 5.5V SUPERCAP Radial Super Cap"

This is work for you?

 

[jayhelms7]

I've had the same problem (board losing time, Haywood saying replace the board, pool people willing to do it (but with long lead times and $1k + labor).
Finally found a pool guy who has a Haywood contact who referred to this post and is happy to steer me towards this solution of replacing a capacitor.
I sourced the capacitor - looked at Mouser.com (out of stock as of 2022/07/17), amazon, tti.com, digikey.com ...
Finally ended up buying 2 on ebay 1 PCS Panasonic CAPACITOR SUPER .33F 0.33F 5.5V SUPERCAP Radial Super Cap 2050000757051 | eBay and will be installing next week.
"1 PCS Panasonic CAPACITOR SUPER .33F 0.33F 5.5V SUPERCAP Radial Super Cap"

Did this resolve your issue here? Running into the same thing.

 

[jayhelms7]

Thanks @DCWINTERJR, just ordered the part that worked for you. Any tips for a novice with electronics? How to safely remove the old capacitor? Is a soldering iron all I need? Thanks!

Novice here as well, with the same problem. Were you able to fix this yourself? Do you have a recommendation on the soldering iron you used?

 

[RonJ]

Was anyone able to remove and replace the C8 capacitor without removing the control PCB from the OnCommand case - or - did you need to pull the PCB to install (solder) the replacement capacitor?

 

[Non3ssential]

First off thank you for all the information people have added on this subject matter.

I recently moved into a house with a pool and have been slowly learning how to maintain it. The pool was installed with an Hayward OnCommand controller. From day one I thought this pool was possessed. It would randomly turn on and off. I have finally had a moment to mess around with the controller and found that time keeping of the unit was not working. The time would start and stop advancing randomly.

I jumped online to find a solution and stumbled on to this thread and found enough information to solve the issue. Background I'm an Electrical Engineer and design single board computers and just about any other electronics equipment.

I'm currently working remote in Houston for a company in Illinois. I don't have my electronics lab available to better diagnosis this issue and determine root cause. I decided to replace the capacitor and crystal and see what happens. I do on the other hand have most of the equipment needed for this repair and was able to replace the capacitor and crystal with out to much effort.

Digikey P/N	Description
XC2129CT-ND	32.768 kHz ±10ppm Crystal 6pF 50 kOhms 4-SOJ, 5.50mm pitch
283-2790-ND	CAP 470MF -20% +80% 5V T/H

I picked these parts as they were available from stock and I could get them within a couple of days. I decided not to replace the Real Time Clock IC for three reasons one it wasn't in stock anywhere. Second it made no sense to me as ICs are well characterized and tested by the manufacture and usually don't just become intermittent. As my failure was intermittent time keeping, I figured the IC was operational. Third I'm lazy and didn't want to fight with removal of this IC with my limited tools available at home.

Note I wasn't going to order the capacitor because it makes no sense to replace. I was not losing set time after power failures which would have pointed to a backup issue. I decided to replace it regardless and chose a slightly larger value because it was in stock. The crystal was what I figured would solve the issue.

I removed all the conformal coating with rubbing alcohol and some q-tips. Let me say the workmanship of this Hayward PCB is not so great, screams made in China on the cheap. Removing the Crystal required two soldering irons as I didn’t have a tweezer iron or hot air rework tool. It came off without a fight. The capacitor was a bit of a pain cause the ground copper in the PCB was wicking a lot of heat from the soldering iron. Some PCB pad clean up with solder wick and solder removal from the capacitor mounting holes and I was ready to solder the replacement crystal and capacitor. After soldering the crystal and capacitor I touched up the RTC IC pins and its bypass capacitor to ensure I wasn’t going to have to remove the control board after re-installation on the OnCommand box yet again. I also removed as much flux form my rework as I could because it looks ugly. I didn't have conformal coat spray so I left the circuit uncoated. This should be recoated but I really need to get the pumps running before my 94°F pool goes south.

I re-installed the control board in the OnCommand box and applied power. I set the time and turned on the pumps. Time advanced after the first minute and has been keeping time for the last three hours. I’m confident this issue is solved for me because this is the first time the unit has kept time for this long.

I will update if anything changes.

Good luck and hope this helps you repair your Hayward controller.

Caution! Disconnect power before working on this circuit board.

Attached Image IMG_3426.JPG notes:
This is the board before rework.
A: Crystal
B: Capacitor
C: RTC IC
D: RTC IC Bypass Capacitor

Attached Image IMG_3466.JPG notes:
This is the board after rework.

Hello, I'm also in Leage City, and an Electrical Engineer (well, current;y a student). Can I pick your brain on how to solder in this chip? I bought it, but it is much smaller than I am ready for.