Help - Pentair Intellitouch on its last Leg/Dead

[fluff]

My intellitouch 2 remote keeps losing communication, I have tried the reset and the new address, it will briefly pick up communication but then if the unit loses power as it comes off the charger, the communication with the receiver drops.

Can anyone point me the right direction to get this fixed. My thought is to bite the bullet and just go to the screen logic system, or is there an easy alternative? Spending the money for a new intellitouch remote and system seems silly.

Here are a few pics of my panel, any help is truly appreciated.

 

[ajw22]

Try replacing the battery…

Inexpensive Mobiletouch2 Replacement Battery

If anybody has a Mobiletouch2 remote with a dead battery... instead of buying the ridiculously priced Pentair replacement, I used this < $30 replacement, manufactured by Cameron Sino (I got mine from Walmart, but it's widely available)...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[fluff]

Battery swole up and was removed a long time ago…Just stays on the charger. Since it has worked fine for 2 years without a battery, I just don’t see that being the issue.

 

[ajw22]

then if the unit loses power as it comes off the charger, the communication with the receiver drops.

If you know the unit has no battery what do you meany by losing communication as it comes off the charger?

Maybe @ogdento has ideas.

 

[ogdento]

Fluff, to Allen's question, I don't really know what you mean by:

it will briefly pick up communication but then if the unit loses power as it comes off the charger, the communication with the receiver drops

Are you saying that if you set the address the remote will work (i.e. you can turn on/off an aux relay etc. from the remote), but then if you pick the remote up off the cradle you have to re-set the address?

 

[fluff]

So it hasn’t worked for a few weeks. Had manually re addressed it multiple times but still wouldn’t communicate.

Walked by it today on the counter and noticed it had picked up a signal. Tried to turn pool off and when I tried to press the button, it turned off as it wasn’t perfectly on the cradle and when it came back on there was no communication. I picked it up and put it back on the charger multiple times and it picked up signal one more time, then same thing happened.

The unit still works with no battery, it just has to stay on the cradle for power.

To answer your question, the remote sits in the cradle but not perfectly, so if you barely move it or press a button without pressing the unit down firmly to the cradle, it will turn off and back on…

I also took the unit out and plugged it in next to the control box and couldn’t get a signal. So don’t believe it is a signal range issue.

 

[ajw22]

I think you should start with installing a new battery and seeing how it operates.

The battery functions as a power reserve and evens out fluctuations from the charging power supply that may be causing the problems. And as the power supply ages it may develop issues that effect the mobile device electronics.

 

[fluff]

I will go ahead and start with that! Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[fluff]

Ok, so I replaced the battery in the remote. So far, can’t get any communication with the control box. What would be the next thing to try?

 

[ogdento]

darn. what firmware have you got and how are you manually re-addressing? (with firmware 2.160 and later the "lock on address" is slightly different because you can either let it try to lock automatically or enter the numbers yourself)

 

[fluff]

I am on 2.18.

When I try to do auto address it doesn’t do anything, so then I have to do the manual route…

 

[ogdento]

ok, and setting that manual address doesn't seem to help... what's the firmware number on the back of the transceiver card at the outdoor panel? (it'll be something like 2020, 2030 or 2040)