has anybody got a good resolution photo of the back side of an i5PS personality board? I found this one from @pjt , but I want the other side...
Intellicenter i5PS personality board photo needed
- Thread starter ogdento
- Start date
- Jan 7, 2012
- 2,123
- Pool Size
- 21000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
I sold the board already, otherwise I'd take a photo of the back for you.
@ogdento
Tom,
Not sure this will help. This is all I could find.
This is the backside of an i10PS. Again, not sure if this will help.
r.
Tom,
Not sure this will help. This is all I could find.
This is the backside of an i10PS. Again, not sure if this will help.
r.
Hey @MyAZPool that does help, thanks! I was chatting with @ajw22 about his system (he has an i8PS), and while thinking about whether his i8PS survived the lightning strike I got to wondering why the personality cards are so complicated... the Microchip PIC in that first i10PS image you sent is a pretty powerful device. In contrast - and I know it's a 20+ year old design - the Intellitouch personality cards didn't have any smarts at all... they were just dumb boards with built-in jumpers to id the device and connectors to bring all the signals to the main board (and some relays of course).
The new i5/8/10PS personality card costs almost as much as the main board replacement and I'm just hoping they're less prone to surge damage. All that processing power on the i8PS can't just be to turn a few relays on and off (it also has it's own relay drivers), so I bet the personality boards operate like a separate controller/component altogether, and run some kind of "server" (for lack of a better word) that responds to commands from the main board, such as "turn on aux5" or "what's your status"... which might explain why it has it's own comm chip.
The new i5/8/10PS personality card costs almost as much as the main board replacement and I'm just hoping they're less prone to surge damage. All that processing power on the i8PS can't just be to turn a few relays on and off (it also has it's own relay drivers), so I bet the personality boards operate like a separate controller/component altogether, and run some kind of "server" (for lack of a better word) that responds to commands from the main board, such as "turn on aux5" or "what's your status"... which might explain why it has it's own comm chip.
Tom,
Yea, I've heard the same about those IntelliCenter chips. Too bad the firmware doesn't take full advantage of the chips in my opinion.
As far as those lightning strikes/surges, I've read about several of those catastrophes here on TFP. Scary to say the least.
I've done about all I can think of to minimize those possibilities but who knows if they'll actually work.
I've got two Siemens "First Surge" FS100 whole house surge protectors. One at the service entrance panel and another at the IntelliCenter Load Center.
As far as anything that might take the network path, I've got five Tupavco TP302 ethernet surge protectors. One between my Arris Cable Modem and my router/firewall, and the rest up with the attic patch panels protecting my various runs out to the pool equipment pad (network and RS-485 runs). Not sure what else I can do but keep my fingers crossed.
r.
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- Jul 21, 2013
- 65,153
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Here is my i8PS board. It looks like the compnenets are identical to the i10PS board and the only difference are the additional aux relay sockets.
It would be interesting to see if there are any differences other then the sockets in the i5P/i8P/i10P boards.
My guess is Pentair had different teams or contractors doing the hardware board design and the firmware programming. The hardware team put a lot of power on the boards to future proof it based on what they learned during the 20+ year life of the EasyTouch/IntelliTouch boards.
Then the programming team has had the challenge of using the hardware to implement various features.
It would be interesting to see if there are any differences other then the sockets in the i5P/i8P/i10P boards.
My guess is Pentair had different teams or contractors doing the hardware board design and the firmware programming. The hardware team put a lot of power on the boards to future proof it based on what they learned during the 20+ year life of the EasyTouch/IntelliTouch boards.
Then the programming team has had the challenge of using the hardware to implement various features.
Great pics... I'm almost expecting to see some different resistors or something to ID the personality type (similar to the easytouch)
- Jul 21, 2013
- 65,153
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
I think Pentair learned not to make it so easy to change personalities so they can collect their tax if a personality change is desired. They may set the personality in the firmware in the board now that they have memory on it.
It is interesting that the board has these selections screened on it as though the board designers expected the type of board to be marked in the square box. This would indicate the board designers did not expect the board personality could be visually determined by looking at the components.
Actually the cards do not identify themselves in the firmware at all..
This is a little above my "pay grade", but here goes nothing...
The cards identify themselves by the use of an ADC pin (Analog to Digital Converter) on the PIC32 to measure voltage.. They have a stupid "resistor divider" that has +3.3VDC input and the output then depends on the resistor divider. The PIC32 ADC pin then measures that output (voltage between 0 and 3.3V) and based on what that is, it then decides which out of the 10 cards it is. (i.e. i5PS, i8P, i8PS, i10P, i10PS, i10X, i10D, Valve Expansion Board, Pool Cover board or MUX).
You can change one of the resistors of the voltage divider (see photo below) to change that voltage and voila. Get some of those female JST XH sockets (Amazon.com), solder them on and convert an i5PS to any other board you want.
Buy some additional relays (https://www.digikey.com/en/products...cs-inc-emc-div/G7L-2A-BUBJ-CB-IN-DC24/1816469), and instant i10PS
The reason I know this is a person who will remain anonymous, changed two i5PS cards to i10PS cards for about 1/1000th of the price of a new board. 
r.
This is a little above my "pay grade", but here goes nothing...
The cards identify themselves by the use of an ADC pin (Analog to Digital Converter) on the PIC32 to measure voltage.. They have a stupid "resistor divider" that has +3.3VDC input and the output then depends on the resistor divider. The PIC32 ADC pin then measures that output (voltage between 0 and 3.3V) and based on what that is, it then decides which out of the 10 cards it is. (i.e. i5PS, i8P, i8PS, i10P, i10PS, i10X, i10D, Valve Expansion Board, Pool Cover board or MUX).
You can change one of the resistors of the voltage divider (see photo below) to change that voltage and voila. Get some of those female JST XH sockets (Amazon.com), solder them on and convert an i5PS to any other board you want.
Buy some additional relays (https://www.digikey.com/en/products...cs-inc-emc-div/G7L-2A-BUBJ-CB-IN-DC24/1816469), and instant i10PS
The reason I know this is a person who will remain anonymous
, changed two i5PS cards to i10PS cards for about 1/1000th of the price of a new board. r.
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hah @MyAZPool that's exactly what I was looking for. When I first looked at your and ajw's boards I guessed it might have been r14,15,16 and/or 17... but I couldn't read the values anyway! looks like your "friend" changed r5 and r10 (the labels are a little off). I miss the days of through hole parts that I can still see nicely done!
nicely done!Similar threads
