Intellicenter Programming

[Dave722]

So here's my dilemma, I'm very confused by the intellicenter and how to program it. I have an IPS8 Here's what I want to do:
I guess first off, which is the best way to program? At the panel, on my phone or laptop?

1) I found the infinity edge feature, but need to do the following: Program it to close the main drain, open the infinity basin drain, open the infinity returns in the pool (actuators), increase the pump rpm for approximately 30 minutes to raise the level of the pool, then reduce it to a lower rpm to maintian the flow.
1A) can i use the return and intake connections for 2 of the drain actuators and the third actuator needs to open the infinity return. Or do I need to order an additonal board?
2) I have bubblers on my zero entry and will need to open a valve for this as well as a feature I'm guessing, so I'm not sure if I can install 4 actuators on the ips8. I also want to be able to turn the bubblers on and turn the pool lights on at night, is this possible to have 2 different bubbler features and how again do I program this.
3) What does the spa icon do without a spa, can I somehow use this for the infinity edge or just ignore it.

Anyways, the literature is very confusing and any help would be greatly appreciated. The programming piece shoud be easier and maybe on a computer connected to it would make my life a bit easier. Thanks. Have a great weekend.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Dave,

Let's see if we can get Jeff to chime in.. Calling @Turbo1Ton

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Turbo1Ton]

Holy buckets... That's a lot. I've unfortunately had a kids end of season lacrosse team party this evening. I'm gonna have to revisit this tomorrow when I'm able to actually comprehend this.

Be back tomorrow with what I know.

--Jeff

 

[Turbo1Ton]

I guess first off, which is the best way to program? At the panel, on my phone or laptop?

I find it easiest to program at the laptop, however, after Pentair's FW update and new webserver address, I think there may be some issues with programming stuff from the webserver. So you may have to do it at the panel.

1) I found the infinity edge feature, but need to do the following: Program it to close the main drain, open the infinity basin drain, open the infinity returns in the pool (actuators), increase the pump rpm for approximately 30 minutes to raise the level of the pool, then reduce it to a lower rpm to maintian the flow.

I'm not exactly certain how your plumbing/actuators are set up. Some photos of your plumbing setup could help me understand/explain it a little better, but I am assuming that the main drain/infinity basin drain are plumbed together and that is one 3 way valve. And the pool returns/infinity returns are another 3 way valve. So 2 actuators. So essentially what you would do here is you need to create a circuit for each actuator. Then put these in a circuit group. Similar to what I have below for my individual features, I also have them all 3 grouped together so I can just turn on the circuit group Kid Play and they all 3 come on at once. You will also want to add that circuit group to your pump, and assign a speed/flow to it. You can then either schedule the circuit group or simply select it and those actuators would switch positions. The only thing that you won't be able to do is after X time, reduce the pump speed.

EDIT - after further thinking, I believe that the pump speed can be reduced by using 2 feature circuits for pump speeds. See post #12 for explanation.

1A) can i use the return and intake connections for 2 of the drain actuators and the third actuator needs to open the infinity return. Or do I need to order an additonal board?

Intake and return are set up to only actuate on Pool/Spa command. I don't know why you couldn't use these as drain actuator and the return actuator. I'm not sure how the Infinity system is supposed to run, but if you utilized these, you would select Spa and it would close the main drain, and open the infinity return.

2) I have bubblers on my zero entry and will need to open a valve for this as well as a feature I'm guessing, so I'm not sure if I can install 4 actuators on the ips8. I also want to be able to turn the bubblers on and turn the pool lights on at night, is this possible to have 2 different bubbler features and how again do I program this.

Yes you will need an actuator set up as a feature here as you saw in the above photo. I have bubblers, waterfalls, and deck jets. Each has it's own actuator.

The pool/spa intellicenter is capable of utilizing 4 actuators, but 2 are pre-programmed for the pool/spa intake and return actuators. Apologies, I'm not clear on what you are asking about with having 2 different bubbler features. Can you elaborate a little bit more?

3) What does the spa icon do without a spa, can I somehow use this for the infinity edge or just ignore it

See above answer to question 1A. If you have actuators plugged in to the Intake/Return sockets, selecting this will activate those actuators. You can also use the Spa circuit in your programming which may allow you to activate something for the infinity edge.

I'm gonna call @BigPapaSmurf for his input here. Not sure if he did his Intellicenter programming but he has an infinity edge and may be able to lend some guidance to us on the operation.

--Jeff

 

[Turbo1Ton]

FYI - You are correct, Dave, the Pentair literature is terrible. I actually have learned very little from reading their manual, and more by just programming and seeing what happens. If you haven't yet read this thread... Intellicenter Review and Info you may want to. It is a deep dive into the Intellicenter. He goes into a lot of detail that you may or may not find useful, but there are programming notes and discussions throughout. This is the thread that I read that I learned most of what I know from.

--Jeff

 

[Dave722]

I'll send a pic in a bit, the main drain and infinity basin drain are seperate valves. I haven't installed my actuators yet as that was this weekends project. I was hoping to use the spa feature which would open one/close the other as this would be easier and I'm guessing I can adjust pump speed under the spa setting as well?

 

[Dave722]

Oh I forgot, how do I connect my laptop to the intellicenter? Is there a web portal? I have the app set up and I know many hate it, but it's better than the touch screen. The touch screen is not user friendly IMO.

Edit - Nevermind I found the info, but for some reason cannot get the website to come up.

 

[Turbo1Ton]

www.intellicenter2.com is the web address for Intellicenter.

I'm sure we can figure out how to utilize the pool/spa for part of this.

--Jeff

 

[Turbo1Ton]

Yes, you can assign a pump speed to a specific circuit. The thing to remember here is that the pump will run at whatever the highest speed selected is, meaning that for my setup above, I always have my pool circuit running @ 1100RPM to make chlorine with my SWCG. Then in the morning when my cleaner circuit activates, the pump speed ramps to 2700RPM, even though both circuits are active. Then if I turn my heater on, it ramps up again to 3000RPM, while all 3 circuits are active.

I would recommend programming with either flow or GPM, not a mix of both, as the pump will prioritize the flow over the speed settings, regardless if there is a higher speed circuit selected. See below from the pump manual.



--Jeff

 

[Dave722]

www.intellicenter2.com is the web address for Intellicenter.

I'm sure we can figure out how to utilize the pool/spa for part of this.

--Jeff

Thanks, the literature I found on the pentair site doesn't have the '2' and wouldn't load. Ugggh.. I appreciate it.

 

[Dave722]

Ok, I got the actuators working on SPA mode and the pump running as well, but do not see an option to add an egg timer on the pump, do I need to create a group of two pump settings, then add that to the spa program?

 

[Turbo1Ton]

I think what you need to do is create 2 new feature circuits for your pump speeds. Call them whatever makes sense to you. I made them and called them pump speed 1 and 2, for this example. You can see I gave pump speed 1 a 30 minute egg timer.



Then assign those two circuits to your pump, and embed them in the circuit group with your other items, like this...





I am assuming that the egg timer will work regardless of how the feature is activated.

I think this should work to ramp the pump up, and then drop it back down after a set time. You could set the egg timer to 5 minutes to test with, that way you aren't sitting out there for 30 minutes waiting on it.

Let me know if this doesn't make sense.

--Jeff

 

[Turbo1Ton]

Oh, forgot to mention, if you do this with the 2 pump speeds, you do not need to associate the circuit group with the pump speed, only the 2 pump speed feature circuits.

--Jeff

 

[Dave722]

Thanks, heading out now, will work on it later tonight or tomorrow morning. Really appreciate your help

 

[Dave722]

Good morning, hope your weekend was well. So if I do this based on what I'm seeing on my end, I still need to select spa, then the feature circuit as well? I cannot just add the feature circuit to the spa selection? It's just an extra step, but was hoping to hit spa and the feature circuit would run automatically. Or am I doing something wrong?

 

[Dave722]

Or do I assign the new pump configuration to the spa setting and if so, I can't figure out how to do that. Here's a few screen shots?

 

[Turbo1Ton]

You should just be able to add the Spa circuit, into your 'Infinity Day' circuit group, so you would have Spa, PS1 and PS2 all in the circuit group. Then you should be able to toggle everything with one button by simply selecting the circuit group on.

--Jeff