IntelliTouch Control Set-Up

[TPTTB]

Hello, new member here seeing that there are some experts that are active in helping with Pentair automation PCB boards. I bought a house with a dead intellitouch a couple of years ago and now I'm wanting to get a control board back online without paying for a new setup. Now that I finally pulled out the boards, the Part Number 520078 board appears to be the source of the problem with clear damage to what looks like a Board-to-Board 80 pin connector. I am looking for some help with the following:

• Identifying the component/part which appears to be an 80 pin, 4 row board to board connector approx 62-63mm in length. So far I haven't been able to find something that matches this. I'd like to see if I can desolder and replace
• Any other advice from folks that have worked on this board. Is it likely that the whole thing is shot and I am wasting my time?
• I don't want to buy a $2300 current gen product to do this. I'd rather go homegrown with a raspberry pi or something of that nature. I was hoping to fix my intellitouch and then use one of the homebrew R Pi setups that sit on top of the easytouch/intellitouch.

Picture attached. Appreciate anyone that has any input!

 

[Jimrahbe]

T,

Why don't you just upgrade to the new IntelliCenter for about$1000 bucks..

IntelliCenter Upgrade Kits

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[BDY]

Pentair announced in April they will stop supporting intellictouch and easy touch going forward. You may want to consider just the upgrade kit to the new Intellicenter

 

[TPTTB]

I'd like to save the money on this and put it toward a VS pool pump. I was thinking I could spend about $3 dollars for a new board connector and be up and running potentially...nothing else on the board looks damaged. Since I'm new to the whole pentair motherboard scene, what else would potentially need support from pentair on this if I were to fix it cheaply?

I have seen that there is a web-based front end that someone made with raspberry pi. I'd love to break free from Pentair's crazy pricing for these boards if I can.

 

[ogdento]

Hey I realize this is old but I just saw your post... That messed up board is the personality board (is it an i9+3?), which has practically nothing sensitive on it. You may be able to clean that up with some diluted vinegar (then clean again to stop the vinegar/acid), and then fix the traces. I also see those pop up on eBay, and if you don't need all the aux circuits you can use an i7 or maybe even an i5.

 

[TPTTB]

Hey I realize this is old but I just saw your post... That messed up board is the personality board (is it an i9+3?), which has practically nothing sensitive on it. You may be able to clean that up with some diluted vinegar (then clean again to stop the vinegar/acid), and then fix the traces. I also see those pop up on eBay, and if you don't need all the aux circuits you can use an i7 or maybe even an i5.

Hey thanks and good timing. I finally got around to working on it this week and I (almost) fixed it. I wired it up today and I was able to get my pool pump (Black and Decker Variable Speed clone) and chlorinator running off the board, but only would work off an Aux switch. I think I have some damaged traces that map back to the Filter Pump and Aux 1/2 slots. The components needed for me to fix the board were less than 5 bucks. It was a bit of a pain to desolder the 80 pin B2B connector but the diode was a snap.

Any other tips on how to clean up the traces? The part that seems bad is there is a little copper ring that the filter pump jack terminates to at the end of a trace. The other ones all of a dot of solder on it, but the damaged trace just looks like a tiny ring of bare copper. I did my best to clean it with rubbing alcohol but that must not have been strong enough. What do you use to neutralize the vinegar?

 

[TPTTB]

I haven't been able to figure out how to operate the servo-driven valves yet but I'm really hoping that all works. Given that I inherited a broken system that had been tampered with when I bought the house, I'm trying to understand all of this stuff from scratch.

 

[TPTTB]

Moved from HERE

Hey Folks, I'm in the process of repairing and rewiring an i9 intellitouch board and I'd like to start moving toward this rpi setup. I'm trying to map out what physical connections I need. Does having one of these things (pictured) help or change how I would set up my rpi?

Note: I moved in to this house and the control panel was not functioning and the wiring had been bypassed. I am starting from zero knowledge on how this old intellitouch is intended to work but I know I'm not paying thousands for the latest pentair solution. Thanks in advance.

 

[ajw22]

The subject line should be changed to IntelliTouch, not IntelliCenter.

@ogdento is helpful with IntelliTouch electronics.

 

[ogdento]

Hey I'm not sure what you mean by the little tiny copper ring... Could it be a through-hole? Actually a pic would be great.

Oh, and I neutralize the vinegar with a little baking soda and water, then I flush with more water and dry it well. IPA works too clean it all up more if you want.

 

[ogdento]

That's a mobile touch 1 controller... There's an outdoor transceiver card that connects to the outdoor panel (it's in a tan plastic kindof egg-shaoed enclosure). If you don't have a screen logic, you'll want to get it working because it's used to program and manage the intellitouch system.
The controller (shown in your photo) has a built in battery that may be dead by now, but it looks like you've got the power adapter. Does it turn on?

 

[TPTTB]

Hey @ogdento looks like you are responding to me on two different threads. To your question here, yes it is a through-hole that the trace seems to terminate into. The other through holes have a dot of solder but the one leading to the filter pump jack is black/burnt looking. I tried to clean it up with just alchohol but am going to need to do something more aggressive or even scrape at it a bit.

Do you know if I *need* to use the Filter Pump connector? Right now I am just using Aux 6 to run my pump, and my pump has a built-in controller with schedule.

Long term what I want to do is get the panel working enough to hook up the Raspberry Pi based system that can take over the intellitouch without that big wireless controller.

 

[ogdento]

The filter circuit itself does have special meaning... And I'm not positive but I think if you don't use the filter pump connector you might not get the automatic freeze mode protection (run the pump for 15 mins, shut off for 15 mins, repeat) when air temp is less than 35 degrees or so. Probably best to check the programming manual.

As for the through hole, if it's no good/too burned you can always bodge on some wire(s) to get around it, although you'd have to figure out where... I haven't had to do it to one of these boards

 

[ogdento]

Oops, I just saw that the threads were merged, didn't realize those were both from the same person I guess!

One thing I forgot to mention is that you can "hack" (it you can call it that) the big old remote thing to work if the outdoor transceiver card is dead. The handheld unit is nothing more than an indoor panel with a transceiver card (just like the outdoor transceiver card), a rechargable battery, and a charge/power controller.

Long story short... you can take the handheld apart, disconnect the indoor panel board, and then connect it to your outdoor panel with a short cable. Just use gloves cuz the two halves are sealed with a lot of slippery silicone. I've got an indoor panel that I left in the giant waterproof housing - with the transceiver and battery removed - so I can use it outside. It hangs out on the shade below my aquarite swg.

 

[TPTTB]

Thanks again @ogdento . I don't know how I would figure this stuff out. So I have a black and decker clone VS pump and I bought an adapter that allows it to be controlled by the pentair touch systems. I am also setting up the raspberry pi controller to disintermediate that whole pentair receiver/controller. I live in Illinois so I don't need freeze protection as I close my pool. Are you saying I can just run my pump off of an aux circuit and still program it through the pentair system to run at variable speeds etc? As in, I don't lose any functionality by other than freeze protection if I don't use the filter pump circuit? Thanks again.