Intellitouch Indoor Control Panel - Blank Screen, How to Fix?

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Q

qikbert

Member
Jul 9, 2023
18
Fort Myers, FL
Hi Everyone,

Recently, my intellitouch indoor control panel's display went blank after a thunderstorm. The buttons still function, and the LED's still light. It still keeps the same schedule as usual, but the screen is blank. It makes it very difficult to use the different functions or to change the schedule, etc.

When I googled, I saw in this thread:

No display on Pentair easy touch control system

Hi all, so I have a pentair easy touch control system and the display is not reading anything. I have flipped the circuit at the bottom, there is light on intelchlor status but the buttons don't do anything and there is nothing on the display, just blank. It has always worked fine. I opened it...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

I noticed that ogdento posted this
"I did recently have a possibly similar situation with a guy's intellitouch indoor panel... it would just turn on to a blank screen - I could see on my oscilloscope that it had a heartbeat (controller clock was running, there was data on some spi lines), so on a lark I reflashed the firmware and it started working."

Ogdento (or anybody!), can you please walk me through how I could possibly troubleshoot my indoor control panel, or even flash the firmware to get this working again? The replacement part is over $1000!

Thank you everyone.
 
Hey QB,
Can you see anything at all on the LCD (even the faintest lines)? There's a "boost" power supply that drives the LCD, and I've seen them fail - is interesting that your panel "works" with the exception of the LCD (If I recall correctly, the LCD supply is separate from the backlight)... Does the LCD backlight turn on when you press one of the buttons?

As far as updating the firmware, there's a thread on the site started by Jerryt, but I don't have the link handy.

Do you have a multimeter, and are you able to check the current draw of the unit?
 
ogdento said:
Hey QB,
Can you see anything at all on the LCD (even the faintest lines)? There's a "boost" power supply that drives the LCD, and I've seen them fail - is interesting that your panel "works" with the exception of the LCD (If I recall correctly, the LCD supply is separate from the backlight)... Does the LCD backlight turn on when you press one of the buttons?

As far as updating the firmware, there's a thread on the site started by Jerryt, but I don't have the link handy.

Do you have a multimeter, and are you able to check the current draw of the unit?
Click to expand...
Thank you for your reply!

Unfortunately, I don’t see even the faintest lines on the lcd display. The backlight does work, however. Whenever I press any button, it lights up.

I do have access to a multimeter. Across which 2 leads do I check the current draw? It would be so awesome if you could help guide me a bit on where to check and how.

Thank you again!IMG_9466.jpeg
 
Hey @MyAZPool yep that was it, thanks!

QB, to measure current you "insert" your meter into one side of the power supply - you can't do it the same way you check voltage. I'm typing from my phone, so you're better off finding a you tube video than me explaining 🙄. Shouldn't be more than 200mA with backlight on. And drops considerably with backlight off (maybe to 50mA-ish)
 
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hey QB, I realized my last message didn't specify that the power supply to the board is the red/black on the 4-pin green connector. when you're messing with this, be very careful not to touch the red wire to either of the green/yellow data lines with the system powered up (you'll do more damage to your boards).

to test current with a multimeter, i would do the following:
1. shut down power
2. unscrew the red wire from the 4-pin block and bend it away so it won't touch anything.
3. connect a short length of wire to where the red wire was attached to the terminal block

so at this point you'll have a wire connected to the terminal block, and the loose red wire that had previously been connected...

4. set your multimeter to its highest Amps range (it's got to be more than say 500mA, i set mine to the 10A range)
5. make sure your multimeter leads are connected to the Amp inputs (mine are different from the Volt inputs)
6. make sure your multimeter is set to DC amps
7. connect one lead to the loose red wire, and the other lead to the short length you attached to the block
8. power up the indoor controller, and the meter should measure how much current goes through it

one thing to be aware of when measuring current... if your board had a short in the power supply (i don't think it does because your low voltage breaker is not popping and the controller sortof works), it will draw as much current as it can get before the 3A low voltage breaker pops OR your meter's current fuse blows. That's why you always start with the highest 10A range... let's say you got a reading of 250mA or so - now you could safely switch to a lower range that had a typical 1A or 400mA input fuse.
 

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