New Mastertemp control board with no membrane jumper

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doncaruana

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Aug 25, 2011
589
Northville, Mi
Pool Size
15500
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
So I got a new board to replace my existing one and I'm going through everything to make sure it's all set up correctly and I notice that there is no jumper for the membrane control (JMP3). It should be in the lower left of this picture according to my old board as well as the original manual and the one that came with the board but you can see it's missing. I'll be hooking up my easytouch system so I guess I shouldn't need to do anything? But I'm kinda confused as to why it would be missing...20200629_101128.jpg
 
Just got off the phone with pentair...they said there was a period of time where they had removed the jumper and eventually put it back. For my situation, it shouldn't matter, EXCEPT...
the way my heater is wired, I don't think I have any power to it when it's "off". So I'm a little worried about how I'm going to adjust the max temp. Hopefully putting everything in "Manual" mode will allow me to do this...
 
It looks like they stopped using the jumper. They really didn't need it anyway. The 3-wire control should still work if you want to use that, but it looks like you were using the fireman's switch anyway. So, it shouldn't make any difference.

Is the new board actual Pentair or generic aftermarket?

Does the board say Pentair on it?

Notice how the old board has a label with the part number and the CPU has the revision number?

The new board does not have the part number or the software revision number on the CPU, which indicates to me that the board is probably not a new, genuine Pentair.
 
It's actually on the back (see pic). Here's a thought though... I decided to run the old one until I saw that behavior with the temperature declining but it seems to be holding steady so far and even following the actual temp (went up a degree). Is it possible there was just some random moisture from the major storm we had causing the issue and it's dried up now? I hate to just "throw" $300 at this, but should I just go ahead and replace the board even if the old one is holding?

20200629_101120.jpg
 
That board looks used. It does not look new. You can check with Pentair from the serial number.

In any case, I don't know what's going on with the old board. It seems intermittent. Maybe it will work or maybe not.
 
I did notice a few marks on the back but it looks really really clean. Pentair couldn't tell me manufacture date, just that the boards from the last 4 years have the S on the part number which this one does not. So the board is at least 4 years old. Not sure if that means that it's been sitting Ina warehouse that long or if it's a refurbish.

In the meantime, in this mode of operation, I was at least able to verify that I could change the max temp at the keypad.

Gonna hold off on changing this since a) it's hot this week, b) the old one seems to be working so far, and c) I don't want to put an old used one cause that's what I already have.
 
The serial number is 130404, which might mean April 04 2013. Pentair can translate that if they want to.

In any case, I would send the board back for a refund.

Did the seller represent it as new?

The software revision is not on the CPU, which is not a good sign.
 

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As I look around, the pictures at this poolweb look pretty much identical. But I agree something seem's off. My heater was manufactured in August of 2011 and it has a Rev D board. I got it from Amazon via "Swimming Pool Wholesalers" who have a 98% positive rating there, for whatever that's worth.

Looks like they updated the LED display to LCD on the replacements anyway, as a number of people complain about visibility. I don't look at the heater panel often though.
 
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I think that the revisions are numbered sequentially with A being Rev 1 and so forth with N being Rev. 14.

Rev D I would think should show as Rev 4 on startup. Is that what your board shows on startup?

It should be 888, 128 and Rev X where X is the revision number.

Your new board is labeled as Rev N, which should show as R14 on startup. If it shows rev 14, then it's likely a newer board.

I would think that the LCD should display OK for your system as the membrane pad just has a clear window.
 
Actually, mine shows r13 during startup I think. It definitely doesn't show 4. I'll run out there in a bit and verify.

BTW, I typed that wrong earlier...the board itself shows Rev B on the sticker on it, but the manual I have that I downloaded when I got the pool shows Rev D.
 
So here's a bit of information that others may find useful...

After talking with a different person at Pentair this morning, I found out that revision N is the latest revision (as of 2018, per your research @JamesW ).

She also said it's not that there is no jumper, but they moved the jumper, and apparently didn't update the docs that go out with it. She sent me a picture of the latest board with the jumper circled and, although you can't see it in this pic, it's now labelled JMP1.

As you can see, it's pretty much identical to the board I got, so I think I'm going to go ahead and install it this week and then clean up the old one and keep it as an emergency spare. I'm going to coat both with a conformal coating which will hopefully elongate the life a bit.

image001.jpg
 
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I have a revision L board and they removed the pins completely now. It was like they were too cheap to solder the header pins and provide a jumper/trace. Really not sure what to do at this point. I am comfortable soldering, but... Really Pentair?! What now? Does it not need to be soldered and I can just use the 3 wire system (if so, how do I turn the heater off using the 3 wire system) without cutting power to it? Or are pins 1 (square) and 2 just on by software/default and I have to solder pins 2 and 3 to enable the remote control? Or...

Any feedback would be appreciated! Pic attached
 

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Flashvenom said:
I have a revision L board and they removed the pins completely now. It was like they were too cheap to solder the header pins and provide a jumper/trace. Really not sure what to do at this point. I am comfortable soldering, but... Really Pentair?! What now? Does it not need to be soldered and I can just use the 3 wire system (if so, how do I turn the heater off using the 3 wire system) without cutting power to it? Or are pins 1 (square) and 2 just on by software/default and I have to solder pins 2 and 3 to enable the remote control? Or...

Any feedback would be appreciated! Pic attached
Click to expand...

Interesting that the jumper isn't there, although the connections are like on the new board pic I posted above. How did you get a revision L board? If you got it "new", it's not - revision N is the latest (started in 2018).

All the jumper does is disable the pool membrane Pool On and Spa On functions, and the membrane off function should still work. You should still be able to use the 3-wire control.
 
doncaruana said:
All the jumper does is disable the pool membrane Pool On and Spa On functions, and the membrane off function should still work. You should still be able to use the 3-wire control.
Click to expand...

I got it about a year ago. Well... my hope is that in the 3 wire system, completing the circuit for pool mode (pool to common) would turn the heater on and set it to pool mode. And then same with spa. But it's also my hope that if I cut the loop, the heater will turn off. That's why I was hoping the jumper actually did more than just disable the membrane. I was hoping it would cause the unit to default to off if either pool or spa mode didn't have a completed circuit in the 3 wire system. Hopefully that makes sense. Otherwise I have to manually cut the power to the whole darn heater to turn it off. (Which is going to be tricky for me since for some reason my heater uses the same 240v line as my main pump)

UPDATE: After a slight bit of hassle, Pentair agreed to ship me out the latest board revision - which I guess is N. He said they thought no one was using the 3 wire system so they removed it, and shortly after they did this they got complaints... So they put it back in. In that spirit, they've agreed to remedy the mistake and send me a new board that has the jumper pins. Makes me feel a WHOLE lot better about Pentair's customer support.
 
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