ALCON
Thanks again for everyone’s input here.
I spoke with the product manager today for about an hour and a half and I felt that it was a pretty productive conversation.
He had a lot to report on and I in turn shared everyone’s concerns. I anonymously shared verbatim several of the posts from above, which I believe helped him to better put a finger on the pulse of what the average IntelliCenter users are experiencing in the field.
I took notes the best I could and so as promised I would like to share the take-aways. These are not necessarily in order of any priority.
Prod Servers (intellicenter.com). (slow, unresponsive and inadequate “uptime.”)
The current servers are an “old-school” cloud infrastructure. They (Pentair) are currently planning and testing a “more scalable architecture” that will allow them to arrive at an uptime of “3 9’s.” When IntelliCenter initially came online, they had not planned for the huge user migration that occurred. They very much realize that this is a significant issue with a majority of the users. They are currently working on just keeping the servers up while they perform robust testing on the newer cloud server architecture so they can migrate users systematically. They are afraid that if they don’t take this cautious approach that it could end up causing all the IntelliCenter (as well as other automation mobile apps) users to be without connectivity to their panels.
The new architecture will allow for -
1. Improved server provisioning (scalling).
2. Improved load balancing.
3. Higher availability.
Migration timeline is currently set at 3-6 months.
Alexa Skill
Much of the initial issues were because the skills were not developed in accordance with “Amazon Best Practices.”
They have made some improvements (short term fixes) and some commands do work better now. They believe that it is more stable now however they are continuing to work on it in order to make more advancements.
Their overall plan is to develop and consolidate one skill that consolidates the IntelliCenter and the *Touch automation system skills.
Apple Watch
Initial stumbling blocks were due to the intermediate “back-end” issues that were expressed by the Apple development team although he claims that it is working intermittently now. Timeline for overall completion of this feature is Q2 2022.
Next Firmware Release
A new firmware release is currently in internal testing and will be released in beta very shortly. I have agreed to upload the beta when it is available for testing and if no problems, the publicly released version should be available in the April to mid-May time frame. There are several “bug” fixes that will be incorporated as well as some of the issues outlined below.
Schedule issues in the web-client. These include the issue that some schedules do not expand to allow for editing or indicate “Special Circ#” instead of the actual Feature Circuit or Circuit Group.)
Remains on their radar and they hope that these will be addressed in the next firmware release.
Sunset/Sunrise Offset Issue
Possibly addressed in the next firmware release.
Lighting hold/recall issue
Fixed in next firmware release.
Inability to sort circuits and schedules
Fixed in next firmware release.
Google Home
The development has been paused. This is to allow for one set of voice skills (Alexa first.) They believe that this will then allow them to better leverage those voice skills to other platforms such Google Home and Siri. Timeline for completion is scheduled for Q4, 2022.
Midnight transition for schedules
Hopefully the fix is included in the next firmware release.
Inclusion of the IntelliValve on the RS-485 bus
Still very much on their radar. Their priority is to fix any base functionality issues first and to address improvements to the backend architecture (see prod server above) first before moving on to this issue which appears to be much more of a challenge for them in their prioritization.
“over-the-air” (OTA) updates
Will be addressed in the next firmware update. In the next update, users will still have to manually download the update from Pentair.com. After that, the OTA capability should be in effect.
Wi-Fi issues
A new “High Power Wireless Link Kit,” has replaced the EnGenius WiFi Link Kit (Primary Client Bridge) (P/N 522475Z). These new link kits began shipping with newer IntelliCenter bundled kits, January 30, 2021.
The new kits have two (2) transceivers. One transceiver connects to the user’s router and the other connects to the IntelliCenter. The following is reported.
1. Connection range is significantly better.
2. Establishes a proprietary secure bridge between the two transceivers which automatically negotiates the connection.
3. Allows for auto configuration and formatting (plug and play).
Note: For any users that are experiencing Wi-Fi issues and if your unit is under warranty, contact Pentair Tech Support for assistance. The older wireless kits are “field replaceable” with the newer kits.
The Product manager explained current prioritization.
Existing issues:
1. OCP (Outdoor Control Panel)
2. Apps
3. web-client
New Development:
1. IntelliValve (RS-485 capability)
2. Ability to control multiple bodies of water beyond two (2)
Note: Trouble tickets on iOS issues are being worked more expeditiously than the web-client issues. Not for any reason other than it appears that one team is more expeditious.
That is about all I got for now. Some of the above may be very good news for some users and maybe not so good for others (depending on your priorities, etc.) I guess time will tell how it all plays out.
r.
EDIT. If you expressed an issue above but don't see it addressed here. For those issues, they were noted by the Product Manager and hopefully follow-up on those issues will occur in the future. Thanks...
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