Pentair EasyTouch randomly interrupts schedule

[CatCity]

Pentair EasyTouch PL4\PLS4 with Intelliflow pump and Pentair MasterTemp heater, with remote hardwired Easytouch pad in house and ScreenLogic online. Pretty standard simple setup. One schedule with pool heat, cycle running nearly 24 hours (short 15 min. off time). Pool EggTimer at 24\don't-stop. No auxilliary devices or lights. We have a spa cycle which we can switch to and out of, just fine. Communications seem fine. System runs fine.
The problem is the system seems to randomly shut off for no reason about once a day. We'll happen to notice the pump is not running, and then discover everything is off. Its not a consistent ocurrence, happens at different times of day or night and unrelated to any external event or other system activity, no correlation to schedule or using spa. We see the cycle is off, manually resume the pool cycle and everything starts back up just fine.
It seems to only happen when pool is being heated though, we don't see this random shutdown in summer when we don't heat the pool. I think maybe the heater is somehow triggering the system to interrupt the schedule, but never seeing any error messages or physical faults I can point to as being the cause.
Anyone else experience anything like this? If there's some kind of fault ocurring, how can I capture it? Any diagnostic tests I can run?

 

[Jimrahbe]

CC,

What specific IntelliFlo pump do you have???

I am not sure what is causing your problem,, but here is something to keep in mind..

If you 'manually' turn a scheduled circuit on or off, depending on when you do it, it can cause the ET to get confused and it will use the egg-timer to shut off. It then can take 24 hours for the (next cycle) ET to catch up.. You really should never turn on, or shut off, a scheduled circuit... If you want to stop the pump, just put the system into the Service mode.

Why do you have a 15 minute off period?? To run 24/7 just set start time to 8 am and the off time to 8 am (same as the start time.) If the Pool circuit is running 24/7, there is no reason to have the Pool egg timer set to 'Don't stop'...

The egg timer is there to shut off any circuit that is manually turned on.. So, if you manually turn on the 'waterfall' circuit, it will automatically turn off based on the egg timer value.. (Default if 12 hours)

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[CatCity]

Answers:

• Intelliflow variable speed (VFD) pump.
• I understand how the eggtimer works.
• I'm not stopping the pump. I'm not doing anything. It spontaneously stops for no apparent reason. That's the problem.
• And I *have* to manually resume, otherwise it may be half a day's worth of heating lost ($$) until the clock catches up to the schedule's starting time again.
• The 15-minute gap is to be able to verify that the whole system is indeed operating properly. Its a daily verification the schedule is clearly working.

Here's a question: What port(s) is used by the screenlogic ethernet controller inteface? We have Screenlogic-2, v5.2, build 738. We're seeing some specific router activity correlating with the times the pool shuts itself off. I'm wondering if we have some kind of hidden network traffic (e.g. auto-update-bots) communicating on the same port(s) and somehow causing interference in a way that turns the pool off. On a related note, this is an old build, is there a way to update the firmware?

 

[ajw22]

Here's a question: What port(s) is used by the screenlogic ethernet controller inteface? We have Screenlogic-2, v5.2, build 738. We're seeing some specific router activity correlating with the times the pool shuts itself off. I'm wondering if we have some kind of hidden network traffic (e.g. auto-update-bots) communicating on the same port(s) and somehow causing interference in a way that turns the pool off. On a related note, this is an old build, is there a way to update the firmware?

You answer is in Pentair Automation Systems - Further Reading

 

[Sharkygirl]

I thought I would chime in. When our intellicenter didn't seem to be following the schedules I set, I learned that after we had a power outage, the time and date needed to be reset. Then it all worked as it should. Food for thought.

 

[DrewLG]

What port(s) is used by the screenlogic ethernet controller inteface? We have Screenlogic-2, v5.2, build 738. We're seeing some specific router activity correlating with the times the pool shuts itself off.

The protocol adapter (PA, the box that plugs into your ethernet) does the following:

Every 20 minutes -- or whenever communication is restored after having been lost:

• PA performs a DNS lookup ( on UDP port 53) for screenlogicserver.pentair.com
• PA contacts that host on TCP port 500 and sends a bunch of identification info: its MAC address , local IP address, pool's name, etc.
• Server responds with a list of IP addresses: A Pentair weather server to be contacted on TCP port 1000, an RFC1918 address to be contacted on port 80 (not on the PA's subnet, no idea what this is), and a list of 15 Screenlogic-server IPs
• If the PA doesn't already have an open TCP connection to a Screenlogic server, it selects one of them and opens a connection to it on TCP port 7575

Every 5 minutes:

• PA contacts the Pentair weather server on TCP port 1000 and sends its US ZIP code
• Weather server is probably meant to respond with current weather for that ZIP code, but it currently responds with very out-of-date weather information (e.g., today it's reporting weather from 21 December 2021, 3 years ago)

Every 10 seconds:

• The Screenlogic server sends a status packet to the PA from TCP port 7575. The packet says, among other things, whether a Screenlogic Control app (or Elan control panel) is trying to connect to the pool through the server

Every 11 minutes, 20 seconds -- or whenever the control packet from the Screenlogic server says that a Screenlogic Control app or panel is trying to connect:

• PA opens a connection to the Screenlogic server on a random TCP port that's typically in the 32000-32767 range, and checks in with its ID

Whenever the Screenlogic Control app or panel wants to send data to or receive data from the pool:

• PA and Screenlogic server communicate through the previously opened connection on that random port

I'm wondering if we have some kind of hidden network traffic (e.g. auto-update-bots) communicating on the same port(s) and somehow causing interference in a way that turns the pool off.

No, that's not how it works. Connections to a particular port on one host do not interfere with connections to the same-numbered port on another host.

On a related note, this is an old build, is there a way to update the firmware?

Your version 5.2.738, from 2019, is the latest Screenlogic revision.