Pentair Easytouch remote not working

[CypressTx]

Hi all,
My easytouch remote is suddenly not talking. I already tried re-pairing it but it's not. I took off the cover and NONE of the led's are lit or flashing (not even power). What next?

 

[mknauss]

@ogdento is very helpful in these situations ----

 

[CypressTx]

Thanks @mknauss much appreciated. Hopefully @ogdento will be able to help! Interestingly, my spa side remote no longer has power either, but that stopped working a couple months ago. I finally found my multimeter, so I'm going to see if I can test some voltages but not totally sure what I'm checking for yet :S
*Update* I'm getting 15V to the board itself but not a single LED light is on on the 520946Z board. Looks like my board might be fried.

 

[ogdento]

15v is what you'd expect at the red/black terminals. Are you measuring that with the transceiver card connected or disconnected? If there was a short (either on the card or in the cabling), it would drag that voltage down... under 10v or even less. But if the card is plugged in and you're still seeing 15v, it's odd that the power LED is off.

In any case, check the rest of the wiring...

Shut the power off to the panel and pump and make sure the yellow/green wires have continuity and that neither is shorted to black or red. Again, shut the power off to the panel AND the pump first
1. To test for shorts: set your meter to continuity and measure from yel to black, yel to red, green to black, green to red, green to yel... you should get no conductivity.
2. To test for continuity on yellow/green: if your meter probes reach (likely they won't), you can put one probe on each end of each yel/green wire and see if there's continuity. For a long run of cable, on one end you can temporarily connect yellow to green... and at the other end (where they are not connected) measure continuity from yellow to green... you should get a beep.

If the wiring isn't the problem...

You've got a 520946z, which has a "Laird" chip, and that board normally draws 40-50mA... you can use the current draw as a very general pass/fail check.

NOTE: (and forgive me if you know this already) You cannot measure current the same way you measure voltage... you have to "break the circuit" and insert the probes into the current flow.
1. Set your meter to A or mA
2. carefully remove the red wire from the card's terminal block (making absolutely sure the red wire doesn't touch anything else, even for a millisecond)
3. put the neg/black probe on the red wire
4. put the pos/red probe on the terminal that the wire was connected to... connecting the probes will "complete the circuit" and the current will flow "through" the meter, giving you a measurement.

If it's still no-go, pm me and I can test it for you.

-Tom

 

[CypressTx]

Merged threads - TFP Mod
Hi all,
I've somehow managed to get my EasyTouch programming all messed up while troubleshooting my wireless transceiver board (which I have on order as there's no LED lights on it even though it's getting 15V).

First question: I dont have the ScreenLogic2 so I can't connect my PC - should I order one - is it worth the $482 on eBay?

Second, my F. Circuits all show "OFF". I don't believe they were that way so I assume I'm somehow reset to default? How do I go about getting everything reprogrammed without a ScreenLogic2 it seems like it's going to be a bit trickier. It was originally spilling over during POOL and today I noticed the pump said 0RPM and nothing was happening, so I pushed Speed 2 on the pump and it's at least running now, but not sure what next .

Thanks in advance...

 

[Jimrahbe]

Russ,

You can program the whole EasyTouch with just the little LCD on the main panel.. It is just a pain in the rear compared with ScreenLogic.

ScreenLogic makes programming about 10 X easier and makes using the EasyTouch much more fun.

I would not buy it, just to program this one time, but I can't understand why you did not buy it vs. trying to repair an old remote that was out of date in the 70's..

As an example.. Here it the set up page for all your Circuits.. Including those missing Feature Circuits.

Set up page 2.JPG

• Jimrahbe
• Jun 8, 2020

Here is the page to set up schedules..

Schedules1.JPG

• Jimrahbe
• Mar 8, 2021

Here is the page to set up pump speeds...

Set up page 4.JPG

• Jimrahbe
• Apr 19, 2019

Here is the page to set up valve control for A and B valves.

Page 3 of 5.JPG

• Jimrahbe
• Apr 4, 2020

Not having ScreenLogic is like riding a horse without a saddle.. Yes it can be done, but it is not near the fun.

I'd be glad to help point you in the right direction if you want.. Just let me know.. I'll need to know what each Aux circuit is wired to do. I'll need to know what valves you have. I need to know what each of your Feature Circuits were doing... I need to know what pump speeds go with each Circuit.

Unless your pump's display says "Display Not Active" then the EasyTouch is not talking to the pump.. It could be that you have lost the com port on the main board.. Or it could be that something else on the RS-485 com bus bad, keeping the bus from working.

The first thing that I would do is disconnect everything from the J20 com bus except the pump and see if the pump's display says "Display not active." If not, I would assume the main board's com chips are bad..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[CypressTx]

Merged threads. TFP Mod
Hi all,
I'm going out of the country for a couple weeks in a few days and freaking out a bit because my Easy Touch programming is wonky. I ordered the wireless kit but it won't be installed in time, and my remote quit working the other day, so I'm going to have to program it from the easy touch panel. The one problem i'm having, is even though I have POOL set to run currently from 8am-8pm, when I check it, the pump says "Running schedule" but is 0 RPM. During this, the easytouch is on Auto and Pool. In the EasyTouch, "POOL"'s RPM is set for 1800 rpm, so I don't understand why the pump is running 0 RPM when the schedule kicks in. The only way I can get it to run is pressing Speed 2 or 3 on the VS pump itself. Any ideas? Thanks!
@Jimrahbe

 

[ogdento]

I thought your pump said "Display Not Active" (indicating that it can talk to the easytouch board)?? If it's saying "Running schedule" then i think it's trying to run a schedule that's in the pump, not in the easytouch outdoor board

 

[Jimrahbe]

Russ,

If the pump's does not say.. "Display not active", it means the pump and the EasyTouch are not talking over the RS-485 bus.

I suggest that you disconnect everything from J20 (com bus) except the IntelliFlo Pump. With just the pump connected to J20 see what the pump's display says..

Keep in mind that you have to be in Auto, you can't be in the Service mode.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[CypressTx]

I thought your pump said "Display Not Active" (indicating that it can talk to the easytouch board)?? If it's saying "Running schedule" then i think it's trying to run a schedule that's in the pump, not in the easytouch outdoor board

Sorry i’m confusing things. At the easy touch it says Status: NO COMM! The pump says running schedule 0 rpm and if I hit speed 2 or 3 it speeds up. So not only does my remote not work, the pump status is also saying No Comm on the easy touch.

 

[CypressTx]

I just did a reset and it says status normal now and the pump just kicked on.

 

[CypressTx]

Boo It just went back to NO COMM on the pump status after the reset seemed to briefly fix it.

 

[mknauss]

Follow what Jim described in Post #9. Be sure the power is OFF to the Easytouch when you are dealing with the RS485 connections.

 

[CypressTx]

Russ,

If the pump's does not say.. "Display not active", it means the pump and the EasyTouch are not talking over the RS-485 bus.

I suggest that you disconnect everything from J20 (com bus) except the IntelliFlo Pump. With just the pump connected to J20 see what the pump's display says..

Keep in mind that you have to be in Auto, you can't be in the Service mode.

Thanks,

Jim R.

I’m confused now because where it says Filter Pump under the filter pump and auxiliary relays (J8) there’s nothing plugged in. And it was working fine a week or two ago. I’m trying to figure out which of the three going to J20 is the pump, tracing them is hard with conduit .

 

[CypressTx]

Russ,

If the pump's does not say.. "Display not active", it means the pump and the EasyTouch are not talking over the RS-485 bus.

I suggest that you disconnect everything from J20 (com bus) except the IntelliFlo Pump. With just the pump connected to J20 see what the pump's display says..

Keep in mind that you have to be in Auto, you can't be in the Service mode.

Thanks,

Jim R.

Very interesting - when only the pump is connected, it works! What does that mean? I ordered a new pcb for my wireless remote and a wireless kit to add. Is the likely bad wireless pcb likely causing other issues?

 

[ogdento]

I think you said you had a bad spa controller too?

When one of the devices on the comm port (which is an rs485 bus) dies, it frequently interferes with everything else too.

But if the pump works when it's the only thing connected, then we know both the pump and the easytouch comms are good... so one of the other two devices is killing it.

 

[ogdento]

It might be best to leave this until you get back... but Jim's advice of connecting one thing to the comm port at a time is the best way to troubleshoot, especially now that we know the easytouch comms are good.

So when you get home, power down and disconnect the pump from the comm port. Then connect JUST the easytouch remote... power up and try to pair it. Then power down, disconnect the easytouch remote, connect JUST the spa side remote, power up and see if that works.

I know you ordered a new transceiver card - but don't toss your old one because it *might* still be ok.