Pentair IntelliBrite 5G Color Underwater LED Pool Light - Replacement

[peteandvanessa]

We had a IntelliBrite 5G Color Underwater LED Pool Light that failed after three years of use.
It seems to be a very common failure, where gradually each color is lost until eventually the light stops working altogether.

We pulled apart the light and investigated what is going wrong, and we discovered that one of the chips that supplies the power to the LEDs overheats and eventually burns out and hence why the LEDs stop working.

We looked at a full Pentair replacement light, but that costs $1,000.
Even if you just replace the Pentair LED board inside the niche, it still costs $600 and it's likely to fail after 2-3 years.

My daughter is a SW & HW engineer, so she set out to design a low cost replacement, and we have just receive the first prototypes from the factory in China.

The design is still under going testing, but the initial testing is looking good.

You basically open the existing Light, remove the existing Pentair LED light PCB and replace it with board below.
It's as easy as undoing four screws, remove the two connectors, and replacing it with the prototype shown below.

 

[peteandvanessa]

Initial prototype test:

 

[ajw22]

Will your light product be listed to meet NEC requirements?

The National Electrical Code (NEC) requires all underwater lighting to be certified to UL 676, the Standard for Underwater Luminaires and Submersible Junction Boxes.

UL Listing required?

When replacing a light fixture that is in a wet niche, is the new fixture required to be UL Listed? I'm considering a fixture from sunseeker, but it is not UL. I would really like to go with the SS fixture, but don't want to do something wrong.

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[peteandvanessa]

That’s something we are looking at

 

[AZ_MB]

Impressive work! Will it interface with the Easy Touch control box just like the OEM version for color changes?

 

[AZ_MB]

I'm curious about your design. Did you use a Microchip MCU like the OEM? I worked at Microchip for 15 years and was the Product Engineer for the PIC24 they used. While I was glad to see a product I worked on being used by Pentair, their poor heat management was disappointing. Do you know if your design operates at a lower temp?

 

[peteandvanessa]

Impressive work! Will it interface with the Easy Touch control box just like the OEM version for color changes?

It will do yes, with some software updates. Right now we are scrolling through the colors to test it. The pentair lights use a simple on off relay to change colors, we can mimic that in our software so it mimics the pentair lights.
Cost wise we think we can get it to maybe $100-150 per light in low volume.

 

[peteandvanessa]

I'm curious about your design. Did you use a Microchip MCU like the OEM? I worked at Microchip for 15 years and was the Product Engineer for the PIC24 they used. While I was glad to see a product I worked on being used by Pentair, their poor heat management was disappointing. Do you know if your design operates at a lower temp?

It’s using a STM32 cpu. The poor heat management of the original pentair design is what is killing their lights. We have a temperature sensor in the design that measures the temperature of the pcb and throttles the current up and down in software.
We have had the prototype on the bench at 120F with no issues, but we are still testing.
Low temperatures aren’t going to be an issue for sure. The chips on the board are spec’ed for -40C to +85C

 

[peteandvanessa]

Here’s a better pic of the board

 

[AZ_MB]

It will do yes, with some software updates. Right now we are scrolling through the colors to test it. The pentair lights use a simple on off relay to change colors, we can mimic that in our software so it mimics the pentair lights.
Cost wise we think we can get it to maybe $100-150 per light in low volume.

I think you'll have plenty of customers at that price point. How does the brightness compare to Pentair's?

 

[peteandvanessa]

I think you'll have plenty of customers at that price point. How does the brightness compare to Pentair's?

The initial testing is showing that it’s pretty bright, comparable to the pentair original

 

[mikew2069]

The initial testing is showing that it’s pretty bright, comparable to the pentair original

Any updates?

 

[smkz]

Also interested in any updates for this, my 5g just died and found this thread while looking for alternatives. Not really feeling like paying $1200 for Pentair's new "architectural series" 5G replacement lol.

 

[MaverickFL]

Mine died a few weeks back. I built my own with some help from the Internet and some off the shelf 30 watt WS2811 Pixel modules from AliExpress. Following the recommendations of that youtube link, I swapped in a Quin-LED Dig Uno/ESP 32 controller which uses WLED software (free). I can now get millions of different colors and dozens of different lighting effects, plus its programmable, so you can design your own light shows and there are various modifications for the Dig-uno/esp 32 board, like microphones you can attach to have it change color to music, etc.

My pool is smaller and whoever built it only put in a smaller spa light niche. I've always been a little frustrated with the lighting level, so I also upgraded to a 30 watt pixel module where the original spa light only runs at about 18 watts, maybe. It is MUCH brighter, but we'll have to see how it holds up to the additional heat. The WLED software does allow you to adjust the brightness of the LED as well though which is nice. If you have the 10" light, you could probably install 2 of these, which would probably be about twice as bright for that model as well.

The cost of everything was under $100:

AliExpress WS2811 RGB Pixel Module $10
QuinLED DIg Uno/Esp 32 w/ external antenna (Drzzs.com) - $45
12V Ac to DC rectifier (to Power Dig-Uno which powers the 12vdc pixel module) (Amazon) - $5
Aluminum sheeting (home depot) and nylon spacers (Amazon) for mounting pixel module and dig uno inside Light transformer - $15
Thermal compound for heat transfer (Amazon) - $7
New Pentair gasket- $20 (optional)
Re-used existing pentair housing

It required a bit of DIY skills for the electrical, fabricating the aluminum, hooking up and configuring the Dig-uno etc, but nothing crazy.

This pixel module is 2 pieces (see picture), the led portion is separate from the PCB Board. The way I mounted the control board was separately, I put a wrap of electrical tape around the pcb to keep it from grounding to the case and angled it underneath the pixel module and the aluminum sheet its mounted to. The hope is that this will insulate the pcb from the direct heat a bit more, keep it cooler and help prevent it from cooking like the Pentair board. Only time will tell on this but its been running about 50 hours so far with no problems. I think the same approach will work for the 10" light. This one pixel module is probably equal in brightness to the Pentair 10" pool light but it fits inside the 6" spa light enclosure with room to spare, it is at least twice as bright as the original Intellibrite spa light. Time will tell how it holds up, but for $10 I don't mind replacing the LED every few years.

To make this run from the WLED app instead of power off/on sequences like the Intellibrite, I repurposed the ground wire for the data communication. Since its zero volts DC you can however run the black wire to ground (from rectifier neg to ground) in the transformer. This is covered in the youtube video. Technically a ground wire is not required by NEC at the fixture, so I felt ok with this.

Overall, Im very happy with the results. I saved a ton of money over buying a new spa light, I have a much brighter light in the pool and this is far more flexible and customizable than the OEM was. I also expect this to last longer, but if it doesn't, it's only $10 to fix it next time and I bought a spare pixel module just in case.

Update March 2025: Running every night for 6 hours a night for 3 months (500 hours) with no problems.


Note: Make sure to change the resistor switch on the DigUno to 33Ohms to make it work for the longer distances needed between transformer and light. THis is necessary for anything over 25-30ft.

Pixel Module mounted in housing.

WS2811 Pixel Module:

Dig Uno/ESP32 on transformer mounting plate:

 

[uraceulose]

That is awesome. Great job and thank you so much for sharing the write up