Pentair IntelliBrite 5G Defect

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850 smackers. Yikes. Why air? To blow out old solder? Or is it easier on the traces?

This is my "learned-o-the-day."
 
That's a good question... I think it's easier on the traces and the components themselves? I can't say how many times I've nicked/burned/melted or otherwise deformed an adjacent part to what I'm trying to remove!

"Reflow soldering" is of the techniques to assemble boards with surface mount components... you place all the parts with a solder-paste and basically cook the board in an oven or on a plate to a particular temperature at which the solder-paste "reflows" or melts, affixing the part to the board. The hot air is kindof the reverse of that... use hot air to heat a part up enough - while shielding the other components - and once the solder melts you can lift it right off the board. I've even seen videos of people running a halogen lamp over the part for long enough to melt the solder and remove the part.
 
Oh, so with the right tool, you can heat all the pins at once and pull the whole thing out? Yah, that'd be the way to go, otherwise you're just cooking the traces and the board. And some boards have multiple layers of traces running through them, right? So you can't always just repair a fried trace.

Interesting ideas. I'll get back to you in 1 to 3650 days to let you know how it went! I figure it'll either fail during that period, or in 10 years or so Pentair will finally get around to improving this 5G piece of junk, so I'll be upgrading at that point.

I'm still cheesed that the thing can only do five colors and five scenes. So much potential, so little development effort! With three or four LEDs you can produce millions of colors. And without much of a brain it could produce 100s of scenes, and/or produce and remember as many user-configured scenes. I would think that would be ridiculously easy programming. All communicated by RF or WiFi (to maybe an above ground companion unit), or power line comms like some of my HA equipment uses. The effects could be stunning and blow away the competition.

Instead we get 10 lame-ish choices, user-selectable by toggling an on-off switch a dozen times. I'm pretty sure Fred Flintstone had better technology available!!

Someday...
 
TPKnight, I see you're poking around in at least one other thread about this Florida Sunseeker replacement. Would you mind keeping this thread updated with what you find, order, replace, etc?And how it all worked out? I'd love to keep this thread current with what folks are doing about their failed 5Gs. Thanks!
 
Just replaced my burnt out Intellibrite 5G light engine with Florida Sunseeker's Pool Baron aftermarket board. Very easy install--pool out the fixture, remove the retaining ring from the back, open the light, remove the old board with 4 screws, plug in the new one and fasten in place with one screw. New seal included. Tighten up retaining ring and place back in niche.
It works with the Pentair controller, but the colors and color shows don't match up with the programmed settings on the Pentair controller. Some of the colors are better than the Pentair bulb, most are not as pretty. It does have a two year warranty, so I hope it has a much longer lifespan the the Pentair light board.
Overall, I'm happy with it, (and paying less than half for it compared to another Pentair light engine that will only last 1 season) seems like good deal.
 
Thanks for the feedback, jlexon! I went ahead and ordered a replacement Pentair board. It came today, so I will install it tomorrow. I wasn't sure if I would have been happy with the Sunseeker replacement, since I have a Pentair bubbler and Pentiar controller. The colors would have been off and the wife would have probably complained to me!
 
Hfd499 said:
No longer dealing with my pool builder and my light is not changing colors who should I call ?
Click to expand...

Any authorized Pentair repair center/person can help you, warranty or no. When my light went out, I called Pentair directly, I explained that I had a falling out with the closest Pentair dealer, they sent out a guy from the next closest.
 

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Hello, one of my Intellibrite 5G led light went out today as well. My pool was build in 2014...I will call Pentair.

I browsed through this thread so I apologized is this question has been answered but are you guys doing this repair yourselves? Thank you.
 
Here's an update on what I've learned...

The U1 chip that seems to blow up is a Linear Technologies (now Analog devices) LT3496 LED driver, packaged in an impossibly-small-to-hand-solder UFD form factor. They make a 125 and a 150 degree C version but they have the same markings so I can't tell what's actually on the board.

I've got two of these boards on my bench:
- #1 has the older smaller aluminum heat sink backing and weighs 3.6 oz... this one has a visibly smoked U1
- #2 has the extra copper heat sink backing and weighs 6.5 oz... this board probably works but J4 has been torn off, taking the board traces with it. This is a different issue but the board was designed with a surface mount quick-fit connector whereas I'd prefer to see a stronger physical connection to the board. Considering their cost, these things should be able to deal with a bit of force!!

Anyway, Digi-Key has the 150 degree U1/LT3496H part (H denotes the 150 degree version) for 9 bucks and change:
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/linear-technology-analog-devices/LT3496HUFD-PBF/LT3496HUFD-PBF-ND/2333084?utm_source=505&utm_medium=supplier&utm_campaign=buynow

The datasheet suggests that if the junction temperature gets over 125/150 degrees it will have problems. If these failures are indeed heat related, I'm not yet sure which part is actually overheating... it could be the driver itself, or it could be that another part - in conjunction with the thin heat sink - gets hot enough to raise the temperature of the entire board above the driver's junction temp threshold and smokes it. 125/150 degrees C is pretty hot though.
 
Do you have any hope the heavier sink will address the problem of the U1, or any other part, overheating? Or is it just a bad design?

Are you going to try and fix #1?
 
I do think the added copper heat sink should help. It's a little odd how the board is built... the heat sink is almost like the backing layer for the circuit traces - it's not using your standard board material.

I'm going to try and get them both running so I can log temperature data for comparison purposes, but just based on the added mass of #2's heat sink I imagine it will run much cooler. Assuming I can get #1 running I'll fit an additional heatsink plate on the back and see if I can get it's temperature down. If that works it should be a simple mod for anybody that has the old heat sink style.
 
Good work. If you want to write up how someone could add such a heat sink, feel free to post it in this thread. I'd also be interested in how to replace that U1, and where to get one, in case I get that failure out of warranty. Thanks for your efforts to date.
 
If possible, what would probably help more than a larger heat sink is a heat sink that touches the housing. Heat sinks rely upon convection for cooling and inside a sealed unit there is very little convection. So to get the heat out quicker, conduction to the housing and then transferred to the water will be far more effective. However, practically, it may not be possible.

But probably the bigger question is why there is so much heat in the unit. The old style halogen bulbs would have had 100x the heat output of the LEDs.
 
mas985 said:
If possible, what would probably help more than a larger heat sink is a heat sink that touches the housing. Heat sinks rely upon convection for cooling and inside a sealed unit there is very little convection. So to get the heat out quicker, conduction to the housing and then transferred to the water will be far more effective. However, practically, it may not be possible.

But probably the bigger question is why there is so much heat in the unit. The old style halogen bulbs would have had 100x the heat output of the LEDs.
Click to expand...

I had a similar thought. The irony of having heat issues in a light that was under water!! It's water cooled!!! Come on, Pentair engineers, figure it out already!!
 
Using a housing which is in contact with a large mass of cool water is definitely the best option from a scientific perspective. Plus one on that!
However - and I don't actually have an intellibrite in my pool so I don't have a reference for the housing - isn't the housing bonded to the rest of the pool? If so, that might complicate using it as part of the cooling.
 
I've never handled the housing, so I'm not sure how all that works. It's underwater, though, so there must be some way to safely, effectively move the heat around. Academic, strange forces drive Pentair engineering...
 

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