Pentair IntelliCenter Pool Control Dashboard Instructional Guide

Jump to latest Follow Reply
MyAZPool said:
Hi McQ...
Thanks for providing some really outstanding detail here. I did mention some alternative power options in section 4. E. ("There are many other options to provide suitable power for the RPi to include small solar panels specifically designed for this purpose, such as the Adafruit Industries models. USB to USB-C adapters, Power-over-Ethernet add-on boards, etc. round out the list of available options."

However, I did not go into near as much detail on the power options. Glad you were able to provide some specifics here. Gives the prospective new njspc user some alternative power options that they can consider.

Thanks much!!! (y)
r.
Click to expand...
@MyAZPool
hey there i have a very noob question before i move fwd with your guide and purchasing hw etc.

I just redid my pool and they put in the following.

4 x Pentair color vision led bubbler with globrite led light (each have their own shut off valve but both are plumbed to 1 controlled actuator.)
2 x pentair laminer jets (each have their own shut off valve but both are plumbed to 1 controlled actuator.)
1 x pentair intellibrite 5g color pool light
1 x pentair screenlogic interface 522104
1 x pentair EasyTouch 4SC-IC40 Pool and Spa Control with IC40 Cell 520543
2 x pentair intelliflow vsf pumps (1 for the main drain/return of the pool and 1 for the jets and bubblers).
1 x pentair 145k heat pump heater
1 x pentair intellichlor salt system
2x pentair cartridge filters (1 for jets/bubblers and 1 for main pool).

I can control the pool light, bubblers and jets for on/off purposes individually. But for lighting, they are saying that in order for me to make the different "sections"(the jets being 1 section, the bubblers being another and the main pool light a 3rd section) different colors, I have to manually cycle through the on/off switch in the app for that section the # of times the little pentair book says to get to color blue. Are they on crack?
I can make all sections the same color or one of the pre programmed "scenes" (party mode, sunset mode, romance etc) but to individually control the color of the sections I have to do this on/off dance for x number of times, depending on which color. And that's per section...so if I want bubblers to be red I have to hit the on/off switch on the bubbler section 10 times. Then if I want the jets to be green, hit on/off 9 times.
According to the installed this is some limitation from the easy touch system. Which is why I now look towards this home grown solution.

Sorry for the long winded explanation and I hope I didn't confuse anyone because I'm pretty confused myself.

With this custom controller and software will I be able to just select a section and tell it what color? And not have to do the on/off dance.

Ty in advance hoping you can help.

Roy
20220504_083747_2.jpg
 
duquer said:
@MyAZPool
hey there i have a very noob question before i move fwd with your guide and purchasing hw etc.

I just redid my pool and they put in the following.

4 x Pentair color vision led bubbler with globrite led light (each have their own shut off valve but both are plumbed to 1 controlled actuator.)
2 x pentair laminer jets (each have their own shut off valve but both are plumbed to 1 controlled actuator.)
1 x pentair intellibrite 5g color pool light
1 x pentair screenlogic interface 522104
1 x pentair EasyTouch 4SC-IC40 Pool and Spa Control with IC40 Cell 520543
2 x pentair intelliflow vsf pumps (1 for the main drain/return of the pool and 1 for the jets and bubblers).
1 x pentair 145k heat pump heater
1 x pentair intellichlor salt system
2x pentair cartridge filters (1 for jets/bubblers and 1 for main pool).

I can control the pool light, bubblers and jets for on/off purposes individually. But for lighting, they are saying that in order for me to make the different "sections"(the jets being 1 section, the bubblers being another and the main pool light a 3rd section) different colors, I have to manually cycle through the on/off switch in the app for that section the # of times the little pentair book says to get to color blue. Are they on crack?
I can make all sections the same color or one of the pre programmed "scenes" (party mode, sunset mode, romance etc) but to individually control the color of the sections I have to do this on/off dance for x number of times, depending on which color. And that's per section...so if I want bubblers to be red I have to hit the on/off switch on the bubbler section 10 times. Then if I want the jets to be green, hit on/off 9 times.
According to the installed this is some limitation from the easy touch system. Which is why I now look towards this home grown solution.

Sorry for the long winded explanation and I hope I didn't confuse anyone because I'm pretty confused myself.

With this custom controller and software will I be able to just select a section and tell it what color? And not have to do the on/off dance.

Ty in advance hoping you can help.

Roy
Click to expand...
First, make sure they didn't charge you for `1 x pentair EasyTouch 4SC-IC40 Pool and Spa Control with IC40 Cell 520543` and `1 x pentair intellichlor salt system`. The latter should be included with the former.

Second, they should have sold you IntelliCenter. It can individually control light groups. EasyTouch/Intellitouch can only control a single light group. So yes, crack would help here. There are ways to use the "set" feature and color of each circuit that will control each individual light, but it is a pretty obscure way to control the lights and has to be done through the setup/config menu.

Third, you can absolutely go down the path of controlling everything with this solution, but if you can start by having the installer replace the equipment that will actually control your pool you won't need to use this (although you will probably still want to).
 
  • Like
Reactions: ogdento
tagyoureit said:
First, make sure they didn't charge you for `1 x pentair EasyTouch 4SC-IC40 Pool and Spa Control with IC40 Cell 520543` and `1 x pentair intellichlor salt system`. The latter should be included with the former.

Second, they should have sold you IntelliCenter. It can individually control light groups. EasyTouch/Intellitouch can only control a single light group. So yes, crack would help here. There are ways to use the "set" feature and color of each circuit that will control each individual light, but it is a pretty obscure way to control the lights and has to be done through the setup/config menu.

Third, you can absolutely go down the path of controlling everything with this solution, but if you can start by having the installer replace the equipment that will actually control your pool you won't need to use this (although you will probably still want to).
Click to expand...
ty for your reply!

would the intellicenter require more equipement to change the light color of each led ? for example, electrically all 4 electrical wires run to 1 junction box. would they have to seperate these to their own?
they told me in order to control each jet individually (including on/off) i would have needed alot more equipement and a different control panel. im guesing they mean the intellicenter. Is that intellicenter alot more $?

If i went with this custom solutoin on this forum, would it just plug into the current control panel? or would everythign now need to run to any new hardware to control it? im only asking if its an easily removable solution if i went with it and couldnt finish it or wanted to remove it for any reason and set it back to original factory mode.
 
First I need to lament about how bad pool lighting in general is. All of these companies seem to think that lighting control using an on/off switching protocol is acceptable. Depending on the light mode you are selecting, this can take up to a minute to get to the light color and sequence that you want. It is an exercise in frustration. So I presume most folks find a color scheme they like and don't touch it. You certainly won't be trying to impress your friends by remotely controlling the color of your lights. Keep in mind this is the same for all of the pool light manufacturers, they all do an equally poor job of it. The only clean adjectives available to describe it is crappy, stupid, half-witted, and plain dumb. The list of the non-mixed company adjectives is much longer.

If all that wasn't bad enough, they somehow think that changing the number of on/off sequences is a feature for their products. So instead of 14 times for green its 8 so you can't use any lights from any manufacturer. For a chuckle, one uses the term Party mode and the other uses Mardi-gras as if they copyrighted those terms. I can go on and on about how they are all the same but deliberately different at the same time. It's a Greek tragedy where each and every one of the characters has a fatal flaw. The moral of this story is, you won't get Vegas lighting from tech designed around a mechanical color wheel... ever.

When my IntelliBrites go bad they are all getting the DMX network that controls the rest of my landscape lights. Those do cool lighting shows to the music. Imagine The Who's, Who are you bouncing the lights around the yard. One day the pool will participate in all that goodness and not play the wallflower at the concert.

Here is how this works with EasyTouch. There is only one IntelliBrite controller in the EasyTouch and it toggles the on/off for all circuits that are defined as IntelliBrite, GloBrite, MagicStream... etc. It is dumb and only functions to trigger the relays on and off a specified number of times. You cannot change this without reassigning the circuit function to generic for those that you don't want to flick on and off..

While it blows my mind that these guys keep selling EasyTouch. The price difference is not that great for IntelliCenter and it is a bit smarter with lighting. It is capable of toggling a user defined group of relays on and off and it also allows you to toggle just one. Bear in mind, it still requires one relay for each light zone and suffers from the same half-wit control protocol. So there are no characters in this tragedy that don't have a fatal flaw either.

Alright so given all that njsPC can off load your lights from the controller and do the automatic switching for you. But it still is that stupid on/off protocol and you will need 1 relay (and one transformer for 12v lights) for each zone. So again it is the same old tragic plot line. They really need to get their poop in a group and that's all I have to say about that!
 
  • Like
Reactions: MyAZPool
Hello - long time lurker here :)

Forgive if this has been discussed, I couldn't find it. Has anyone had any luck with the high power wireless link that comes with the new I8PS? I am finishing a homeowner build on an inground with the intellicenter and that link. The intellicenter2 app works fine, and I have one of the Moyina RS485/USB converters on a Pi, which is hooked up to the RS485 port on the pentair Rx in the house. As can be seen below, the Pi loops after the 'npm start&' command. I tried swapping the green/yellow as one user pointed out with this adapter, but same results. I get lights on the adapter on boot, but that is it. I am thinking that the Pentair adapter only supports ethernet or RS485, not both (it is connected to both at the panel) - the manual makes no mention other than it connects to ethernet for the intellicenter and RS485 for the other panels.

Anyone have this link and confirm it supports both comm methods simultaneously? Initially it seemed sweet to have 1 adapter to do both, but I think I am ordering one of the RS485/Wifi adapters people have mentioned. Thank you, Kurt

Here is the output after npm start&

kknox@raspberrypi:~/nodejs-poolController $
> [email protected] start /home/kknox/nodejs-poolController
> npm run build && node dist/app.js


> [email protected] build /home/kknox/nodejs-poolController
> tsc

[5/14/2022, 10:18:45 AM] info: Serial port: /dev/ttyUSB0 request to open successful 9600b 8-none-1
Init state for Pool Controller
[5/14/2022, 10:18:46 AM] info: The current git branch output is master
[5/14/2022, 10:18:46 AM] info: The current git commit output is 92c646783e7d2c6eb19ec999fb1731e7e749ad7a
[5/14/2022, 10:18:46 AM] info: Starting up SSDP server
[5/14/2022, 10:18:46 AM] info: Checking njsPC versions...
[5/14/2022, 10:18:46 AM] info: Starting Pool System nixie
[5/14/2022, 10:18:47 AM] info: Initializing Nixie Control Panel for Nixie Single Body
[5/14/2022, 10:18:47 AM] info: Initializing Intake/Return valves
[5/14/2022, 10:18:47 AM] info: Initializing Nixie Controller
[5/14/2022, 10:18:47 AM] info: Initializing Nixie body Pool
[5/14/2022, 10:18:47 AM] info: Initializing Filter Filter
[5/14/2022, 10:18:47 AM] info: Auto-backup initialized Last Backup: 1969-12-31T17:00:00.000-0700
[5/14/2022, 10:18:47 AM] info: Initializing Nixie circuit Pool
[5/14/2022, 10:18:47 AM] info: Nixie Controller Initialized
[5/14/2022, 10:18:47 AM] info: Nixie Single Body control board initialized
[5/14/2022, 10:18:47 AM] info: Server is now listening on 0.0.0.0:4200
[5/14/2022, 10:18:52 AM] warn: dt:Sat May 14 2022 10:18:52 GMT-0600 (Mountain Daylight Time) lat:undefined lon:undefined Not enough information to calculate Heliotrope. See Where is lat / long suppose to be entered? · Issue #245 · tagyoureit/nodejs-poolController
[5/14/2022, 10:18:52 AM] warn: dt:Sat May 14 2022 10:18:52 GMT-0600 (Mountain Daylight Time) lat:undefined lon:undefined Not enough information to calculate Heliotrope. See Where is lat / long suppose to be entered? · Issue #245 · tagyoureit/nodejs-poolController
[5/14/2022, 10:18:52 AM] info: Checking njsPC versions...
[5/14/2022, 10:18:56 AM] warn: Inactivity timeout for 0 serial port /dev/ttyUSB0 after 10 seconds
[5/14/2022, 10:18:56 AM] info: Serial Port 0 has been closed 0:
[5/14/2022, 10:18:56 AM] info: Successfully closed 0 serial port /dev/ttyUSB0
[5/14/2022, 10:18:56 AM] info: Serial port: /dev/ttyUSB0 request to open successful 9600b 8-none-1
kknox@raspberrypi:~/nodejs-poolController $ [5/14/2022, 10:19:01 AM] warn: dt:Sat May 14 2022 10:18:52 GMT-0600 (Mountain Daylight Time) lat:undefined lon:undefined Not enough information to calculate Heliotrope. See Where is lat / long suppose to be entered? · Issue #245 · tagyoureit/nodejs-poolController
[5/14/2022, 10:19:01 AM] warn: dt:Sat May 14 2022 10:18:52 GMT-0600 (Mountain Daylight Time) lat:undefined lon:undefined Not enough information to calculate Heliotrope. See Where is lat / long suppose to be entered? · Issue #245 · tagyoureit/nodejs-poolController
[5/14/2022, 10:19:06 AM] warn: Inactivity timeout for 0 serial port /dev/ttyUSB0 after 10 seconds
[5/14/2022, 10:19:06 AM] info: Serial Port 0 has been closed 0:
[5/14/2022, 10:19:06 AM] info: Successfully closed 0 serial port /dev/ttyUSB0
[5/14/2022, 10:19:06 AM] info: Serial port: /dev/ttyUSB0 request to open successful 9600b 8-none-1
[5/14/2022, 10:19:16 AM] warn: Inactivity timeout for 0 serial port /dev/ttyUSB0 after 10 seconds
[5/14/2022, 10:19:16 AM] info: Serial Port 0 has been closed 0:
[5/14/2022, 10:19:16 AM] info: Successfully closed 0 serial port /dev/ttyUSB0
[5/14/2022, 10:19:16 AM] info: Serial port: /dev/ttyUSB0 request to open successful 9600b 8-none-1
[5/14/2022, 10:19:26 AM] warn: Inactivity timeout for 0 serial port /dev/ttyUSB0 after 10 seconds
 
I believe that is a point to point adapter so it simply connects the ethernet functions and does not transmit RS485 like the old ScreenLogic did. There will be no RS485 traffic on that connection. ScreenLogic needed to do that since there was no internal ethernet implementation at the panel. You could still hardwire the hop by using a straight ethernet to RS485 connection though and it will put RS485 on that connection as well.
 
rstrouse said:
I believe that is a point to point adapter so it simply connects the ethernet functions and does not transmit RS485 like the old ScreenLogic did. There will be no RS485 traffic on that connection. ScreenLogic needed to do that since there was no internal ethernet implementation at the panel. You could still hardwire the hop by using a straight ethernet to RS485 connection though and it will put RS485 on that connection as well.
Click to expand...
I pulled the board out of the receiver, and I can't find the RS485 to SPI IC, but can find the ethernet microcontroller (which is SPI). That leads me to to assumption that they have a switch that looks at the two ports (ethernet and RS485) and only enables one of them. I could probably validate that by disconnecting the ethernet at either end, but I think I will resist the squirrelling and just order the RS485 Wifi module :).
 
That would make the most sense. But I haven't played with the long range adapter. I can only assume that it is simply connected to the ethernet port just like the old outdoor AP from enStupid that was being distributed. I am all hardwired after about 20 minutes of playing with it.
 
It’s been awhile and I opened our pool today. I updated my intellicenter firmware to 1.064 and then updated njsPC and dashPanel to 7.7.0 (was on 7.1.0). Also update all my pi3B firmware and software.

Everything appears to be running smoothly. I think the newer version to a tad bit longer to load up and run, but it’s chugging along just fine now.

Is there an “easy” way to integrate HomeKit or will this need a second Pi?
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
I reported it on GitHub, but with the new version I cannot select color light output. I can turn the lights on and off, but can’t select the small color palette icon anymore.
 
You should be connecting the MQTT Explorer to your broker instance, Then enable any of the MQTT interfaces under the interfaces configuration tab in dashPanel. This will publish the data to your MQTT and subscribe to state topics.
 
Updated Information

Hi all....
Just wanted to take a minute to throw out some updated information regarding the nodejs-poolController, nodejs-poolController-dashPanel, REM and Nixie Standalone controllers since some of the information at the beginning of this thread is getting pretty long in the tooth to put it mildly.
Also, I've been getting some PM's recently with questions and concerns regarding these awesome pool controller platforms. No worries there but I have been essentially directing those users to the platform repositories/wiki pages which are run by the two developers and who are the subject matter experts on these pool controller platforms.

On those repositories there are discussion and Wiki areas as well as an issue area. The developers (@rstrouse and @tagyoureit ) do an outstanding job in keeping information there updated in real time and most if not all of the information needed to set these controllers up (installation instructions) can be found in the applicable Wiki sections.

Here are a couple of direct links that you may find helpful.

nodejs-poolController Home Page
github.com

GitHub - tagyoureit/nodejs-poolController: An application to control pool equipment from various manufacturers.

An application to control pool equipment from various manufacturers. - tagyoureit/nodejs-poolController
github.com github.com

nodejs-poolController Discussions Page
github.com

tagyoureit nodejs-poolController · Discussions

Explore the GitHub Discussions forum for tagyoureit nodejs-poolController. Discuss code, ask questions & collaborate with the developer community.
github.com github.com

nodejs-poolController Wiki Page
github.com

Home

An application to control pool equipment from various manufacturers. - tagyoureit/nodejs-poolController
github.com github.com

nodejs-poolController-dashPanel Home Page
github.com

GitHub - rstrouse/nodejs-poolController-dashPanel: A dashboard panel for tagyoureit/nodejs-poolController

A dashboard panel for tagyoureit/nodejs-poolController - rstrouse/nodejs-poolController-dashPanel
github.com github.com

REM Home Page
github.com

GitHub - rstrouse/relayEquipmentManager: A hardware controller for GPIO, I2c, SPI, and generic devices.

A hardware controller for GPIO, I2c, SPI, and generic devices. - rstrouse/relayEquipmentManager
github.com github.com

BTW, if you haven't grabbed some new pulls lately, there are new versions (7.7.0) of njspC and dashPanel and always some new commits on REM.

r.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tagyoureit

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply