Pentair intellichlor losing connection and flashing LEDs

[Rgp]

Hi,

New pool owner here, my brand new IC-20 has been running fine most of the time, but I get a notification (e-mail) of communication lost from my intellicenter 2 or 3 times a day, it stops producing chlorine (cell led turns off) and both the good (green) and low (red) LEDs flashes. After a few minutes it resumes communication and LEDs get back to normal.

It is currently reading a salt level of 4200. A lab test showed salt level of 3800 today.

This is a new pool, just got constructed and I am trying to get the chemicals in order. But I would think that the out of balance chemicals would not affect the SWG communication/ability to generate chlorine, see results below just in case.

Todays lab test result :

Salt: 3800
PH: 8.2
TA: 128
FC: 0.3
CH: 206
CYA: 5

Here is a video of it when the issue happens :

 

[Jimrahbe]

rgp,

The flashing "railroad crossing" lights are normal every time the cell boots up.

It should not lose communications,

It could be a bad cell, bad RS-485 com port wiring or bad programming.

No matter what it is with an FC of .3 and a CYA of 5, you should just go put a sign on your front lawn saying "Algae party this weekend"..

You need to get 5 ppm of FC right now!

Can you show me your schedules?

Call your pool builder and have him fix it under warranty.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Rgp]

Thanks Jim,

I will double check the RS-485 wiring. It is weird that it seems to be losing connection every 12 hour period. I just checked my e-mails and they are pretty spot on at 6:14 AM, 6:11PM, etc.

I have attached the schedule.

 

[Jimrahbe]

rgp,

It is normal for the cell to reboot every 12 hours to check its salt level.

I have not heard of that causing a com port issue.

Do me a favor. Put your system into the Service mode. Wait about a minute, and then tell me if your cell has any lights on. It should not have any light at all.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Jimrahbe]

rgp,

I looked at your schedules and have a question.

How many hours a day do you think your cell is running?

I suspect if you look, it runs from 7 am until 9 pm and is off from 9 pm until 7 am.

If true, then your schedule does not make a lot of sense to me. If you are going to run the pump 24/7, you should be running the cell 24/7.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Rgp]

All pump speeds provide the minimum GPM for the chlorinator so it should be running 24/7.

The chlorinator itself is currently set to produce at a 50% rate.

I will do the service mode test shortly.

 

[Rgp]

rgp,

It is normal for the cell to reboot every 12 hours to check its salt level.

I have not heard of that causing a com port issue.

Do me a favor. Put your system into the Service mode. Wait about a minute, and then tell me if your cell has any lights on. It should not have any light at all.

Thanks,

Jim R.

Putting the intellicenter into service mode makes the cell show the flow LED as constant red and the good as constant green.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Rgp,

If your cell has any lights when in the Service mode, it means your system is wired incorrectly. The cell should only get AC power from the load side of the pump filter relay. It appears to me that your cell has constant AC power which is not how it MUST be wired.

Tell your pool builder that it is wired wrong and to come back and fix it.

If you show me a pic of the inside of your IntelliCenter, so that I can see the relays, circuit breakers, and wiring, I can tell you more.

As far as your schedules, if your cell was wired as it must be, then it would not run when Pool High, or Pool Med circuit were on, as the Pump/Filter relay will only close when in the Pool or Spa mode. A very easy fix.

If you don't believe me, just look at the note on the side of the large SWCG transformer.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Rgp]

Rgp,

If your cell has any lights when in the Service mode, it means your system is wired incorrectly. The cell should only get AC power from the load side of the pump filter relay. It appears to me that your cell has constant AC power which is not how it MUST be wired.

Tell your pool builder that it is wired wrong and to come back and fix it.

If you show me a pic of the inside of your IntelliCenter, so that I can see the relays, circuit breakers, and wiring, I can tell you more.

As far as your schedules, if your cell was wired as it must be, then it would not run when Pool High, or Pool Med circuit were on, as the Pump/Filter relay will only close when in the Pool or Spa mode. A very easy fix.

If you don't believe me, just look at the note on the side of the large SWCG transformer.

Thanks,

Jim R.

That is interesting. I will take a picture of the IntelliCenter wiring.

As for the schedules, I have the Pool schedule running 24/7 (8am-8am). Pool is set to the slower RPM then I created pool low, medium and high with the increasing RPM values which take precedence over Pool when they both are enabled and the RPM is higher than Pool.

Will this not run the SWG ? If not, what do you suggest to achieve a similar schedule ?

 

[Jimrahbe]

Rgp,

Sorry, I missed the green Pool at the very top 8 am until 8 am... So, you are correct, that will keep the cell on 24/7..

Not sure that wiring it correctly will fix your com issue or not now. But, it needs to be wired correctly in any case.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Rgp]

Thanks Jim,

I got some pictures (attached), I will take better ones tomorrow with daylight.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Rgp,

Thanks for the pics.

If you look at the large transformer on the right side, you will see the note about connecting to the load side of the pump/filter relay.

It appears to me that transformer is wired for 240 VAC, so the input should be on the White and Yellow transformer wires. The problem is all the colors run together, so I can't see where they go. If possible, follow the white and yellow wires from the large transformer and see where they go. I suspect they go to the wire nuts, and I suspect they tie into the Line side of the Pump/Filter relay instead of the Load side.

There is nothing wrong with your pics, it is just that all the wires blend together.

If you can connect the White and Yellow large transformer wires to the Load side of the pump/Filter relay (Upper left) it will be wired as it should be.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Rgp]

Hi Jim,

I wired the transformer as you indicated and now the SWCG powers off when in service mode.

I found something else that might explain the communication issues. Both the VSF pump and the SWCG RS-485 COM ports were connected to the same J4 connector on the Intellicenter.

I moved the SWCG COM to the other COM port (J5). Let’s see if the glitches go away.

Thanks again
Roberto

 

[Jimrahbe]

Roberto,

In "theory" everything could be connected to the same port. It's a serial bus where each device has its own address.

That said, when possible, I also like to see just one device per connector. Makes it easier to find poor connections.

Glad you were able to wire the SWCG transformer correctly.

Let us know how things work.

Thanks,

Jim R.