Pentair IntelliTouch motherboard replacement

[dragon tamer]

Good afternoon all, new to the site... back ground is that my WhisperFlo 1 HP is on its last leg... I was stupid and had a home warrantee company fix it instead of doing it myself... end result is I have a POS motor attached to the pump that sounds a lot like a freight train in less than a year. So, now I am going to do it right and install a VS pump. I've settled on the Pentair 2.6 HP VS pump. It is the same dimensions (input and output at least) as the WhisperFlo, so it should be easier to replace. My problem is that my IntelliTouch system is 17 years old and pre VS pumps. So, I need a new mother board and personality board to be able to control the VS pump. You can see that there is no option for th IntelliFlo on the left side of the Remote. I'm not too concerned about the process of swapping out the two pcb's, I'm more curious about what happens after I turn the power back on... I assume I will lose all of my settings and have to re-program everything, but my real question is will the remote show all of the options of the new motherboard on boot up? Or do I need to change/update anything on the remote? Thanks for your help in advance!

 

[ajw22]

Welcome to TFP.

Tom @ogdento is the best to answer the IntelliTouch questions.

Note that Pentair announced the following in April 2023:

Pentair is discontinuing the IntelliTouch, EasyTouch, and EasyTouch PL4/PSL4 Pool Control Systems. These products will no longer be available to order starting:

• July 31, 2023 for all IntelliTouch Systems
• September 29, 2023 for all EasyTouch Systems

We recognize these products have been in high demand for many years. However, given advancements in Pentair innovation and evolving industry demands, we are transitioning focus to the latest technology standards included with the IntelliCenter Pool Control System.

You may want to consider spending your money on the IntelliCenter upgrade.

 

[ogdento]

hey @dragon tamer,
You don't need to replace the boards, you just need a firmware update... I'd recommend 1.190 as that's the latest AND the only one that will let you set the clock past year 2020. Whether you have to erase your board first depends on what level you're at now... you can check by doing Menu > Setup > Advanced, and from there if you press the 2nd/4th button on the bottom at the same time you'll get the Service menu... the first option is to check the firmware revision.

Where are you in NorCal? A local shop might have a programmer and be willing to come do the update for you, but if not, send me a pm.

I personally would keep the intellitouch... it's easy to repair and the hardware has hardly changed since it came out.

 

[dragon tamer]

Allen,

Wow... thank you very much for that information... You would think that the rep at Pentair representative would have told me that instead of telling me which parts I needed to keep my system out of date. I will look and see how much the IntelliCenter costs and decide which way to go.

Thank you very much!

Tom, if you see this, I would be interested in your thoughts as well. Since I am used to the IntelliTouch (which has worked flawlessly for 17 years) I will likely stick with it... plus I have two unopened pcb's on the table next to me...

Thx again Allen!
David

 

[ogdento]

I think we were both posting at the same time

I forgot to add that if you swap both boards at the same time then you lose all your settings... if you do them 1 at a time, the "blank" board will pull programming off the "programmed" board 30-60 seconds or so after power up. This works fine when the boards are all the same firmware revision but can get squirrely if you're jumping to a much later firmware... but I think the issues I've seen have revolved primarily around switching from a VS to a VSF pump - so you'll probably be fine. I've got a "blank" board that I test it out with, but you can always clear everything and reprogram.

 

[ogdento]

and one more thing... sounds like you're handy... there's a thread here about how to DIY the firmware update if you want to tackle it yourself.

 

[dragon tamer]

Hi Tom... also news to me! I put in the panel in 2005... the boards do look the same, but replacing them is what the rep at Pentair said I had to do...

As you can see, I have version 1.060...

 

[dragon tamer]

We are indeed crossing streams here... And I am definitely going to do this myself. I am up in Lincoln BTW... suburb of Sacramento.

 

[ogdento]

Ahh, ok you're at 1.060... you can absolutely update - there's no issue there since the micro controllers are the same on all hardware, with the same amount of flash memory. It's too bad the Pentair rep said your only option was replacement. You might have to follow these notes from Pentair's master_readme file for updating:

Updating IntelliTouch to version 1.070 or Greater
An issue can/may occur when updating an IntelliTouch system with a Firmware version older/less than 1.070 to version 1.070 or newer. It is important to follow a simple procedure to insure problems don’t occur.

In the example we will assume a standard system with one indoor panel and one outdoor panel.

1) Update the firmware on the indoor panel to the current version 1.070 (or newer).
2) Erase the memory on the indoor panel.
a. Press “Menu”
b. Press “Setup”
c. Press “Advanced”
d. Press the 2nd and 4th bottom buttons at the same time to enter the hidden service screen.
e. Press “Erase EEprom – All !!” and follow prompts pressing “Yes” and then “Erase”
3) Allow the unit to recover the system settings from the outdoor panel. This will take a minute or so.
4) Update the firmware on the outdoor panel to the current version 1.070 (or newer).
5) Erase the memory on the outdoor panel.
a. Press “Reset” – the 3 LEDs on the left showing system mode will all light at the same time.
b. Wait a second or two and then press the AUX 5 button.
c. The 3 LEDs will flash off and then back on indicating the erase took place.
6) Insure the memory retrieval occurs again by looking at the indoor panel, passing the data again.

This should ensure a clean update.

- If you have multiple indoor panels, simply follow steps 1, 2 and 3 for each panel.
- Expansion load/power centers do not require any updating


I posted Pentair's 6/12/2019 firmware zip in the following thread that's got some other good tidbits (the zip has a "master readme.rtf" outlining changes for various boards, as well as firmware files for Intellitouch 1.190, Easytouch 2.180 firmware, etc.):

Pentair Intellitouch Firmware Update

Hello All, Long time lurker, infrequent poster here. I was poking around in my Pentair system and noted that we are running FW 1.170 where as the latest firmware is 1.190. I have already found and read through the thread telling me how to update the FW (including the programmers needed, the...

www.troublefreepool.com

Here's the "official" firmware update thread by Jerryt:

How to perform firmware upgrade on Pentair* controllers

Pentair* Controllers; EasyTouch versions 1.0XX and 2.1XX, iLink version 1.0XX, Intellitouch version 1.1XX, Mobi version 2.1XX, and Suntouch version 2.0XX Please verify that your programming port matches the picture in this thread. Note - Pentair sells a kit P/N 520957 for $559.95 to perform...

www.troublefreepool.com