Spa side remote quit

[imrodee]

Well, the 4 button spa side remote quit working (nothing works at all). Bought a replacement unit with cord, unhooked the wires from EasyTouch panel and hooked up the new wires. Does this "new" unit need to be programmed as new, or should it work? I went in the house and turned on the heater and the red light on the side remote started blinking, however, none of the buttons controlled the heater, bubbles, light etc. Is there a fuse or something else that could be out. Luckily, we tested the new unit right at the panel before running the cable thru the ground. Thank you in advance.

 

[Jimrahbe]

You should not have to reprogram the unit.. When your old one went bad, did you "disable" it ??? If so, you will need to "enable" it again.

Jim R.

 

[imrodee]

You should not have to reprogram the unit.. When your old one went bad, did you "disable" it ??? If so, you will need to "enable" it again.

Jim R.

Thank you Jim. No didn't disable it, it just petered out on it's own. The spa works from the inside remote and the ET8 panel outside, just not from the spa-side remote. TU!!

 

[KDpoolguy]

I’d do 2 things:

• as Jim mentioned, double check the EasyTouch menu that Spa-Side remote is ‘Enabled’
• Check the 4-wire connectors at the low voltage panel on the EasyTouch. Sounds like you’ve got multiple wires going in and they tend to get poor connections this way. I have 3 things wired to those COM PORT RS486 Connectors on my EasyTouch: a wired inside remote, wiring to Screenlogic2 antenna, and wiring to remote control my Goldline SWCG. I regularly got poor connections until I spliced them 3 together upstream (like a ground lug) and only then had one set of wires going to the Easytouch’s COM PORT inputs. Limited design forethought on Pentairs side there.
• Though I’m seeing some easy touches have a separate Spa Side remote COM PORT

 

[Jimrahbe]

Helen,

I am "assuming" that you are using a hard-wired Pentair spa side remote, that has 5 wires and is connected to the separate spa side connector on the main board.. Only one spa side remote can be connected to this connector.. Does the color of the new wires, match the color of the old wires?

Do you have ScreenLogic?

Jim R.

 

[imrodee]

I’d do 2 things:

• as Jim mentioned, double check the EasyTouch menu that Spa-Side remote is ‘Enabled’
• Check the 4-wire connectors at the low voltage panel on the EasyTouch. Sounds like you’ve got multiple wires going in and they tend to get poor connections this way. I have 3 things wired to those COM PORT RS486 Connectors on my EasyTouch: a wired inside remote, wiring to Screenlogic2 antenna, and wiring to remote control my Goldline SWCG. I regularly got poor connections until I spliced them 3 together upstream (like a ground lug) and only then had one set of wires going to the Easytouch’s COM PORT inputs. Limited design forethought on Pentairs side there.
• Though I’m seeing some easy touches have a separate Spa Side remote COM PORT

The spa side remote is hard wired with 5 (or 6) colored wires that went into a connector inside the main panel. I took each wire off separately and put the new matching wire in (IE: yellow in, yellow out etc.) to not mix up the order of the wires. The spa port was separate from the other ports.

That's a good idea to splice them together! Might try that today. I'll look at the schematics when I get to a bigger screen, Thanks!!

 

[imrodee]

Helen,

I am "assuming" that you are using a hard-wired Pentair spa side remote, that has 5 wires and is connected to the separate spa side connector on the main board.. Only one spa side remote can be connected to this connector.. Does the color of the new wires, match the color of the old wires?

Do you have ScreenLogic?

Jim R.

Thats right Jim, it is hard wired, and does have a separate port. I removed one wire at a time to not mix them up (old yellow out, new yellow in) . The new switch is also a Pentair model 4 button, IS4 with 100' of wire.

As for the ScreenLogic, I'm not sure. Looking for my "Pool paperwork packet" at the moment to see what that says. The panel itself doesn't say "screenlogic" on it anywhere, but maybe it's not supposed to.

 

[KDpoolguy]

ScreenLogic is the wireless system that allows internet access to your Easytouch. You’ll usually know as you’ll have a internet device connected to your home router. I have ScreenLogic so I actually just use my phone ScreenLogic app to control my spa—instead of a spa side wired remote

 

[Jimrahbe]

Helen,

I asked if you had ScreenLogic because looking to see what your spa side remote was programmed to do inside the EasyTouch would have been very simple...

Without ScreenLogic, I'll have to go back to school and remember how to program the hard way..

Basically, the EasyTouch just converts the spa side button into some command that you have programmed into the EasyTouch. My "guess" is the the program is still in your ET, but that the chips that make the spa side inputs work is bad..

Let me do a little research and get back with you.

In the meantime, let's see if we can get Tom to chime in... @ogdento

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Helen,

Go to your EasyTouch enclosure and use the little 3" display.. Select Menu, then Settings, then scroll down and select iS4..

You should see a 1/4 and under that you will see what button one selects.. (Maybe Spa or ???) Then push the up button and you will move to 2/4 and it will have a circuit assigned. Then go to 3/4 and 4/4.. All four buttons should have some circuit assigned...

As an example.. let's say that 1/4 shows "Spa".. That means when you push the #1 button on the spa side remote, the Spa circuit should turn on... The same applies for 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4..

If they are blank, that is why nothing is working.. If the circuits are there, and you have a new spa side remote, then the problem has to be with the main board.

While you are outside at the panel, please double check that the is4 is enabled... Menu, then scroll to "Spa Side Remote"... it should show "On"..


Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[ogdento]

Hi Helen,
Keep going with Jim's suggestions, but I wanted to ask if you'd had any thunder or lightning storms around the time the remote quit. Without getting too technical, the inputs for the is4 spa-side remote go into chips that "buffer" it before passing them on to the onboard micro-controller... those chips can go bad but it would be a rare event. (I did see one that had split open after a lightning strike that also fried the comm port and a handful of LEDs).
It's something much simpler than that!
Tom

 

[imrodee]

Helen,

Go to your EasyTouch enclosure and use the little 3" display.. Select Menu, then Settings, then scroll down and select iS4..

You should see a 1/4 and under that you will see what button one selects.. (Maybe Spa or ???) Then push the up button and you will move to 2/4 and it will have a circuit assigned. Then go to 3/4 and 4/4.. All four buttons should have some circuit assigned...

As an example.. let's say that 1/4 shows "Spa".. That means when you push the #1 button on the spa side remote, the Spa circuit should turn on... The same applies for 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4..

If they are blank, that is why nothing is working.. If the circuits are there, and you have a new spa side remote, then the problem has to be with the main board.

While you are outside at the panel, please double check that the is4 is enabled... Menu, then scroll to "Spa Side Remote"... it should show "On"..


Thanks,

Jim R.

Sorry it took so long to get back - busy weekend. I am printing this out and will check now!

 

[imrodee]

Hi Helen,
Keep going with Jim's suggestions, but I wanted to ask if you'd had any thunder or lightning storms around the time the remote quit. Without getting too technical, the inputs for the is4 spa-side remote go into chips that "buffer" it before passing them on to the onboard micro-controller... those chips can go bad but it would be a rare event. (I did see one that had split open after a lightning strike that also fried the comm port and a handful of LEDs).
It's something much simpler than that!
Tom

Tom,
The remote stopped earlier this spring, so I'm not sure about the storms. But that's a thought, thanks!

 

[imrodee]

OK, yes the circuits are assigned to 1= spa, 4= pool light, 3= blower and 2= spa light. They come up in that order, not sure if that's an issue.

Pentair Old unit: buttons don't work, lights won't come on even when spa is tuned on at the panel.
Pentair Replacement unit: (temporarily wired in to see if it worked at the panel) Red light came on when spa turned on at the panel. Buttons did not respond. I took put the old one back on for now.

PS.. I guess I don't have ScreenLogic, because I checked "wireless" and it said "scanning" then "sending" and nothing came up.

If I changed over to Screen Logic, would it matter if the chips worked?
Thank you..

 

[Jimrahbe]

Helen,

I just asked about ScreenLogic as it makes it easy for me to "see" the configuration.. You do not need ScreenLogic and it will not help your current problem.

Did you double check to see that it is enabled?? Menu, then scroll to "Spa Side Remote"... it should show "On"..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[imrodee]

THAT'S it!!! The inside wall remote said "off"! I tested the jets and they came right on (can't tell about the lights - too bright out.) But I'm sure they're ok, I'll check tonite. Thank you so much!!!