Valve programming lost after power shut off?

Hilly

0
Sep 22, 2018
14
rocklin
Hello, I have a pool and spa with a pentair easy touch controller and ScreenLogic iPhone app. I had to shut off the main power breaker to the entire system for 24 hours to relocate the pool sweep and waterfall pumps. After completing this Work, the two automatic valves that control the pool, spa, and sweep are no longer programmed correctly. Now, when I switch on the pool pump all flow goes through the spa And not the pool. If I try to run the sweep the valve does not open to allow any flow through the sweep pump. I did not change anything that controls these valves while working on the pumps. Did shutting off the power erase the valve programming? Is there a simple fix for this, or do I need to reprogram the valves? My pool is three years old and was programmed by the installer, so I‘m not sure how it was done in the first place. Thanks for any help or suggestions. Mike.
 
Where would I find the config pages through my phone? I only use the ScreenLogic app, and don’t see anything in there. Also haven’t used the pc for anything related to the pool. Sorry for my ignorance here, and thank you for helping.
 
Found the config app. Here is what it shows for valve assignments. Guessing They should not say “unused”?
 

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Hilly,

Go back and look at my first pic... You can see that the ET comes from the factory with CIRCUITS, such as Aux 1, Aux 2, Feature 1, Feature 2 etc.. Next to that you can see the CIRCUIT NAMES.. This is what you call the circuit.. In my case, Aux 1 is called "Pool Light" .. Aux 2 is called "Malibu Lights", etc... I can't tell from your Screenshots if your Circuit Names are gone of not.. :scratch:

As you can see in my second pic, I have named Feature Circuit # 3 as "Waterfall".. And then I assigned "Waterfall" to valve A.. The reason your "Sweep" is no longer working is because valve A is no longer is assigned to anything. The first step is to see if all your Circuit Names are gone or not..

You can also see where the Pool and Spa circuits come from the factory with Circuit Names of Pool and Spa.

I suggest that you load ScreenLogic on a PC, because it makes programming so easy..

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Okay, so circuit names are still there for aux 1 thru 5. The others are not used. Aux1 is the cleaner. 2 is waterfall. 5 is spillway (3 and 4 are lights). If I understand correctly then the next step is to re-assign each circuit to the appropriate valve? Thanks.
 

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Hilly,

You only have the ability to assign to valve A and B... The Intake valve and Return valve are preprogrammed at the factory and can't change.

Valve A and B need to be assigned to the right valves.. As an example, you have a valve that turns your cleaner on or off.. The actuator has a wire going back to the ET. The wire will be plugged into port A or B.. Obviously, if plugged into port A, then in ScreenLogic, valve A needs to be assigned to "Sweep" (Or whatever you have it named..)

Your Pool and Spa valves should still work, unless you disconnected them or maybe swapped them???

I have seen actuators go bad and load the 24 VAC control voltage down so that none of the valves work.. If none of them work, I would only connect one at a time and see if you can find the bad one.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Okay, the pool and spa valves do still work. The actuators move to different positions. The problem is valves are now opening/closing to the wrong positions. When just the pool pump is on, all water flows through the spa (and returns from the pool), rather than flowing through both the pool and spa jets. When the spa is on, it drains drains the spa down and back fills it to the pool. When the spillway is on, I get flow to both the pool and spa, rather than just the spa alone. The whole system is out of whack. I didn’t change any wiring or piping to the valves when working on the sweep pump. The only thing I can think of is that shutting off main power somehow mixed up the original programming.
 
Have you tried changing the positions of the tiny toggle switches on the activators? They have 3 positions, On1, Off, and On2. On1 and On2 control which way the valve turns. Off disables the activator. Perhaps the switches accidentally got bumped while you were working on the equipment.
 
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Hilly,

OK.. The EasyTouch has no clue where the valves are.. It is an open loop system and there is no feedback. The ET just moves the valves 180 degrees from where they are.. It is up to you to initially set the valves where you want them... As the Squirrel points out.. That is what the little on-off-on switch is for. Moving the switch from one on to the other on, should move the valve to the opposite stop position..

Thanks,

Jim R.
 

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Making progress...yes, one of the toggle switches was set to the wrong on position. Fixed it now and the pool, spa, and spillway are functioning properly!!

The cleaner is still not functioning though. When I switch it on the pool pump comes on and the delay timer starts, as it normally did. However, after the 4 minute delay, the delay alert disappears but the pump doesn’t kick on. At this point I also cannot shut off the pool pump. In order to do that I have to start and stop the spa, which then stops the pool pump. It seems the system thinks that the cleaner is running when it’s not, so the pool pump stays on. Just guessing.

Yesterday when I restarted the whole system the cleaner pump would kick on, just the valve was not open for it to run. Now it’s the opposite (valve open, no pump).

Any suggestions where to go from here? Thanks
 
Hilly,

Tell us more about your pool and/or show us some pics of your equipment pad..

What kind of cleaner do you have? Usually if it has its own pump, it would be a pressure side cleaner, which would not use a valve.. Most suction side cleaners do not have their own pumps.

Kind of hard to make guesses about how your system is actually set up...

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
The cleaner is a polaris 280 pressure side cleaner and pump, not on a valve.


Hilly,

Well, if that is true, then you would certainly not assign cleaner to Valves A or B..

If the cleaner pump does not come on that is a completely different problem. I assume the sweep pump and the cleaner pump are the same pump...

The cleaner/sweep pump worked, you moved it, and now it does not work.. Is that correct??

We can talk about it tomorrow after we see the pics.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
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Yes, the sweep and cleaner pump are the same. It worked after I moved it, but no water flowed since the pool valve/actuator was closed to the pool return line. But for some reason now that I’ve corrected the actuator toggle switch the the cleaner pump doesn’t kick on any more. The cleaner is not assigned to either of the valves (both valves assigned to “unused”). Something strange here!!
 

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Valves A & B have nothing to do with this. Ignore them. The booster pump for the cleaner should be powered on and off via a relay in the ET.

"It worked after I moved it, but no water flowed since the pool valve/actuator was closed to the pool return line."

How long did the cleaner pump run dry? Hopefully not long enough to burn it out.
 
I’ve done some more troubleshooting, using a circuit tester to check for power to the sweep pump after the start delay, and there is no power running to it (and pool pump still stays on until I start/stop the spa). So this does not appear to be a burned out pump situation. I also shut off and on all power to the system hoping that would do a reboot, but no change from that.

Here are some pics of my setup, equipment from left to right: pool pump, filter, spa heater, sweep pump, waterfall pump.
 

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Hilly,

When the system is in the Pool mode and the main pump is running, and the booster "should" be running... The Aux1 (Cleaner) relay should be closed. This will let the power through the relay and send it to the pump..

Step 1 is to determine if you have 240 volts AC on the output/load side of the Aux 1 relay.. If you do, and the pump is not running, then the pump or the cable is bad.

Step 2, if you do not have 240 volts on the output/load side of the Aux 1 relay, then check to see if you have 240 volts on the input/line side of the relay. If you do, then the relay is either bad or not being told to turn on.

Step 3. If you do not have 240 on the input/line side of the relay, then the wiring or circuit breaker is bad..

You can't do these tests with a circuit tester that just uses a light when it gets close to electricity. You must use a voltmeter, so that you can measure the actual voltage. Also note, that when testing a 240 volt circuit, your must test between both 240 volts connections to get 240 volts.. You cannot test each connection to ground, which will give you 120 volts and then add them together to get 240.. This can give you a false reading..

On the ET's high voltage relays, the input pins are 1 and 3 and the output pins are 2 and 4. Measuring between pins 1 and 3 should give you 240 VAC. Measuring between 2 and 4 will give you 240 VAC if the relay is closed..

Tell us what you get.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Okay, this time with a voltmeter:

all equipment off:
Pins 1-3 - 0v
Pins 2-4 - 0v

pool pump on:
Pins 1-3 - 242v
Pins 2-4 - 0v

sweep on, during delay (pool pump on) - same as above.

sweep on, after delay (pool pump on) - same. No voltage across 2-4.

So, bad relay? I assuming I just swap out one of the unused relays to confirm.

I’m still confused by not being able to shut off the pool pump after trying to start the sweep. I have start/stop the spa to shut off the pool pump since the spa and sweep cannot be running at the same time, so this effectively “overrides” the sweep and shuts down the pool pump. Would a bad relay cause this anomaly?
 
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