Pentair Screenlogic and Intelliflo pump keep losing connection to Easy Touch panel

jonbags

Member
Feb 28, 2025
10
Medford, OR
Pool Size
15000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
Hello,

I have had my pool a few years. Earlier in the week, my pump would not turn on when using Screenlogic or my Easy Touch panel. I have reset everything many times and verified the pump will turn on in manual mode. My panel buttons will turn on everything but the Intelliflo pump. Sometimes it briefly goes back to normal but more often than not this week, both the Screenlogic/Intelliflo lose connection at the same time. I am wondering if there is an issue with the control panel in my Easy Touch. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
 
Welcome to TFP.

What is displayed on your pump control panel when it will not turn on?

The pump control panel should show “Display Not Active”. If it does not then you have lost the RS-485 data link to the pump and probably Screenlogic.

Show us pictures of your EasyTouch panel with the panels open and showing the connection to the PCB in the upper panel.

Disconnect the Screenlogic antenna from the RS-485 connector and see if the pump then shows display not active. If so then your Screenlogic antenna has a problem.

Or disconnect the pump from RS-485 and see if Screenlogic works.

 
When Screenlogic/Intelliflo lose connection, the pump does not show "Display Not Active" as it should. I opened up the panel to disconnect Screenlogic and it appears Screenlogic/Intelliflo are piggy backed on one RS-485 port (see image). With Screenlogic disconnected, the Intelliflo stays connected most of the time though it did lose connection to the pump (No "Display Not Active") when I tried to run and heat the spa. I am thinking the RS-485 port is bad and wondering if I can install an expansion to avoid buying a new motherboard. Thanks for the help! It was old posts on this site that got me to this point. IMG_5710.jpg
 
The expansion board only extends the wires to the one RS-485 driver chip on the board.

Show us pictures of the entire board, not just half.

I don’t see the connection of losing the pump when you turn on the spa. Maybe @ogdento will.
 
IMG_5715.jpg
Here is a better picture. I just disconnected the pump and connected Screenlogic to see if that will maintain a better connection. It worked right away just fine.
 
You have an Intellichlor surge board on the back wall. It has three RS-485 connectors that can be used.

Where do the wires connected to the surge board run to?
 
You also have an RS-485 expansion board on the back wall.

You need to sort out all the RS-485 connections.
 
you've done the first step in troubleshooting the rs485 devices... you've disconnected everything but the pump, and the fact that it works (shows display not active) tells us your outdoor board is good.

Caution: you do NOT want to have your board powered up with that disconnected white comm wire you've got... tape up those bare wires! if the red or black wire touches the green or yellow you're going to damage something.

Now, as Allen pointed out you've got a bunch of 4-wire comm cables that are connected to the serial expansion board and the salt cell surge board... are you sure the white wire that was doubled up with the pump's 2-wire cable goes to the screenlogic? It would make more sense that it goes to your serial expansion board or swg surge board... otherwise none of those other comm cables are actually connected to the outdoor board.
 
Thanks for the caution. I was mistaken. The white (4) wire that is piggy backed with the pump wire goes to the expansion board and the Screenlogic is connected to that board. So far Screenlogic has stayed connected with the pump disconnected.
 
So far Screenlogic has stayed connected with the pump disconnected.

Ok so you now have a comm cable going from J20 on the Easytouch to the expansion board (where you had the pump connected in your last pic, shown below)?

1740959707931.png

In that case, if you want to have a single device on each connector (i.e. nothing piggybacked), you can connect your pump's green/yellow to the right-most comm port connector on your salt cell's surge board (it's next to your expansion board)
 

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Ok so you now have a comm cable going from J20 on the Easytouch to the expansion board (where you had the pump connected in your last pic, shown below)?

View attachment 630501

In that case, if you want to have a single device on each connector (i.e. nothing piggybacked), you can connect your pump's green/yellow to the right-most comm port connector on your salt cell's surge board (it's next to your expansion board)
IMG_5715 (1).jpg

So connect to the circled portion of the surge board, right? Will the current programming still work the same?
 
Issue solved: Disconnecting the pump wires from the piggyback and connecting them to the salt cell surge board corrected the issue.
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Hello All,

The fix worked well for 15 days but the today, the same problem came back. The Intelliflo lost connection to the Easytouch. In order to get the pump going, I unplugged the expansion board from the J20 and put the Intelliflo back in that location. Does this mean the board is going bad?
 

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