V-Green Pump Motor Unhappy user

[Paulsb01]

I hope everyone had a great winter and is healthy and getting ready for the summer.

I have a problem and hope someone has a solution.
Toward the end of last season our old pump burned out due to a power company failure. Upon reccos from the forum, I went with the V-Green Variable speed pump motor. I bought it from INYOU Pool supply. (I Highly Reccomed them.) The pump itself works fine, its the programming that is terrible. This unit does not have the ability to set changes by an internal clock, ie: on at 7AM, low pseed at 11, high speed at 3, off at 7PM, etc. It works on a 24 hour cycle from the time you turn it on. So if you have to power down or the power cuts out, you have to restore the power and turn the pump on again and from that point its a 24 cycle. I tried using my power box timer and it won't work because it cuts the power so when it powers the curcuit on, I woudl have to go out an push start on the motor.

I investigated thier WIFI adapter but its the same thing. No clock, just a 24 hour cycle with the same issues if the power goes out.

Has anyone found a solution to this? I can't exactly return the pump.

 

[MSchutzer]

You can use a standard Intermatic timer with a Vgreen and have it do what you want. I did this before I installed my automation system.

The key to doing this is understanding that the Vgreen motor works on a 24 hour cycle, but if it doesn't complete the full 24 hour cycle before the power is shut off it, it restarts the cycle back at Speed 1, duration 1 when the AC power is restored.

So use your Intermatic timer as the AC power on/off switch and then program the speeds and run durations on the Vgreen control panel. If you keep the total on time of the Intermatic timer less than 24 hours per day then the Vgreen will restart each day at the same time (controlled via the timer) and run the same duration(s) each day.

The digital Intermatic timers have an internal battery, or capacitor so they can go several hours in an AC power failure and still keep the real time clock going.

If you have a real automation system you want to likely supply continuous AC power to the Vgreen motor and control it via its digital inputs, but it also works just fine with a timer controlling the start time of it's 24 hour cycle.

 

[dfwnoob]

@MSchutzer - Not to threadjack, but I see you have an Aqualink system and the Vgreen pump. Is the Aqualink able to control the Vgreen natively?

 

[Paulsb01]

You can use a standard Intermatic timer with a Vgreen and have it do what you want. I did this before I installed my automation system.

The key to doing this is understanding that the Vgreen motor works on a 24 hour cycle, but if it doesn't complete the full 24 hour cycle before the power is shut off it, it restarts the cycle back at Speed 1, duration 1 when the AC power is restored.

So use your Intermatic timer as the AC power on/off switch and then program the speeds and run durations on the Vgreen control panel. If you keep the total on time of the Intermatic timer less than 24 hours per day then the Vgreen will restart each day at the same time (controlled via the timer) and run the same duration(s) each day.

The digital Intermatic timers have an internal battery, or capacitor so they can go several hours in an AC power failure and still keep the real time clock going.

If you have a real automation system you want to likely supply continuous AC power to the Vgreen motor and control it via its digital inputs, but it also works just fine with a timer controlling the start time of it's 24 hour cycle.

Thanks,
My system is 220. I have a 24 hour timer and use it but that is the problem. When it goes off then the 24 hour internal motor clock resets. Its a bad design that I wish I kew about prior to my purchase. Oh well. Thanks for the idea.

 

[1poolman1]

Thanks,
My system is 220. I have a 24 hour timer and use it but that is the problem. When it goes off then the 24 hour internal motor clock resets. Its a bad design that I wish I kew about prior to my purchase. Oh well. Thanks for the idea.

Per Century Motor's instructions: If you want your pump to start at, for example 2:00AM, have the mechanical "on" tripper set for 2:00AM or electronic clock turn it on at 2:00AM. On the mechanical they say place the "off" tripper right next to, and before, the "on", about 1:45AM or have the electronic clock turn power off at 1:55AM. I prefer to have the mechanical trippers farther apart, say 1:30AM as they sometimes get the clock stuck if too close together. If you have an electronic clock don't have the power restored sooner than about 5 minutes or it "confuses" the pump.

Your programmed run times and speeds will then begin and end as set, you will have power available if you want to run the pump after its scheduled run, and freeze protection will still be active for the vast majority of the day. There is a YouTube video available on their web site.

 

[MSchutzer]

@MSchutzer - Not to threadjack, but I see you have an Aqualink system and the Vgreen pump. Is the Aqualink able to control the Vgreen natively?

@dfwnoob,
Yes in the case of the Vgreen 165 motor that I have. The Vgreen 165 can talk to the Jandy’s RS-485 interface used on the Aqualink systems by changing one of the motors configuration variables.

Others have recently tried to make this work with a Vgreen 270 motor and found that the configuration variable that changes the RS-485 protocol is not supported, or not in the same location on the 270 version of the motor.

My Vgreen 165 was purchased in Oct 2020 timeframe and it’s firmware supported a configuration variable that allowed the RS-485 protocol to be changed. Assuming they haven’t changed the control firmware in currently shipped motors it will work.

If you are interested and you are working with a Vgreen 165 motor see this post that describes how I enabled the Jandy RS-485 protocol.

Post in thread 'Century (Regal) VGreen motor automation'
Century (Regal) VGreen motor automation

–Mark