New Intelliflo 3 Pump will not turn on

[jaysalazar]

Having a lot of trouble getting a new Intelliflo 3 VSF pump to work. RPI4 with MEGA-BAS and Relay Card. I don't believe its a comm issue because as soon as I connect the pump to the MAGA-BAS the "Connect" button turns magenta and also I do not see any dropped comms packets. Can anyone see from the screenshots why the pump does not start?

[jaysalazar]

I wanted to add that the pump appears to get the command to start and sometimes you can hear the motor begin to make noise then it abruptly stops and repeats the cycle.

[tagyoureit]

• Is there any other OCP (outdoor control panel) connected to the pump, by any chance?
• When you look at the LCD screen on the pump, it should show something like "Display Not Active". Do you see that?

[tagyoureit]

I see you opened/closed an issue and figure it out. Linking here for reference #1107 (comment).

[jaysalazar]

I was able to make a little progress which is why I closed the issue out.

I deleted the pump in PoolController then factory reset the pump and re added the pump.

Pump appears to respond to commands however there's a continuous RPM surge from the pump. When I connect locally to the pump via Bluetooth I can see various settings. There's one that says RPM Ramping. The options are high, medium and low. When I change it to slow and return control to Nixie the pump will no longer run correctly. It will attempt to run then suddenly stops and repeats the same loop.

It's a new pump, Intelliflo 3 with I/O board. It only has three buttons on it and no LCD. The buttons are Connect, Start/Stop and Quick Clean.

Unrelated question, does Nixie have the ability to enable the 5amp onboard relay? I would like to use it for my Salt Cell Power Cemter.

[jaysalazar]

Here is an example of the ramping, you can see the wattage go up and down although not in this video the RPM also goes up and down and if you are near the pump you can hear the ramping align with the ramping telemetry data in Pool Controller.
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8ebcb93d-ccb4-409c-a6a2-d1a665e5f305

[jaysalazar]

@tagyoureit Just wondering if you had any ideas on the RPM ramping I mentioned last week, I have all my equipment connected and working on my njs Pool Controller minus the main filter pump. The RPM ramping is persistent so for now I have it running using a local program on the pump.

[tagyoureit]

I see what you are talking about. You can see where this app is requesting the pump to run at 2400 in multiple places (lines 1, 12, 23). The pump responds that it is currently running as follows:

• Line 6 = 2400 rpm
• Line 17 = 2163 rpm
• Line 28 = 2400 rpm

The app never requests anything but 2400. I can't see any reason the pump would be changing speeds from what we are telling it to do.

Sorry - I don't know what to tell you here. It is definitely not an app problem.

 1: // Request to set pump to 2400 RPM
 2: {"port":0,"id":2179,"valid":true,"dir":"out","proto":"pump","pkt":[[],[255,0,255], [165,0,96,33,10,4], [2,196,9,96],[2,99]],"ts":"2025-07-22T21:43:56.781-0700"}
 3: // Pump ack 2400 RPM
 4: {"port":0,"id":2180,"valid":true,"dir":"in","proto":"pump","for":[2179],"pkt":[[],[255,0,255],[165,0,16,96,10,2],[9,96],[1,138]],"ts": "2025-07-22T21:43:56.814-0700"}
 5: {"port":0,"id":2185,"valid":true,"dir":"out","proto":"pump","pkt":[[],[255,0,255], [165,0,96,33,7,0], [],[1,45]],"ts":"2025-07-22T21:44:01.991-0700"}
 6: // Pump status reports 2400 RPM (9*256+96)
 7: {"port":0,"id":2189,"valid":true,"dir":"in","proto":"pump","for":[2185],"pkt":[[],[255,0,255],[165,0,16,96,7,15],[10,9,2,3,40,9,96,57,16,0,0,0,0,21,44],[2,94]],"ts": "2025-07-22T21:44:02.067-0700"}
 8: {"port":0,"id":2190,"valid":true,"dir":"out","proto":"pump","pkt":[[],[255,0,255], [165,0,96,33,4,1], [255],[2,42]],"ts":"2025-07-22T21:44:02.179-0700"}
 9: {"port":0,"id":2195,"valid":true,"dir":"in","proto":"pump","for":[2190],"pkt":[[],[255,0,255],[165,0,16,96,4,1],[255],[2,25]],"ts": "2025-07-22T21:44:02.219-0700"}
10: {"port":0,"id":2197,"valid":true,"dir":"out","proto":"pump","pkt":[[],[255,0,255], [165,0,96,33,6,1], [10],[1,55]],"ts":"2025-07-22T21:44:06.486-0700"}
11: {"port":0,"id":2200,"valid":true,"dir":"in","proto":"pump","for":[2197],"pkt":[[],[255,0,255],[165,0,16,96,6,1],[10],[1,38]],"ts": "2025-07-22T21:44:06.515-0700"}
12: // Request to set pump to 2400 RPM
13: {"port":0,"id":2201,"valid":true,"dir":"out","proto":"pump","pkt":[[],[255,0,255], [165,0,96,33,10,4], [2,196,9,96],[2,99]],"ts":"2025-07-22T21:44:06.611-0700"}
14: // Pump ack 2400 RPM
15: {"port":0,"id":2204,"valid":true,"dir":"in","proto":"pump","for":[2201],"pkt":[[],[255,0,255],[165,0,16,96,10,2],[9,96],[1,138]],"ts": "2025-07-22T21:44:06.644-0700"}
16: {"port":0,"id":2209,"valid":true,"dir":"out","proto":"pump","pkt":[[],[255,0,255], [165,0,96,33,7,0], [],[1,45]],"ts":"2025-07-22T21:44:07.646-0700"}
17: // Pump status reports 2163 RPM (8*256+115)
18: {"port":0,"id":2210,"valid":true,"dir":"in","proto":"pump","for":[2209],"pkt":[[],[255,0,255],[165,0,16,96,7,15],[10,9,2,2,128,8,115,48,14,0,0,0,0,21,44],[2,188]],"ts": "2025-07-22T21:44:07.688-0700"}
19: {"port":0,"id":2211,"valid":true,"dir":"out","proto":"pump","pkt":[[],[255,0,255], [165,0,96,33,4,1], [255],[2,42]],"ts":"2025-07-22T21:44:07.690-0700"}
20: {"port":0,"id":2212,"valid":true,"dir":"in","proto":"pump","for":[2211],"pkt":[[],[255,0,255],[165,0,16,96,4,1],[255],[2,25]],"ts": "2025-07-22T21:44:07.719-0700"}
21: {"port":0,"id":2218,"valid":true,"dir":"out","proto":"pump","pkt":[[],[255,0,255], [165,0,96,33,6,1], [10],[1,55]],"ts":"2025-07-22T21:44:13.879-0700"}
22: {"port":0,"id":2221,"valid":true,"dir":"in","proto":"pump","for":[2218],"pkt":[[],[255,0,255],[165,0,16,96,6,1],[10],[1,38]],"ts": "2025-07-22T21:44:13.971-0700"}
23: // Request to set pump to 2400 RPM
24: {"port":0,"id":2222,"valid":true,"dir":"out","proto":"pump","pkt":[[],[255,0,255], [165,0,96,33,10,4], [2,196,9,96],[2,99]],"ts":"2025-07-22T21:44:14.091-0700"}
25: // Pump ack 2400 RPM
26: {"port":0,"id":2227,"valid":true,"dir":"in","proto":"pump","for":[2222],"pkt":[[],[255,0,255],[165,0,16,96,10,2],[9,96],[1,138]],"ts": "2025-07-22T21:44:14.215-0700"}
27: {"port":0,"id":2229,"valid":true,"dir":"out","proto":"pump","pkt":[[],[255,0,255], [165,0,96,33,7,0], [],[1,45]],"ts":"2025-07-22T21:44:18.497-0700"}
28: // Pump status reports 2400 RPM (9*256+96)
29: {"port":0,"id":2232,"valid":true,"dir":"in","proto":"pump","for":[2229],"pkt":[[],[255,0,255],[165,0,16,96,7,15],[10,9,2,3,39,9,96,57,16,0,0,0,0,21,44],[2,93]],"ts": "2025-07-22T21:44:18.538-0700"}

[jaysalazar]

I just made an observation, when have my pump turned off in njsPC the pump is still attempting to turn on, it seems like there's commands being sent to the pump that are conflicting.

[tagyoureit]

There will always be commands sent to the pump to ensure it stays in 'remote control' mode, but they will be telling the pump to stay at 0 rpm. Off doesn't mean silent.

[jaysalazar]

Wanted to provide an update. I came across this article mentioning RS485 communication issues with certain pumps and that a firmware update is needed to resolve. https://www.troublefreepool.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pentair_IntelliFlo_Pumps#IntelliFlo_Pump_Out-of_Date_Firmware_Warning

I connected my pump to Wi-Fi to see if I can update it myself using the Pentair Pool app however this is not possible. This morning I called Pentair Support and asked to check for any firmware updates and sure enough there were two. He updated the "IoT Software" version from .98 to 1.2 and also the "Drive SW Version" from 1.05 to 1.06.

Pump is working perfectly fine now, it appears as though the old pump firmware was not allowing the automation system to take and keep control of the pump, so what was happening is that the pump was responding to commands from both the local program and the automation system which caused my "RPM Ramping" condition, furthermore when I would remove local pump programs the automation system would attempt to start the pump however it the local pump program was turning it off.

Before calling support I was able to verify my theory by setting a local program on the pump to 2200RPM and the automation system to 2200RMP as well. The pump ramping condition improved but did not completely resolve.

[tagyoureit]

Oh, good find! And great info for others. This was a tricky one.