MIMO2+ to control a VS Pool Pump

[Sammy2]

Rather than post twice I'll link my other post here as I wasn't sure if I should continue in the thread about the MIMO2+ in the lighting control section but I thought I'd ask again here.. Thanks!

[Sammy2]

To further the discussion, I have a Pentair SuperFlo Model 342001 pump. The owner's manual can be found here and the area of concern is on page 9 and 10 thereof.

I have the MIMO2+ Parents set up for latched control of REL1 and REL2. Credit must be given to @rstrouse for helping me get this part set up. I would not have figured it out on my own as FortrezZ does a poor job of explaining how to use their product in VeraPlus UI7, or any UI version for that matter.

I have the control cable from Pentair as mentioned in the manual and was attempting to use the REL1 and REL2 to control it. You learn something new every day and I have learned that the relays are dry contacts in this post. Before today I didn't know that a dry contact is a switch but it provides no voltage. I was attempting to control the pump using the wiring method on page 10 of the manual but apparently need to do it as shown in page 9 of the manual. That said, I'm not sure where to connect the red wire in my circuit.

See attached pictures for further explanation.

TIA.

[Sammy2]

BTW, thinking this through it may not be too important which place to put the wire. I should probably put the red wire on the NO contact and the color coded wire on the COM contact for each REL1 and REL2. As it is simply a switch, it really doesn't matter which one is used I think.

Where I was confused is in the Pentair manual it states not to connect the Red wire to a relay that is powered and I thought the MIMO2+ provided power to the relays from it's own transformer. Now that I know what a Dry Contact is, I realize I need to provide the power from the Pentair Control Wire (Red wire) and use the MIMO2+ to complete the circuit.

Of course a confirmation of my thoughts would be nice. The MIMO2+'s are not exactly cheap. I am using two of them to control four speeds of the motor and they're $80 each so I don't want to fry one of them, or the pump control circuitry for that matter.

TIA

[Sammy2]

This picture seems to show that the relays are connected back to the pump power relay which I don't have in this case. There is a pump power relay in the Jandy Control Panel that tells the pump to turn on but doesn't tell it which speed to run. It seems unlikely the speed information would be sent down the 220V line though. It has to be back on the color coded LV wire but the picture confuses things somewhat.

[Z-Waver]

I don't mean to be harsh, but with the expense of these devices and your limited knowledge, it may be better to have a professional, or someone more familiar with circuit wiring do this.

Nonetheless, Page 9(actually labeled page 5), figure 4 shows you exactly what you need to do. (Forget about the pictured power relay, as you can see in the diagram it is not connected.)

First, connect the Red wire to CO(Common) terminal and place a jumper wire from that CO terminal to the CO terminal on the other relay.  Continue to connect a Red jumper to CO on the second MIMO2+ Relay 1 and also to CO Relay 2. At this point each relay will have a power supply (5V from the pump controller) ready to be switched.

Next connect the Green wire to the NO(Normally Open) terminal on the first MIMO Relay 1. Connect the Yellow wire to the NO terminal on Relay 2. Connect the Orange wire to the NO on Relay 1 on the second MIMO and finally, the Brown to NO on Relay 2 of the second MIMO.

Note: you need to make sure that you build in some logic using triggered scenes, or PLEG, or Lua, to make sure that you are only able to turn On ONE relay at a time. Although the manual does not discuss this, I suspect that having multiple relays On at once will perhaps cause the pump controller to error or not function. It's even possible that it might cause damage, though I wouldn't expect it to.

You may want to develop and test that logic before connecting the relays to the pump controller.

[Sammy2]

I don't mean to be harsh, but with the expense of these devices and your limited knowledge, it may be better to have a professional, or someone more familiar with circuit wiring do this.

Nonetheless, Page 9(actually labeled page 5), figure 4 shows you exactly what you need to do. (Forget about the pictured power relay, as you can see in the diagram it is not connected.)

First, connect the Red wire to CO(Common) terminal and place a jumper wire from that CO terminal to the CO terminal on the other relay.  Continue to connect a Red jumper to CO on the second MIMO2+ Relay 1 and also to CO Relay 2. At this point each relay will have a power supply (5V from the pump controller) ready to be switched.

Next connect the Green wire to the NO(Normally Open) terminal on the first MIMO Relay 1. Connect the Yellow wire to the NO terminal on Relay 2. Connect the Orange wire to the NO on Relay 1 on the second MIMO and finally, the Brown to NO on Relay 2 of the second MIMO.

Note: you need to make sure that you build in some logic using triggered scenes, or PLEG, or Lua, to make sure that you are only able to turn On ONE relay at a time. Although the manual does not discuss this, I suspect that having multiple relays On at once will perhaps cause the pump controller to error or not function. It's even possible that it might cause damage, though I wouldn't expect it to.

You may want to develop and test that logic before connecting the relays to the pump controller.

I am capable of figuring it out. It has been over 20 years since I had an electronics class in college as part of my engineering degree so I'm a little bit rusty and appreciate the refresher though on the contacts being dry contracts. This is basic electronics and not a whole lot has changed since then but integrated circuits and programming have changed a lot. The guys doing that stuff know levels of math that are beyond my capability or more likely my desire to study that hard way back then.

At any rate..

I did find in the manual that if two relays are triggered the pump control board has logic built into it that will select the speed based upon the priority shown in the manual and that priority can be changed by the user. As the MIMO2+ takes a few seconds to get the on/off command and process it, I will use scenes with 15 or maybe even 30 second delays so that the MIMO2+ finishes turning one off before turning the next one on.

Thank you again for your advice it is much appreciated.

[Mike Yeager]

On my pump (a Hayward), I can use 2 relays to get 4 different speeds....

[Sammy2]

On my pump (a Hayward), I can use 2 relays to get 4 different speeds....

Interesting. Does it go from one speed to the next based upon the relay being open or closed?

[Mike Yeager]

It uses the combination of the two relays being open or closed 00, 01, 10, 11, as a binary setup to select the speed. If I add a third relay, 000, 100, 010, 110, 001, 101, 011, 111, I get 8 speeds. I think I read it can do 16 speeds, but why??? I personally think 4 is good, 8 tops....

[Sammy2]

It uses the combination of the two relays being open or closed 00, 01, 10, 11, as a binary setup to select the speed. If I add a third relay, 000, 100, 010, 110, 001, 101, 011, 111, I get 8 speeds. I think I read it can do 16 speeds, but why??? I personally think 4 is good, 8 tops....

I see. So 00 10 is speed one. 00 11 is speed two. 01 10 is speed three and so on. the number of speeds becomes a function 2ⁿ, where n is the number of relays. Nice concept to save on the number of relays to incorporate. I'm happy with 4 speeds though. Can't see a reason for 8 even.

[Sammy2]

My typical day consists of leaving for work before the sun comes up and getting home from work after it goes down. I was able to squeeze in an hour or so the other night with my work light but that was it. I got it hooked up and working but I needed better light and more time to complete the job. This weekend I will have time to properly finish the project and will be posting a little write up with pictures after I am done. I want to personally and publicly thank those who have helped on this form, @Z-Waver and @rstrouse; rstrouse for helping me figure out where to put the variables from the MIMO2+'s into Vera UI7 and Z-Waver for correcting me on properly connecting the terminals of the MIMO2+ to trigger the pump operation at different speeds. FortrezZ, OTOH, never responded to my requests for technical assistance which probably explains why their product gets low reviews on amazon even though it is a quite powerful product capable of far more than acting as a dry contact relay.

More to come..

[Sammy2]

I am happy to report that after testing the voltages and continuity as good and removing the wires from the Autelis, firmly pushing the green terminal block into the Autelis and reinstalling the wires then hitting the reset button on the Autelis it came back to life and connected back to the Vera Plugin. All is well for the time being. Not sure why this occurred but glad it is resolved.


I have finished the installation of the MIMO2+'s into the box I had for the Autelis and the WiFi Bridge and wired them up to the pump and am controlling them with my Vera. The box is buttoned up now.

I'm not sure why but the scene I created to run my pump each early morning has failed to run twice now and I'm having to do it manually. I'll check into that more and report back if anybody cares.

I have to say that I love this pump, I cannot hear it running at all and by turning it down from 3450 RPM to 2200 RPM, we get a real nice Zen fountain coming off the cascades from the spa into the pool. I'm even adding another Macro (One Touch Control as I call them) into the Vera Autelis Jandy Plugin to have a Zen off and Zen on button.