PF4 error - Not turning off skimmer despite leak sensors activating.

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Fisherman Joe

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Hi all.

I am hoping someone can help me as GHL support has now closed my ticket despite and ongoing issue.

For some I know reason, randomly my PF4 enters a strange error state where it no longer recognises the float switches activating.

My skimmer empties in to a single chamber with a two float switches. When the first is activated, it turns on a maxi pump for 30 seconds that pumps in to the drain. When the second float switch is activated it turns off the skimmer.

Sometimes, the PF4 enters an error like state where I can literally manipulate the switches and nothing happens.

The leak sensors are also on this skimmer switch channel, when in this error state, I can literally dip the leak sensor in water and it doesn’t turn off the skimmer.

Several times now the skimmer has over skimmed and flooded the kitchen in an inch of water.

The team at GHL say they don’t know how to help me. It’s very frustrating considering I spent more than £2000 on my system.

I also have a solenoid on a switch channel that controls my fresh water RODI top up. This error has even happened here where the min-max setting using two float switches fails. The RODI water keeps pumping and I can literally toggle the float switch (and the leak sensor is sat in water) and the PF4 does nothing.

I have such little confidence in the GHL support now. They haven’t once apologised or offered to phone and talk to me. It’s incredibly upsetting to have to buy separate leak sensorss and use Amazon smart switches and a D&D optical skimmer guardian all as secondary backups because the PF4 will not do what it says on the tin.

Just to be clear, the error could be something to do with my settings but no one from GHL support will help me identify and address the problem.

They are now closing the tickets constantly.

I also have a touch panel that failed shortly after purchase and also a dozer maxi that keeps splitting the compression tubing. Really regretting my investment now.

Can anyone help? I don’t want a leak again.
 
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ingchr1

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My level sensor stopped working as well. In my case I suspect it's a card issue. Haven't investigated it any further, as I was only using it for alarm purposes.

I have a couple of posts on it in the tread you put up last year. Since then it completely stopped working and I just removed it from the tank.
I mentioned it in my other post in this thread, but I had the same thing happen to me as the OP.

I have an optical sensor in the return chamber of my AIO that I use as a low level alarm, it has no other function. It is setup as Leakage Detection and inverted. One day I was doing maintenance on the tank and had the sensor out of the water. It did not alarm. The indicated state in the P4 never changed. It stayed as Fill.

As a test I unplugged the sensor from the P4. When I did this it still did not alarm, the state stayed as Fill. The sensor is closed on Fill and open on Alarm, so it should have alarmed when unplugged. This eliminated the sensor as the cause of the problem.

I ran through the same test sequence on the other port on the level/leak card, with the same results. This eliminated the first port from being the sole cause of the issue.

I then change the function to not inverted. When I did this the alarm came in when the sensor was plugged in and not plugged in. The alarm was always in. This testing confirmed that the input to the card (the sensor) had no affect on what the function was doing.

At this point I put in a ticket for the issue, explaining what I was observing. For the ticket they requested a photo of the sensor. When I pulled the sensor out of the water for the photo it alarmed this time. The only thing I had done between the time of when the function was not working and working was to cycle power to the P4. The power cycle seamed to fix it. I don't recall the issue specifically happening since then, but it may have. The other day I was doing maintenance and the alarm did come in when the sensor went dry. The issue originally happened back in September.

It's a strange issue and appears to not be an isolated case. There was no conclusion by GHL to what may have caused the original failure and why it is now working.

Potential Causes?
  • Leak/level card
  • Issue created during the previous firmware update (at the time I was on 7.24)
  • ????
 
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Fisherman Joe

Fisherman Joe

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My level sensor stopped working as well. In my case I suspect it's a card issue. Haven't investigated it any further, as I was only using it for alarm purposes.

I have a couple of posts on it in the tread you put up last year. Since then it completely stopped working and I just removed it from the t
I cannot believe that after asking reasonable questions and seeking advice as per above, I got a reply that just closed the ticket.

I have timeouts on some of the programmable logic so the RODI water feed for example, it takes 90 minutes to fill my top off tank with fresh water, so I limit that level function to 2 hours. That way if the float switch is ignored (and to be clear, the float switches all work and you can see that in the GHL software) then it will only overflow for 30 minutes.

They seem to blame this for the issue but haven’t said much else.
 

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Are you putting in reaction times on your your level sensors? This is not the max on or Max off time. If you set the reaction time to like 5-10 seconds does it work and no longer require a reset?

I assume your plugging this not into the Expansion Card, but the normal Level Ports on the Back of the P4? If your using L1 and L2 and change it to L3 and L4 port does the problem follow the port?
 

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I’ve had this happen with one of my float switches but only a couple times. About same as my apex.

The leak sensors are trash. Ive had two now and once they get wet they never function correctly again.

Sucks about support… I’d open another ticket. I haven’t been impressed with support. Took a month to fix my notifications recently and now they’re broken again. I give up, already lost confidence in it.
 
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Fisherman Joe

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Are you putting in reaction times on your your level sensors? This is not the max on or Max off time. If you set the reaction time to like 5-10 seconds does it work and no longer require a reset?

I assume your plugging this not into the Expansion Card, but the normal Level Ports on the Back of the P4? If your using L1 and L2 and change it to L3 and L4 port does the problem follow the port?
I will try what you suggest.
Thanks for the input. Honestly it’s been more than the support I’ve had through the ticketing system which was very upsetting.

The error state randomly triggers
 
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Fisherman Joe

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I’ve had this happen with one of my float switches but only a couple times. About same as my apex.

The leak sensors are trash. Ive had two now and once they get wet they never function correctly again.

Sucks about support… I’d open another ticket. I haven’t been impressed with support. Took a month to fix my notifications recently and now they’re broken again. I give up, already lost confidence in it.
The notifications, in the app, before connecting to a device go to settings there and try to enable them. I found that out myself and it worked.

The leak sensors show as activated on the app for me, so they aren’t trash, just do t trigger their desired effect.
 
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Fisherman Joe

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Are you putting in reaction times on your your level sensors? This is not the max on or Max off time. If you set the reaction time to like 5-10 seconds does it work and no longer require a reset?

I assume your plugging this not into the Expansion Card, but the normal Level Ports on the Back of the P4? If your using L1 and L2 and change it to L3 and L4 port does the problem follow the port?
The reaction time for all the sensors is 1s
 

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Lasse

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The leak sensors are also on this skimmer switch channel, when in this error state, I can literally dip the leak sensor in water and it doesn’t turn off the skimmer.
1 questions - do you - ( in this occasion that the P4 does not respond to the leak sensor by switching of the socket) get any general alarm?

Sincerely Lasse
 
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Fisherman Joe

Fisherman Joe

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1 questions - do you - ( in this occasion that the P4 does not respond to the leak sensor by switching of the socket) get any general alarm?

Sincerely Lasse
No. Nothing at all.

It shows this in the videos linked above.
 

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Adjust the Sensor Reaction time to 5-10 seconds and see if that fixes your issue. Also see fit follows the sensor or if it fails on L1/L2 but works on L3/L4 then it could be a port issue or a splitter cable issue. All My float switches are set to 5 seconds and my ATO is 10 seconds just be because I know no matter what there some form of turblance inside the sump and no reason to check it every second.

Just throwing out idea's :)
 
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Fisherman Joe

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Adjust the Sensor Reaction time to 5-10 seconds and see if that fixes your issue. Also see fit follows the sensor or if it fails on L1/L2 but works on L3/L4 then it could be a port issue or a splitter cable issue. All My float switches are set to 5 seconds and my ATO is 10 seconds just be because I know no matter what there some form of turblance inside the sump and no reason to check it every second.

Just throwing out idea's :)
Good point.

I will wait until it enters this error stage and see.
 
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Fisherman Joe

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Adjust the Sensor Reaction time to 5-10 seconds and see if that fixes your issue. Also see fit follows the sensor or if it fails on L1/L2 but works on L3/L4 then it could be a port issue or a splitter cable issue. All My float switches are set to 5 seconds and my ATO is 10 seconds just be because I know no matter what there some form of turblance inside the sump and no reason to check it every second.

Just throwing out idea's :)
Ok. So my PF4 is in this error state now.

I am activating the float switch in the water chamber and it’s on leak sensor and it’s not turning off the skimmer.

I have put the sensor on a 5 second reaction timer. Too.

Can you have more than one leak sensor on a switch channel?

How do you setup a feed pause on the skimmer and the leak sensor detector function too?
 
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Fisherman Joe

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This is how it’s setup at the minute.

Skimmer;
393FE86A-4800-4B6F-B9CB-1B3A02F2FF6F.png


Programmable logic 5; - I wasn’t sure how to link more than 2 actions to one switch channel

8A6BA8CB-CF8B-4419-9D30-11D52889F291.png


Feed pause:
511F9E66-C299-4068-8C99-0723025AC487.png

92284285-8E48-4205-8F5E-603ADD5272E9.png


PL4 is the leak sensors and a float switch in the skimmer waste. Both should turn off the skimmer when triggered. At present they are not, but you can see the sensors activating when manually triggered. If I power cycle the PF4 it works again.
92B5BCE4-9D84-450A-A00F-1F5E5230083F.png


E061919D-0317-48A2-8BBA-EE863DC0F832.png

AF829142-C6EB-4A40-83D1-AF270D057F86.png
 

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@Fisherman Joe - I am trying your settings with my tank. I have yet to have it fail. I am running 10 Seconds of Reaction time on each of the level sensors. I am letting the skimmer bucket fill now but it has been running now 2 days without any issues. I am using L3 and L4 for the two sensors as my L1 and L2 are my flow sensors.
 
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