Intellichem only

[agrieco]

I've got an Intellichem with no other Pentair devices (no Intellicenter, nor Easy touch) that I'm trying to get connected remotely through home assistant so I can keep an eye on tank levels, pH, ORP etc.

I'm struggling to get any communications out of this device. I've connected the RS485 to a USB dongle on a PI. I never see any TX/RX LEDs light up on the dongle but I do see the dongle in the raspberry pi and when running the nodejs-poolController, I see repeated messages like:

intellichem:~/pool $ docker compose logs -f
poolcontroller-dashpanel  | Updated configuration file
poolcontroller-dashpanel  | info: Server is now listening on 0.0.0.0:5150 - 172.18.0.3:5150
poolcontroller            | Init state for Pool Controller
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:33:49 PM] info: The current git branch output is master
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:33:50 PM] info: The current git commit output is b507c66
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:33:50 PM] info: Starting up SSDP server
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:33:50 PM] info: Init mqtt interface: MQTT
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:33:50 PM] info: Initializing MQTT client MQTT
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:33:50 PM] info: Server is now listening on 0.0.0.0:4200 - 172.18.0.2:4200
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:33:50 PM] info: Serial port: /dev/ttyUSB0 request to open successful 9600b 8-none-1
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:33:50 PM] info: Checking njsPC versions...
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:33:50 PM] info: Starting Pool System nixie
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:33:50 PM] info: Initializing Nixie Control Panel for Nixie Single Body
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:33:50 PM] info: Initializing Intake/Return valves
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:33:50 PM] info: Initializing Nixie Controller
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:33:50 PM] info: Initializing Nixie body Pool
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:33:50 PM] info: Initializing Filter Filter
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:33:50 PM] info: Auto-backup initialized Last Backup: 1970-01-01T00:00:00.000+0000
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:33:50 PM] info: Initializing Nixie circuit Pool
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:33:50 PM] info: Nixie Controller Initialized
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:33:50 PM] info: Nixie Single Body control board initialized
.....
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:37:11 PM] info: Serial Port 0 - /dev/ttyUSB0 has been closed.
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:37:11 PM] info: Successfully closed portId 0 for serial port /dev/ttyUSB0
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:37:11 PM] info: Serial port: /dev/ttyUSB0 request to open successful 9600b 8-none-1
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:37:21 PM] warn: Inactivity timeout for 0 serial port /dev/ttyUSB0 after 10 seconds
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:37:21 PM] info: Serial Port 0 - /dev/ttyUSB0 has been closed.
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:37:21 PM] info: Successfully closed portId 0 for serial port /dev/ttyUSB0
poolcontroller            | [11/8/2025, 2:37:21 PM] info: Serial port: /dev/ttyUSB0 request to open successful 9600b 8-none-1

I've tried many different combinations of wiring (with or without ground and swapping the lines. No joy.

The intellichem is running software rev 1.110

I'd appreciate any help in diagnosing what I'm doing wrong.

[tagyoureit]

Intellichem, like other components, doesn't broadcast any messages. It needs to be initialized. I don't see any messages about njsPC setting up Intellichem. Did you configure it in the setup for the app?

[agrieco]

Thanks for the response. I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'configure it in the setup for the app.' I did have it in the controllers config.json enabled with type: intellichem.

I also ran the frontend gui, it detected the server but I didn't see any options to configure anything further...I might have missed something obvious.

[tagyoureit]

Click on the gear in the upper right, then Chemistry. Click the Intellichem dropdown and then press the Chem Controller button.

The intellichem that you enabled in the config.json is under the log section and only determines what packets are logged for troubleshooting. And that doesn't need to be manually configured. You can click on the 3 bars in the upper left -> logging and turn on/off Intellichem logging there.

[agrieco]

Mine has never had a green status indicator, nor did i see any other text- it just showed 'Unknown'...so your menus look completely different from mine. thanks

…

On Mon, Nov 10, 2025 at 11:39 AM tagyoureit ***@***.***> wrote: Click on the gear in the upper right, then Chemistry. Click the Intellichem dropdown and then press the Chem Controller button. 2025-11-10_08-35-06.png (view on web) <https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/25867564-1af0-482b-85c6-af194c68fede> 2025-11-10_08-35-25.png (view on web) <https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c64355e7-897b-4c5c-8738-4d304cea824a> The intellichem that you enabled in the config.json is under the log section and only determines what packets are logged for troubleshooting. And that doesn't need to be manually configured. You can click on the 3 bars in the upper left -> logging and turn on/off Intellichem logging there. 2025-11-10_08-38-40.png (view on web) <https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/99b5128a-8dc8-469e-989d-4073ba477c59> — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1136 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABOJKSOZZRCBUEXNATT33IL34C5VXAVCNFSM6AAAAACLQ5MUFKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTIOJSGY4DEOI> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: <tagyoureit/nodejs-poolController/repo-discussions/1136/comments/14926829@ github.com>

[tagyoureit]

You might want to re-pull a fresh copy. Or attach a screenshot. I just did a brand new install for these screenshots.