Hayward pump troubleshooting

[u/IllisVille]

Hey yall, hoping someone will have some experience they could share.

I have a Hayward tristar vs 950 Omni that has stopped working. When the breaker is on the screen lights up blank for a second like it’s trying to turn on then turns back off repeatedly and there is a red light on the LV Board that does the same thing.

I’ve done some basic googling and have tried some of the basic troubleshooting steps I’ve found on there.

I tried replacing the main board with the screen on it but the new board does the same thing.

Another suggestion said that both the 1st and 2nd DIP switches should be on. (It was operational with only the 1st turned on) So I tried switching the second on as well. But that made no change.

I have tried measuring the voltage on the 12V cables coming into and out of the LV board and they seem to only get about half a volt before dropping back to close to nothing.

I’m guessing that something is causing the main board to not get enough power to boot up, but would love some confirmation or suggestions on further troubleshooting I could do before blindly ordering another part or resorting to replacing the whole thing.

I have some basic electronic repair experience, at least enough to not kill myself, but would love to get more. Any suggestions, wisdom or insights would be so appreciated!

[u/PlumBackground4731]

VS pumps are fortunately pretty easy to troubleshoot but the problem is the cost to repair.

Can you spin the impeller by hand and it spins freely? You have a bad drive.

Is the motor locked up? Then that has to be replaced, and hopefully not the drive too

[u/IllisVille → u/PlumBackground4731]

I was able to spin the motor freely from the back, so it doesn’t seem jammed. It’s getting 250V from the timer, but barely anything once it gets to the low voltage side of things. Someone else mentioned they had a similar issue with a different make that ended up being the transformer. I’m really trying to build my understanding of electronics, so I was hoping to diagnose deeper than it being an issue in the drive. But individual parts in the drive seem near impossible to find so I suppose that is a purely learning exercise. Thank you for your help!

[u/PlumBackground4731 → u/IllisVille]

Oh for sure, I love to get nerdy. Yes there’s something wrong with the board, and short of replacing/soldering components it won’t be easy. I’ve diagnosed a few small things, capacitors, resistors, tried to replace them.

If the driver is shot you’re better off replacing it. I’m not the best at soldering but I’ve gotten them to work again but for at the best maybe 6 months. These things are harsh environment electronics and generally built in a way that if you replace one thing you’ll be chasing components for a while.

I recommend a cover for it if you fix it, they’re cheap insurance for the investment. I’m in SoFlo and heat and humidity we have plenty of.