Holding down the Light and Jets button for 4 seconds will display some diagnostic information. It first shows the version of the firmware (currently 1.10), and with each press of the jets button, displays additional information. It will show in order:
It is possible to go into a special service mode to change various settings of this firmware. Please be sure you understand the ramifications of these settings before changing anything. It is not expected that the user of the tub will need to modify these settings, but they are documented in case there is some special need to change something.
To enter the service mode, press all 4 buttons for 4 seconds. You should see
PP0 on the display. If you have issues with the system not recognizing 4
buttons, hold down the lights button, then press each of the other buttons.
After you have pressed the last button, the service mode should start after 4
seconds. Then release the lights button.
Use the up and down arrows to choose the setting you wish to set. Use the Lights button to select the value to change. Pressing jets will save the settings return to the normal controls.
After pressing the lights button, it will show the current setting. Use the lights button to move to the next digit. The digit you are at will flash. If the hundreds place is selected and has a 0 it will not flash because the display cannot show a 0 in that position. To save the value, press the jets button. If you don’t respond within 5 seconds, the system will go back to the previous menu without saving any changes.
Valid values are between 0 and 255. There’s no error checking so be careful what you set things to and verify the settings do what you are expecting. If you want to revert to default settings, set the default temperature (PP0) to “255”. On next restart it will replace all settings with defaults.
While in the service mode you can press the up and down buttons to reset the Softub. Doing so will not save any changes you have made.
If you want the system to be set to a different temperature on startup, change this. Though normally this is changed automatically when the setting changes.
This is tenths of a degree to offset the probe setting, with 10.0 as the base. So, a setting of “9.0” will cause the temperature to be reported 1 degree colder. A setting of 12.0 will be 2 degrees warmer. Values under 10.0 cause pool temps to get hotter because it is adjusted to a lower temperature.
The minimum temperature allowed to be set. Make sure it is safely above freezing.
The maximum allowed temp. The default 104F (40C) is the recommended maximum temperature for hot tubs. This adjustment is provided if you want to lower the maximum if you have children, or are otherwise concerned about the maximum temperature. Increasing this is not recommended for safety reasons. Also, setting this too high will cause the board’s high limit safety feature to activate, disabling the pump.
Once the tub is up to temp, the system waits until the temp probe goes down this many degrees F (or half degrees C) before calling for heat again. The default is 4 but if you increase it, the pump will run less often (but for longer). As power cycles increase the wear on the pump, it may be helpful to adjust this. It is important to note that the temp probe is inside the HydroMate, so you may find that a large deadband only causes a small fluctuation in tub temperature.
If the pump is heating, if the temperature is this degrees F over (or half degrees C), then the pump will shut off. The default is 2.
To use this, add up the numbers and configure that value. If you want to use Fahrenheit, disable P and disable IPS, you would enter 11 (1 + 2 + 8).
1 = Use Fahrenheit: If this is not set it will display the temperature in Celsius. The default is the setting of JP2 on the board. If the pads are jumpered the default is Celsius. If you change this flag, it will replace the maximum, minimum and default temps to default values.
2 = Disable P: Normally the controller will use the stock rules of displaying P when the pump is off or just started. If this flag is set, it will instead always show the tub temperature.
4 = Disable Ozone: Softub has an optional ozone generator that is run periodically to limit the chemical use. However, they tend to fail, and generally are not replaced. If you are not using or do not wish to use the ozone generator, set this flag. If you don’t have ozone, it doesn’t matter what this is set to.
8 = Disable IPS: The board monitors the voltage is sufficient to not cause damage to the pump. It fires if the voltage drops to 96.5 volts on a 120v system (or probably around 177 v on a 220 circuit). To disable this test, set this flag. However, if there is insufficient power for the microcontroller, it could still respond with an IPS warning. It should be disabled on 2001 boards, as the lack the appropriate signal.
16 = Disable P01: If the tub has been heating for 4 hours without a 1 degree temperature increase, the system will stop, and display a P01 error. If you would rather it keep going in those situations, set this flag.
32 = Disable SP1: The controller allows you to go up to 2 degrees F higher (or 1 degree C) than the maximum configured in PP1, by using the “special temperature” controls that the stock Softub board uses. If you wish to disable this for safety, or if you changed the maximum to where you want it in PP1, set this flag.
64 = Disable Smart Temperatures: The software tries to estimate the tub temperature taking into account the set points and heat status. If instead you want to display the raw temperature of the probe (similar to what the stock firmware does), use this flag.
128 = Encode status as humidity reading. See the Wi-Fi guide for details
1 = Disable Save settings: The controller will normally save the selected temperature and the mode the tub is running in so it will keep that setting if power is lost. If you rather it instead always return to the saved defaults, set this flag.
2 = Disable service menu: This could be useful if you have the settings you want and you don’t want anyone to muck with them. If this is disabled, holding the four buttons simply causes the controller to restart. However, if you set this flag, it means that you won’t be able to change any of these PP settings without opening up the HydroMate. Temporarily adding a jumper across JP3 on the board on startup will reset the configuration to the default and reenable this menu.
4 = Disable wait for service menu: If this is enabled, then pressing the 4 buttons will immediately bring up the service menu instead of requiring a 4 second hold.
8 = Disable Decimal: If this is enabled, then the board will not try to send out a decimal point. Decimal points are only used for Celsius, the PP1 menu, and version number. The early 2001 top units (with a + and - instead of an up and down arrows) cannot display decimal points).
16 = Stock Settings: If this is enabled, the board will more closely follow the stock C-2013 firmware
32 = Disable proactive heat: If the firmware notices the temperature is going down with the heat on, it will turn the heat mode on even if it hasn’t hit the setpoint yet.
64 = Enable tenth degree: Normally the board reports full degrees (or half degree Centigrade). To instead show the temperature to the tenth of a degree enable this. Note, if the temperature is 100 or over, it can’t show the tenths, and instead will end the value with a decimal point if it is .5 or over. So 100.2 will show as “100” and 100.6 will show as “100.”
1 = Two Speed Board
There are some boards that has 3 relays instead of two that are ment to work with a two speed pump.
This can enabled by using this flag.
2 = European Board Indicates that the board is powered by 220v.
4 = Flash heat LED when setting This will flash the heat LED while the set temperature is displayed
This does not need to be edited, as it can be changed with the documented commands 00 = Startup in normal mode 01 = Startup in economy mode 02 = Startup in overnight mode
See Wi-Fi notes for details
The minutes to run the jets when the jet button is pressed.
The minutes to run the lights with the lights button is pressed.
If a top panel button or buttons fail, it is possible to add a normally open push button to the jumper pads on the board. To do this you would need to solder a pair of wires on the jumper pads, then route the wires for the pushbutton out of the enclosure. If you go this route, make sure you have a waterproof cable nut to protect the enclosure from getting wet and you route the cable so that it has a dip below the pump to make sure water doesn’t work its way into the control panel box. While it would be better to replace the control panel, this is an option for someone confident on their installation skills. You can either replace all the buttons or just the broken buttons. Here’s the connection placements:
JP3: Lights
JP4: Jets
JP5: Up
JP6: Down