What are Port Types
The Attendant is has six types of connection ports used to control various kinds of pool equipment. The following table lists available port types and the number of ports of each type in The Attendant panel.
Note: Up to two Attendant panels can be stacked in a single site to increase the number of available connection ports.
| Port Type | Number Of Ports | Supports Multiple Devices Per Port | Common Devices | Technical Description |
| Bus | 4 | Yes | Variable Speed Pumps Salt Cells Heaters/Heat Pumps Lights | RS-485 Ports |
| Valve | 5 | No | Valve Actuators | 24VAC Valve Actuators |
| Flow Switch | 5 | No | Flow Switches Pool Cover Sensors Water Level Sensors Spa Remotes | Open/Close Sensors |
| Temp Sensor | 5 | No | Temperature Sensors Water Level Sensors | 10K Ohm Thermistors |
| Heater | 5 | No | Heaters/Heat Pumps Multi-Speed Pumps | Dry Contacts |
| Relay | 8 | No | Single Speed Pumps Chemical Pumps Lights Blowers | 24VDC Relays |
The diagram below illustrates the location of each port type on The Attendant board:
Device Specific Choices
When adding a device to your configuration in Installer Mode you will be prompted to select the Brand and Model of the device you are adding. This selection determines the available port types you can use. For example, a generic single color light will display Relay as the only port type available to connect/control the device. On the other hand, a Pentair Heater may present multiple options such as Heater ports and Bus ports. Please consider using the best connection for your application when multiple choices are available. You may consult your device installation guide or the information in the rest of this article to determine which port type is most appropriate for your use case.
Single Speed Pumps
Single speed pumps will be connected to a High Voltage Relay to power the pump on and off.
Multi-Speed Pumps
Multi-Speed pumps have a fixed number of speeds that are activated with one or more dry contact relays. One relay is required for each speed that you want to be able to activate. We recommend using the Heater dry contact ports for this purpose as the most cost effective option. Relay ports connected to one of the High Voltage Relays may also be used.
Variable Speed Pumps
Variable speed pumps are controlled digitally using Bus ports. Please consult The Attendant Installation Guide for detailed instructions on the correct way to wire your variable speed pump. With most pump models it is possible to connect multiple variable speed pumps to a single Bus port. Whenever you connect multiple pumps to a single bus port it’s important to make sure that each pump is assigned a unique address (bus identifier). Please reference your device installation guide for instructions on setting the address. Most frequently the address is a simple number 1 through 16. With some manufacturers the identifier may be a longer series of numbers. For example, Hayward HUA addresses are typically in the format xx-xx-xx-xx-xx.
Note: The Attendant will attempt to auto-detect devices connected to bus ports. Please allow up to 5 minutes for the system to perform auto detection. Once the process is complete you will see a dropdown with detected addresses of all devices connected to the bus port you’ve selected in the app.
Heaters/Heat Pumps/Chillers
Temperature control devices are normally controlled by The Attendant in one of two ways:
1. Modern devices are controlled using digital communication over Bus ports. This is the recommended way to connect any devices that are capable of such communication. Benefits of using digital communication include the ability to report back any trouble/error codes and more advanced ability to control the device.
2. Virtually all temperature control devices support dry contact/fireman switch control options. Heater ports are provided on The Attendant panel for this purpose. A limitation of this connection type is that it only allows a single specific device mode to be turned on or off with no other feedback of device status or problems. Heat/Cool devices will often require two heater ports to be used (one for heat mode and one for cool mode)
Salt Cells
Salt Water Chlorine Generators are normally connected to The Attendant digitally using Bus ports. This type of communication enables the automation system to set a desired output duty cycle as well as read salt level, flow switch status and error codes.
The Attendant does support controlling salt cells that are not capable of digital communication. All such salt systems must be connected to a High Voltage Relay and use a Relay port.
Lights
The Attendant supports a large number of different pool and landscape lighting systems. Classic single color pool lights or color changing lights that use sequences of On/Off switches to select the color/show must be connected to High Voltage Relays and a Relay port.
Modern multi color lights using the DMX protocol should be connected to a Bus port. A single bus port can control up to 128 individual lighting zones for DMX lights.
Water Level Sensors
The Attendant panel supports two types of water level sensors:
1. Two or Three contact sensors using resistance measurement to detect the presence of water (for example classic Jandy Levelor sensors) should be connected to one of the available Temp Sensor ports.
2. Float style water level sensors should be connected to one of the available Flow Switch ports.
Blowers/Chemical Dosing Pumps/Ozonators
All devices requiring basic on/off control should be connected to The Attendant panel using High Voltage Relays and a Relay port.