Feedback on Jandy Aqualink PDA

[Deal Svengali]

Is anyone using the Jandy PDA? Any positive or negative reviews on it?

[mabrolat]

I'm curious about this one too. Anyone out there using the Jandy PDA? Looks good on paper, but heard rumor about problems communicating w/ controller...

[cygnusecks]

I have the system. The fact that you can take it anywhere, control anything, drop it in the pool, take it inside, etc far outweighs the fact that the response when you press a key is slightly delayed. Yeah, it's a little annoying that there is a 1/2 second response time per keypress. Still, the wireless aspect far outweighs this drawback.

Just make sure you don't *lose* the remote, and/or break it. The rep said they run in the neighborhood of $400 to replace the handheld remote. Seems extremely excessive to me, but they have you by the "short & curlies" once you buy it so what are you gonna do... so much for industry cooperation and standards!

[towney]

I also have the PDA system. I had delay problem issues in the beginning but the Jady service rep came out and moved the antenna to the back of the house from the side where the equipment is. They had this equipment that could test the way the antenna unit is transmitting/receiving and since mine was on the side of the house it was transmitting/receiving out away from the house.
Repositioning the antenna made a great improvement in response time. Now if your inside the house there is a slight delay between pushing the buttons to the next screen, but outside it works to near perfection. I had asked the Jandy rep on the delay issues that have been brought up and he said that the engineers have corrected any previous problems with the most recent firmware versions, mine is 3 mos old so he had told me I had the most recent versions.
PDA 1.2
J-Box 1.29
Handheld 1.37

In summary I am happy I have this setup (pool builder gave it to me for the cost of the wired for it's harder to hard wire it for them) I can just about go anywhere in our house and it will work. It has alot of great features including 2 hot keys and the ability to set 2 different programs for each equipment. My suggestion to anyone having it installed (per jandy rep) make sure the antenna unit is place on the back of your house for best operation. He set ours approx. 7' off the ground and 3 feet from the corner of the house and hid the wire behind the gutter downspout. Hope this helps.