Control retrofit for SyncroFlo golf course pump stations
This is for a golf course irrigation pump station built by SyncroFlo in the 1990s or 2000s, the kind sold as the Eagle line. The pumps and the piping are fine. The controls are worn out, or built around parts that are no longer made.
We put a new PLC, a new touch screen and, when it is needed, a new variable frequency drive (VFD) in the control panel you already have. We did this in 2026 at Bootleg Gap Golf in Kimberley, BC, on a station built in 2001. The parts, the photos and the screens on this page are from that job.
Some people call this a retrofit kit. It is the same thing: new controls built for the cabinet you already have.
Is this your station?
Start with the maker's tag. At Bootleg Gap it is on the base of the control cabinet, down near the floor. Look there first.
The photos on this page open full size if you want to read the labels.
| Maker | SyncroFlo, Inc., Norcross, GA |
|---|---|
| Model no. | 820-43L-125-2200 |
| Date of manufacture | 4/01, which is April 2001 |
The 820 at the front matches SyncroFlo's 820 Series VFD-Eagle. We do not know what the rest of the number stands for, so send us the whole tag.
Email a photo of your nameplate to warren@olerindustries.ca or call 250-581-2225. A different model or year is fine. Send it anyway.
What the old door looks like
This is the SyncroFlo pump station at Bootleg Gap before we touched it. The keypad, the hour meters and the pump switches are on the left door.
Still running on the old keypad? We wrote a guide to what its alarm messages mean.
SyncroFlo Eagle alarms in plain words
We are independent. Controler and Oler Industries are not affiliated with SyncroFlo, Inc., which is still in business in Norcross, Georgia.
| On the door | A small keypad with a text display. Around it, hour meters, an alarm light, a reset button and a Hand-Off-Auto switch for each pump. |
|---|---|
| Inside | An older PLC. The one at Bootleg Gap was a Mitsubishi FX2N-32MR. Mitsubishi stopped making the FX2N in 2012 and ended factory repair in 2019. |
| The drive | One drive shared by the main pumps. The lead pump runs on the drive and the others come on at full voltage. |
Not sure? Send a photo of the door along with the tag, and we will tell you. Do not open the panel doors to check. The voltage inside can kill you.
What stays and what gets replaced
A retrofit is new controls in the panel you have. The pumps and the piping stay where they are.
This list is the Bootleg Gap job.
| Stays | The cabinet and the backplate. The field terminal strips. The pump contactors and overloads. The hour meters. The pumps and the piping. |
|---|---|
| Replaced | The PLC. The control wiring inside the panel. The program. The operator screen. |
| Also replaced at Bootleg Gap | The drive. The pressure sensor. The level sensor. |
| Also added at Bootleg Gap | High and low floats in the sump. Remote monitoring over a cellular link. |
At Bootleg Gap the old drive had died, so a new one went in. We replaced the pressure sensor and the level sensor and added the floats on the same job. The station has been logged over a cellular link since June 2026.
What your station needs depends on what is there and what shape it is in. That is what the tag and the photos are for.
What goes in the panel
These are the parts we used at Bootleg Gap. Every one is a standard part that an electrician can buy from a distributor. Nothing in the panel is a proprietary controller.
The next electrician to open the door can read the part numbers and look them up.
| PLC | Siemens S7-1200. At Bootleg Gap it is a CPU 1215C with three expansion modules. |
|---|---|
| Touch screen (HMI) | Siemens, 7 inch, in the door. |
| Network switch | Siemens Scalance. |
| Interface relays | Finder. |
| Control wiring | New inside the panel. Every wire is labelled. |
| Program | A new PLC program. We write it ourselves. |
| Drive, when it is being replaced | Franklin Electric Cerus X-Drive, with its keypad on the door. |
Inside the cabinet
At Bootleg Gap the new PLC went on the original backplate, above the original terminal strips. The new drive went where the old Toshiba drive had been.
On the door
The touch screen takes the place of the old keypad. When the drive is replaced, its keypad goes on the door as well.
At Bootleg Gap the door also has an alarm light, a reset button, a Hand-Off-Auto switch for each pump and a strainer blowdown switch. The four hour meters are the originals.
What the operator gets
A touch screen that shows what the station is doing, and one pressure setpoint to set. The PLC decides which pumps run.
On the touch screen
These are the pages on the Bootleg Gap screen.
| Main page | Each turbine and whether it is on the drive or at full voltage. The pressure maintenance (PM) pump and the transfer pump. Pond level in feet, the pressure setpoint, pressure in PSI and flow in GPM. |
|---|---|
| Other pages | Alarms, pump hours and manual control. |
| Emergency full voltage page | If the drive is ever out, the operator can turn on an emergency mode and run the turbines at full voltage from the screen. The drive is locked out. The alarms stay live and each pump's switch still has to be in Auto. Pressure control is by hand in that mode. |
How the station runs
This is how the Bootleg Gap station runs now.
| Lead pump | The station picks the turbine with the lowest hours and runs it on the drive. |
|---|---|
| More demand | When the drive is at full speed and pressure is still low, the other turbines come on at full voltage, one at a time. |
| Nobody watering | The PM pump holds pressure. |
| Pond level | The transfer pump keeps the pond between a start level and a stop level. |
| Alarms | High and low pressure, high and low flow, pump overloads, phase loss and drive fault. An alarm latches and stops the pumps until someone resets it. |
Inspection and approval
Every retrofit gets a special inspection under SPE-1000 before it goes into service, and the panel is labelled. Panels we build ahead of time are certified the same way.
SPE-1000 is the Canadian model code for field evaluation of electrical equipment. The inspection is done by an accredited inspection body, not by us.
Provinces require electrical equipment to be approved before it is put into service.
How the job goes
It starts with the tag and a few photos. After that it depends on how far you are from Cranbrook.
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You send the nameplate and photos
A photo of the tag and a photo of the panel door, shut. The full list is below.
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We get back to you
We tell you whether the retrofit fits your station and what it needs.
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Within about three and a half hours of Cranbrook
We do the work on site ourselves. That is how the Bootleg Gap job was done.
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Farther away
We build and test the panel in Cranbrook and it is certified under SPE-1000. We work out the install with your course and your electrician by phone, because installers and permits differ by province.
What we need from you
Phone photos are fine. Email them to warren@olerindustries.ca with whatever you know from this list.
There is a survey form to print and fill in at the pump house, and a two page sheet on the retrofit to pass around.
- A photo of the nameplate
- A photo of the panel door, shut
- Photos of the inside of the panel, taken by your electrician. Do not open the panel doors yourself. The voltage inside can kill you.
- How many pumps there are and the horsepower of each motor
- The supply voltage
- The make and model of the drive
- What sensors are on the station, such as pressure, flow and level
- Whether there is cell coverage or internet at the pump house
- What is going wrong
Questions and answers
If yours is not here, call Warren at 250-581-2225.
- Do we have to replace the pumps?
No. The pumps and the piping stay. At Bootleg Gap we also kept the cabinet, the pump contactors and overloads and the hour meters.
- Will it work with our Toro or Rain Bird central?
The pump station runs on pressure and does not depend on the central. The operator sets one pressure setpoint and the PLC runs the pumps to hold it, whichever central is opening the heads.
- Is SyncroFlo still around?
Yes. SyncroFlo, Inc. is still in business in Norcross, Georgia, and still lists golf irrigation systems. We know of no SyncroFlo irrigation rep in Canada. We are independent and not affiliated with them. Our retrofit is a different route. It uses a standard Siemens PLC and touch screen, and we are based in Cranbrook, BC.
- We were quoted a whole new control panel. Is a retrofit an option?
Often it is. At Bootleg Gap we kept the cabinet, the backplate, the pump contactors and overloads and the hour meters, and replaced the controls inside. Send the nameplate and photos of the panel door and we will tell you straight whether yours can be done the same way.
- What if only the drive has failed?
Send us the tag and the make and model of the drive, and tell us what it is doing. We will tell you whether a new drive can go in without the rest of the retrofit.
- What does it cost and how long does it take?
We price it after we see the nameplate and the photos, because stations differ. The same goes for how long it takes.
- Can we get it as a kit for our own electrician to install?
If you are too far for us to drive, that is the plan. We build and test the panel in Cranbrook, it is certified under SPE-1000, and we work out the install with you and your electrician by phone, because installers and permits differ by province. We installed the Bootleg Gap one ourselves.
- What about other makes of station?
The same approach applies. The one we have retrofitted is a SyncroFlo, so send the nameplate and we will tell you straight whether we can help.
Want us to look at your station?
Email a photo of your nameplate to warren@olerindustries.ca and we will tell you what we think. Or book a review and tell us what the station is doing, or not doing.
Book a free pump station review or call Warren at 250-581-2225