Fastdriving

On mine, it was a no go. I thought the same thing. Ended up having to get a new motherboard from local dealer. Their deal was the controller and motherboard for around 800-850. I already bought the new controller online, so I purchased the motherboard. It had to be shipped, surprised that it isn't in stock. But their going to flash the motherboard for me.

At least in the automotive industry, you can still get OEM parts for at least 10 years

Let me guess, the defunct company is in Asia somewhere. Then to top it off, the new, remodeled control panel won't work with the older motherboard, who came up with the specs for that. That person should have to pay to make my tub work correctly. So what else isn't going to 'line up' if I do get a new motherboard, is my ACE system going to work correctly or at all? How about my other control panel? WTH. I will put it out there again, DO NOT BUY WATKINS products. After my first post, I did a little digging and found that WATKINS have problems of reliability. At this point, rather just sit in my bath tub and blow bubbles using a straw.

My control panel died on my 2011 Hotspring Aria. Found that my control panel is 'discontinued'. The replacement sent looks, and I suspect, works the same. BUT NO !!!!. The connection on the cord from the control panel to the motherboard is not the same. Of course no adapter either. So what does Watkins have to say? To make the replacement control panel work, you must buy a new motherboard. Which is close to $800 plus the control panel, close to $300. I don't know if this is planned obsoletness (sp) or what. My tub isn't even close to 10 years old. I will put out there, DO NOT BUY ANY WATKINS MANUFACTURING HOT TUBS (Hot Spring, Cal Spa, etc). Their proprietary parts are junk, or the parts don't exist, forcing the customer to have to buy supplement parts to fix the original part. Be Careful out there.