float sensor to disable master pump

[Anonymous]

Posted once then somehow deleted when i went to edit what I typed..

Using a rpi3b+ with OS and sainsmart relay switch.

4 Valve/relays, 2 master pumps. When I run relay 1 and 2, masterpump 1 is used, when I run relay 3 and 4, Masterpump 2 is used.
Each pump is in its own water tank / res.

Using a float sensor/switch, id like to have the masterpump zones or GPIOS disabled when the switch is trigged, indicating that the res is empty, and wont let my pumps burn dry.

If anyone can point me in the right direction to do the following I would be stoked:
– Disable either zones or gpios to masterpumps off of flow sensor gpios
– Alert when either flow sensor gpio has been trigged, or email (script?)
– Show status of sensor from OS interface?
– script that starts with RPI to turn the float sensors gpios to pullup

im a little rusty with the RPI and figure asking might get me to any one that has newer info than 5 year old tutorials I might find,
also Ill keep this thread updated with any info I get or progress until I have a working solution.

Im not too interested in having Cayenne run on the same RPI as my OpenSprinkler, I had that going in the past but constant
changes to the Cayenne framework has kept me from staying up to date.

Thanks again!

[Mike]

Hi Matt,

Why not use a float switch to cut the power to the master pumps? I’d do it independently of the RPI. Just put a float switch on the power supply to each pump. When the reservoir is empty, the power gets cut to the pump thus preventing it from running dry.

If you want to keep tabs on the water level in the reservoir, I’d consider using something like this to keep track because it’ll tell you how full it is, not just is it empty or not.

Mike

[Anonymous]

Hi Mike thanks for suggestions. I previously did use the 24v cut off method you mention at one point, but currently the opensprinkler is also controlling the zones that would refill each tank with a float valve. My goal is to not have to conciously know that the res has emptied and its time to refill, as much as I want a push / email letting me know the tank has been refilled and its time to show up and mix nutrients and ph. the tanks are 50-250 gallons so the liquid measuring tape wont help me much there. Appreciate the thoughts though!

Still trying to find out why OSPI is having issues with http stations and the on/off statements being garbled.

[Ray]

@matt: have you thought about splitting your zones to two groups: the group of valves that are controlled by the float switch would have a common wire that goes through the float switch to the COM terminal. This way, if the switch is off, it cuts the common wire supplied to those valves; the group of valves that are independent of the float switch would have a common wire that goes directly into the COM port. This way, they are not affected by the float switch.

Regarding HTTP station: which firmware version are you using? The latest firmware should have fixed the HTTP station url issue.

[Author]

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