Final Project

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!ThePoolGuy

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Feb 9, 2024
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California
Hello everyone, I am a second year computer science major and for my Final Projects class I want to create an app that can turn off and on a hot tub water heater from a phone. My professor said this could be done with a raspberry pi and I found a RS485 connector online that I think will connect it to the heater I will be using. However, I've been researching this and I can't find the answers to some of my questions so this seems like the best place to ask. Based on some of things I've read on here, it seems like the app I want to make already exists, is that the case? Also, I'm not sure what firmware the heater has, I think it needs to be "N" or higher for my plan to work.
 
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You have chosen what may be a hard project. Yes it's pretty simple to configure rPi to talk on an RS-485 bus, which is typically used for spa and pool automation. But that just establishes the communication link. The protocols (command and status information formats) used by the equipment are proprietary. There are no public documents that I know of.

Otoh, people have made enormous efforts to reverse engineer the protocols of some devices. One existing project I'm aware of is AqualinkD, which is open source. Maybe it will be a helpful reference. In fact it's designed to run on rPi and talk on the RS-485 bus. It has an unsecure web interface (suitable only for running on a private LAN). You might try contacting the author. I'm sure he'd have great ideas.

AqualinkD isn't exactly what you're trying to do because it's meant to work on a bus with RS Aqualink, which is the Jandy control system. (I'm assuming the heater you're working with isn't already connected to this.) RS Aqualink does include remote control via the smart phone iAquaLink app. But it's designed to control complex swimming pools, not just heaters, and costs several thousand $$$. So if you succeed with the heater, your project will still be worthwhile as an economical solution to a smaller problem.

Good luck with it.
 
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