Continuation of an odyssey

Jump to latest Follow Reply
So it was extremely windy today and dry so we would have frozen from the swamp cooler effect. Instead we did some shopping. And now bleach here is impossible to get. I think that people figured out the pool chlorine finally. So I guess I timed the SWCG pretty well after all... That and bread yeast. Everything else seems to be back...
 
  • Like
Reactions: mguzzy, markayash and Newdude
It's no fun if you don't hack it. $3 RXB6 receiver, a couple of jumpers, an existing Raspberry Pi, a couple of projects from github. This is one way of computerizing the data for those Ambient Weather sensors. Supposedly it is also possible to do this on an ESP8266.

I am seriously contemplating putting the data on a MQTT server somewhere, signing up for a free AWS account and as an Amazon developer and writing a Lambda function and an Alexa skill for it... Screenshot_20200527-213406.png
 
  • Like
  • Wow
Reactions: kimmielea and kimkats
The hardware is a simple AM (ASK) receiver used in thing like key fobs, garage door openers and weather stations. The software is available on github. As for all the rest of the stuff, I don't yet know how to do it, but it is what is required to write an Alexa skill (in general terms) which you can do for free if you do it correctly as a developer. You need a public server to store to and pull from and then the "lambda function" is what talks back and forth to the Echoes. If I can get that to go then I will be able to see it from anywhere, just like my main weather station. With what is available there isn't a really good prepackaged solution out there except for full blown automation. I'd might be a good education but I also don't know if I want to have a credit card associated with an AWS account, either.

The code as is can post to MQTT, InfluxDB and REST... so the "backend" is done...
 
Rattus Suffocatus said:
The hardware is a simple AM (ASK) receiver used in thing like key fobs, garage door openers and weather stations. The software is available on github. As for all the rest of the stuff, I don't yet know how to do it, but it is what is required to write an Alexa skill (in general terms) which you can do for free if you do it correctly as a developer. You need a public server to store to and pull from and then the "lambda function" is what talks back and forth to the Echoes. If I can get that to go then I will be able to see it from anywhere, just like my main weather station. With what is available there isn't a really good prepackaged solution out there except for full blown automation. I'd might be a good education but I also don't know if I want to have a credit card associated with an AWS account, either.

The code as is can post to MQTT, InfluxDB and REST... so the "backend" is done...
Click to expand...

I see our AWS bill !
It might be cheaper to pay me to fly to your house every day, read the temp and text you :) And we don't have a huge footprint
Not sure about the free stuff, probably doing that so you will try it and like it and tell your company " hey we need to move to AWS"
 
Rattus Suffocatus said:
the "lambda function" is what talks back and forth to the Echoes
Click to expand...
I looked it up. Evidentially there is a ‘Lambda Calculus’ that it is named after. I was hoping it was a silent nod to Revenge of the Nerds cuz that’s some Poindexter stuff right there !!
 
  • Haha
Reactions: JJ_Tex
Rattus Suffocatus said:
If I can get that to go then I will be able to see it from anywhere, just like my main weather station.
Click to expand...

If you just want to see the temp reading remotely, you can use something like Home Assistant with its MQTT sensors. There is no need to rely on a cloud solution, you can connect to your home network and therefore Home Assistant server via VPN (IPSec or OpenVPN) running on your phone. The VPN server can run on a suitable router (e.g. ASUS).

AWS lambda functions (what a pretentious name !) are nothing more but pieces of code(functions) running on AWS servers and triggered by some events (e.g. message arrival to an amazon SQS, file being placed in s3 etc). It's rather an overkill I'd think.

I do not know much about Alexa skills not being interested much in Alex for various reasons, but is it not a voice activated interface to trigger a function(lambda) execution ? Not sure what it does for temperature sensors.

Hope I am not too negative.
 
I don't do that sort of work, so AWS would definitely at that free hobby tier for me forever. But I have my weather station headless and would like to use Alexa for both that and the weather station. It's the same selling company (Ambient Weather), but the two sets of units are probably different Chinese manufacturers and are incompatible with each other. Writing the skill would be fun but like I said, I'd have to figure out if I could stay within that free tier. There are many solutions out there is I just want to monitor the data on a website somewhere, but I wanted to do a bit more than that. Whether I will or not... who knows... I don't have a lot of free spare time anymore... Getting the temperature data out on something will happen regardless of whether or not I want Amazon to suck it up and speak it to me though. Really the next thing I should try to tackle is getting the Oregon Scientific and the AcuRite sensors I have working with that software. Of course neither are compatible. It's receiving it right now, it just doesn't know the protocols for them. See what I'll do to save $15? :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: markayash

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
I have finally figured out my 18000 gallon pool is closer to 28000..I could use the 1766 one way and get results of 2800 and another way and get 4100...Well today I got a low salt light and decided the 2600 was correct and added 4 more bags to see what happened..Fiq worse case was I had a bad cell and needed to drain water to get it back down but now it reads 3200 and the Edge is happy again.
When we bought the house 18 years ago I thought they told me 15x30 but when I walked it ( Kind of weird shaped so tricky ) its more like 18x40.

The Edge40 on 2 of 8 bars has kept FC around 6 so seems to be big handling it
 
I just dropped in to comment on the 14 hour run time that even at 30% I still am generating too much chlorine. (I was up to 10.5 FC last night) I have it down to 30% now and I'm still creeping up on FC. I probably will turn the on time down, but I am amazed that I am having that much of a difference from calculation to what is actually going on. I suspect a lot of it is the fact we cover the pool every night and when not in use. I just didn't get that we'd would save so much chlorine ion loss in the process.
 
Rattus Suffocatus said:
I just dropped in to comment on the 14 hour run time that even at 30% I still am generating too much chlorine. (I was up to 10.5 FC last night) I have it down to 30% now and I'm still creeping up on FC. I probably will turn the on time down, but I am amazed that I am having that much of a difference from calculation to what is actually going on. I suspect a lot of it is the fact we cover the pool every night and when not in use. I just didn't get that we'd would save so much chlorine ion loss in the process.
Click to expand...
Trail and error :) what’s your water temp? When mine went fro 65 to 75 I had to increase mine.
 
83-87F now. Only a couple of degrees different then when I started. It's fine, but I have to keep turning it down. It's also apparently making a lot of OH-, I'm having to add a lot more muriatic acid than I did. This give credence to what Wikipedia has to say about the SWCG's in that the Cl+ ion effectly come from the HCl we add. But that's still easier and cheaper than hauling bleach.
 
Rattus Suffocatus said:
83-87F now. Only a couple of degrees different then when I started. It's fine, but I have to keep turning it down. It's also apparently making a lot of OH-, I'm having to add a lot more muriatic acid than I did. This give credence to what Wikipedia has to say about the SWCG's in that the Cl+ ion effectly come from the HCl we add. But that's still easier and cheaper than hauling bleach.
Click to expand...


80's i am jealous :) Its still dropping in the 60's here at night but warming up.
I think you may have found the strongest Circupool made :)
 
It's a 2 lbs/day unit.. the SJ-55 is a 2.3 lbs/day unit.. so it's a beast..

Go and look at DSP's prices... we should be glad we did it when we did... my unit is +$120 now! (Of course that probably means replacement cells will be more too) I think the Edge 40 is +$90 now...

Edit: My replacement cell appears to be +$20....
 
  • Love
Reactions: markayash
They went up for a few weeks last year this time also. I looked at a replacement for a little over a week and when I went to buy it they were almost $300 more on Amazon. I found some random reseller still selling it for the cheap price and gambled and won with them. A few weeks later Amazon was back to the cheap price.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rattus Suffocatus
Newdude said:
They went up for a few weeks last year this time also. I looked at a replacement for a little over a week and when I went to buy it they were almost $300 more on Amazon. I found some random reseller still selling it for the cheap price and gambled and won with them. A few weeks later Amazon was back to the cheap price.
Click to expand...
I did notice the edge had gone up.
 
It will be interesting to see if the prices come back down or not. You sure can tell that we are a niche market. For what's in it, for most of my other hobbies something of that level of complexity would cost about half as much. Especially now.
 
markayash said:
80's i am jealous :) Its still dropping in the 60's here at night but warming up.
I think you may have found the strongest Circupool made :)
Click to expand...
By the way, my pool is at 87.6°F right now. But it hit 106.3°F today (forecast 101°F, 13% humidity) according to my personal weather station. So there are tradeoffs...

Night swimming soon will be the only way not to get crispy.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply