Getting sick of putting MA in

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rstrouse said:
I use an Atlas industrial probe on a Raspberry Pi. The readings are taken every second. I posted all the software for it open source at the link below. This feeds the information from the probe into an Influx database and is modeled in Grafana.
github.com

GitHub - tagyoureit/nodejs-poolController: An application to control pool equipment from various manufacturers.

An application to control pool equipment from various manufacturers. - tagyoureit/nodejs-poolController
github.com github.com
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Very cool, my wife will hate another project 😈
 
No debate :) There are many who have said not to do it and other who have.. I am in the "I will never camp" but i have seen some like you who it works for... I love your setup, how do you monitor that?

**** Just saw your post :)
 
rstrouse said:
If you don’t have automation. That will put pool control on your phone. If you do have automation it will expand it.
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No automation at all yet. The pH control is really enticing. I didn’t really consider it with my SWG (Edge-25) so I’ll have to look and see if there’s an interface. I will eventually upgrade to variable speed motors on my pumps and I understood those can be purchased with an interface.
 
@cowboycasey -- Thanks for the complement. That screenshot is really the tip of the iceberg. I noticed that you are running a PE653. Did they ever get around to opening up their software? The devs originally said that they were going to create an open application programming interface for it.

@Rodex -- The stock VS pump interfaces are glorified timers. They do however make it so you can program run times and schedules for daily automation. For instance, start/stop (like a regular time) but with speed that allows match the desired flow to me matched with the task that should be happening at the time. Chlorination cycles are a a great application of this since you can run the pool at lower energy use for a longer period of time for the purpose of chlorination. Skimming and cleaning typically require more flow than that.

However, what that won't do is make it so you never visit the pool pad in your swimsuit or underwear for that matter. When you combine the pump control with valves and relay then throw some schedules and user interface on it, daily operation becomes more of a monitoring thing. And what is known as the pool turns into the cement pond in the backyard not the cement pad on the side of the house.
 
rstrouse said:
@cowboycasey -- Thanks for the complement. That screenshot is really the tip of the iceberg. I noticed that you are running a PE653. Did they ever get around to opening up their software? The devs originally said that they were going to create an open application programming interface for it.
Click to expand...

I have not.. I only use there remote and really like it.. I have never needed any ability to control the pool while away.. matter of fact I only grab the remote 2 to 3 times a year to change SWG run times.. Everything else is on cruise control... When I get my new pool built I may change my mind but who knows :)
 
Schedules are important but where pool control starts to shine is when you have as spa, lights, or water features. There's nothing like changing the spa temp from your watch, simply turning off the filter to empty the skimmer basket so Crud doesn't get sucked into the pump without hiking to the pad, or simply turning on and off pool features. Then there is the others thing. This is when others than you want to control the pool. Back in the 80s I had a pool with manual control. It had a timer but that is only good for doing a daily repetitive task. Since the wife had no interest in learning anything about the valve or breaker positions on the pool this meant that I was the only one that could to simple things like change the waterfall flow, take the suction side cleaner from the pool or put it back in, even messing with the on/off sequences for that stupid fiber optic system was fraught with error.

Now when she controls whatever she wants on it and I don't have to worry that she is cavitating the pump or getting frustrated when she completed only 3 of the 4 steps required to get the spa to work.
 
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Back to the topic at hand :)....@Rodex your fill water TA of 90 is not really that high. Mine is 130 and I'm in a super high evaporation part of the country and I have my pool water down to 70 or 80 TA right now. At that TA level I only add MA maybe once a week. Rather than installing an acid doser you might look into fixing the leaky check valve first and see if that helps.
 

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rstrouse said:
@cowboycasey -- Thanks for the complement. That screenshot is really the tip of the iceberg. I noticed that you are running a PE653. Did they ever get around to opening up their software? The devs originally said that they were going to create an open application programming interface for it.

@Rodex -- The stock VS pump interfaces are glorified timers. They do however make it so you can program run times and schedules for daily automation. For instance, start/stop (like a regular time) but with speed that allows match the desired flow to me matched with the task that should be happening at the time. Chlorination cycles are a a great application of this since you can run the pool at lower energy use for a longer period of time for the purpose of chlorination. Skimming and cleaning typically require more flow than that.

However, what that won't do is make it so you never visit the pool pad in your swimsuit or underwear for that matter. When you combine the pump control with valves and relay then throw some schedules and user interface on it, daily operation becomes more of a monitoring thing. And what is known as the pool turns into the cement pond in the backyard not the cement pad on the side of the house.
Click to expand...
Gotcha. I don’t think I’d care much about controlling an integrated timer on the pumps like that, if they aren’t adding any value. Schedules can surely be controlled via PLC. So are you controlling the pump(s) power via relay?

I know I have a few Beckhoff PLCs, and a Tableau license, but I think I do have a Raspberry Pi now that I think about it. Not like they’re that expensive 😂
 
DanF said:
Back to the topic at hand :)....@Rodex your fill water TA of 90 is not really that high. Mine is 130 and I'm in a super high evaporation part of the country and I have my pool water down to 70 or 80 TA right now. At that TA level I only add MA maybe once a week. Rather than installing an acid doser you might look into fixing the leaky check valve first and see if that helps.
Click to expand...
I shouldn’t have put it off. I couldn’t even find one a couple months ago, and now they’re twice the price. Can’t seem to get ahold of INYO to double check that the Jandy/CMP one will work to replace the current Pentair one. But I’ll just have to eat the cost, serves me right for procrastinating!
 
Actually your options for pump control are dependent upon the choices you make for your pump. There are are really 3 types of pumps.
Single Speed: These are controlled via a single relay giving you on/off control
Multi-Speed: These are really variants on the single speed pump where the drive on the pump provides multiple relay positions to manage the speed. Pumps like the V-Green, SuperFlo, and any Dual speed pump use this control mehanism. The control is done by programming different speeds for each relay input. You are typically limited to 4 speeds with these types of pumps or 3 speeds and an override.
RS485 Control: These pumps are the most versatile. They allow you to set the speed and/or flow remotely from min-max (typically 450rpm-3450rpm or 15gpm-140gpm). These include IntelliFlo VS, VF, VSF and SVRS pumps. Bear in mind I haven't looked at the protocols for the Jandy pumps on RS485 but assume there are similarities and there is nothing out there about using the V-Green RS485 port. I am not even sure it does anything. RS485 is the most versatile of the pump control options.

All of these pump options are supported by the nodejs-poolController software with or without a commercial automation control panel such as EasyTouch, IntelliTouch, or IntelliCenter.

As an aside I used to add MA every couple of weeks and my TA hovered over 100 most of the time. This was just enough to cause scale to form on my tile. Now I keep my CSI at right around -0.2 and the scale has been flaking off the tile and I have even had some blow out of the returns. Next week I have someone coming out to bead blast. I almost cancelled it but they are going to pump out about 18 inches so I want to take the opportunity to lower my CH and I want to see if any scale comes back after the waterline tile is completely clean.
1622924542503.png
 
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I am going to connect my V Green motor using the P5043me controller.. I have the parts to do this but I am waiting till my new plumbing/pool is getting set up... No need for it now... I have not tried or even know if I need to do RS485...

P5043ME - Intermatic

www.intermatic.com www.intermatic.com

1622925705841.png
 
I'm not so sure you can use RS485 with that drive. Perhaps if they published the protocol or somebody sits down and analyzes the traffic at this point I am not so sure it does anything. If if does, I have some pretty good guesses as to how to make it relinquish control and ship a setting but I don't know what kind of information it reports. A long time ago I read a post where somebody was trying to get connectivity through Z-Wave.me > TTY > RS485 through the RS485 connector. At the time I thought they knew what they were doing but now that I think about it they were using the wrong protocols to start with.

On a side note I do think that there have been projects out there that connect the zwave portion of the PE653RC to a home automation controller. I don't know how far they got though.
 
I got it to report the temp and I actually connected to it but that is where it stopped.. I was not really interested in it so did not pursue it more...
 
rstrouse said:
Actually your options for pump control are dependent upon the choices you make for your pump. There are are really 3 types of pumps.
Single Speed: These are controlled via a single relay giving you on/off control
Multi-Speed: These are really variants on the single speed pump where the drive on the pump provides multiple relay positions to manage the speed. Pumps like the V-Green, SuperFlo, and any Dual speed pump use this control mehanism. The control is done by programming different speeds for each relay input. You are typically limited to 4 speeds with these types of pumps or 3 speeds and an override.
RS485 Control: These pumps are the most versatile. They allow you to set the speed and/or flow remotely from min-max (typically 450rpm-3450rpm or 15gpm-140gpm). These include IntelliFlo VS, VF, VSF and SVRS pumps. Bear in mind I haven't looked at the protocols for the Jandy pumps on RS485 but assume there are similarities and there is nothing out there about using the V-Green RS485 port. I am not even sure it does anything. RS485 is the most versatile of the pump control options.

All of these pump options are supported by the nodejs-poolController software with or without a commercial automation control panel such as EasyTouch, IntelliTouch, or IntelliCenter.

As an aside I used to add MA every couple of weeks and my TA hovered over 100 most of the time. This was just enough to cause scale to form on my tile. Now I keep my CSI at right around -0.2 and the scale has been flaking off the tile and I have even had some blow out of the returns. Next week I have someone coming out to bead blast. I almost cancelled it but they are going to pump out about 18 inches so I want to take the opportunity to lower my CH and I want to see if any scale comes back after the waterline tile is completely clean.
View attachment 341736
Click to expand...
Right now I have a single speed Jandy so I’m fine with power control to set the schedule plus setting the SWG manually. I think this will help my wife a lot to not have to use that old janky timer. I did just completely rewire that ugly beast but hey, such is life.

When I upgrade in the future I’ll keep that in mind, thanks. I’ll certainly look for an RS485 port.

My SWG doesn’t seem to have an interface, that’s the piece that would be really nice to control, especially coupled with a feature in pool math. I suppose if I get motivated enough (doubtful 😂), there are these haptic-style actuators and something like a photocell array to read the lights 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
Yeah with IntelliChlor and AquaPure you get RS485 control of the Chlorinator. njsPC exposes these interfaces so you simply click your percentage and off you go. The CSI calcs are all automatic and if the salt level is low it tells me how many 40lb bags of salt that I need.
1622931200427.png
 
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rstrouse said:
Yeah with IntelliChlor and AquaPure you get RS485 control of the Chlorinator. njsPC exposes these interfaces so you simply click your percentage and off you go. The CSI calcs are all automatic and if the salt level is low it tells me how many 40lb bags of salt that I need.
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Beautiful!
 
So on both topics, once I got my TA down below 80 my pH now stays at about 7.8. I would prefer to have it around 60 or 70 but it seems like my pool likes a TA of 80. My fill water is 120, but we are the time of year where the rain will keep my pool more than full so going to give lowering the TA a try.

I too have an Atlas Scientific industrial pH probe, and I love it. The continuous monitoring really helped me get it all dialed in.

My automation is completely home grown (with the NjsPC) and it does everything I need. However, I am being goaded into doing an upgrade soon. Then the next step is a FC monitor. They are getting to the price when they might just be practical. But that is going to require some plumbing work that I am not a huge fan of.
 
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