Nodejs Pool Controller, work with pump only?

[rstrouse]

Sounds like you worked your way through it without issue so far. Let me know if you get hung up.

The coin battery is for the Real-Time Clock (RTC) on the BAS card. The reason why this exists is because the Raspberry pi itself does not have one of these on its board. It uses network time protocol (NTC) to keep the time up-to-date. So when the pi boots it sends out a request for the current time and periodically keeps it in sync. Your laptop or PC has a battery that keeps the clock going when there is no power applied to keep the correct time so it there if no network connectivity it will not be frozen in time. This does not exist on the pi without an external power source.

That being said REM does not yet implement the RTC clock for the BAS. We will be adding a watchdog at some point to reset the pi if it detects any hardware or software faults. It will rely on the coin battery to restart the pi after a short period of time. The clock that is powered by that battery will be used to count down the time until the restart. I would suggest you put a coin battery in the holder just in case you want to add this functionality later. It is much easier to do now since the battery may be difficult to get to.

 

[john800xc]

Sounds good. I'll install it. So I did speak too soon. It was late last night when I was finishing up. I'm now officially stuck working on the RS485 comunication.

I have attached the Rs485 from my pump to the BAS. I have enabled pass thru in REM.

What port do I use in the Pool Controller RS485 settings?

googling lead me to looking in my /dev for the device but I didn't see it. Perhaps I need to go into the BAS and do some Generic Device / Feeds similar to the temp sensors? I haven't been able to click my way through this one.

 

[rstrouse]

Your port will likely be at /dev/ttyS0. Make sure you disable the serial console on the pi under since this will steal the port at that location.

Sequent Microsystems Boards

A hardware controller for GPIO, I2c, SPI, and generic devices. - rstrouse/relayEquipmentManager

github.com

 

[john800xc]

That was it. You are the man. All is working now. I am very thankful for all your help!

I'm going to take some time and install the enclosure, run some conduit and get everything in place. I will be back for sure with some questions about getting the relay hat configured. I've got the manuals for both the BAS and relay hat printed out so I'll study them and look through these wikis you've posted. Hopefully I can figure a couple things out on my own.

 

[rstrouse]

No worries happy to help and please ask away. The relay setup in REM is pretty straight forward. All you need to do is assign the relays for your equipment. You can test them out by clicking on the button and you will hear a noticeable click for the relay on the board. Here is a wiki on the I2c relay setup. Choose Sequent 8 IND if you got the Sequent Relay 8.

I2c Multi Relays

A hardware controller for GPIO, I2c, SPI, and generic devices. - rstrouse/relayEquipmentManager

github.com

Here is a wiki on configuring your equipment once you have REM set up.

Nixie Controller Setup

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

github.com

 

[john800xc]

Got it. Got a test relay up and running and all looks good. Now I just need to catchup on getting some conduit run, get everything into the enclosure and mount it. After that I'll be installing:

1. 3 intellivalves
2. 3hp relay for spa booster pump
3. Connect the heater to a relay

Then I'll start thinking about a pressure sensor for my filter system and a PH monitoring setup.

 

[rstrouse]

Just in case this wiki slipped by you.

DIY REM Chem Controller

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

github.com

 

[john800xc]

I thought I'd post an update.

Everything is mounted out at the pad. I've got the following up and running:

1. Air and water sensors
2. Rs485 control of my main pool pump
3. One Intellivalve up and running perfectly (2 more on order now)

Still working on:

1. Two 3hp relays on order for spa booster pump and spa air blower
2. Filter pressure sensor
3. Heater control (my heater is very old but I think the fireman's switch method will work, I'll post more when I get to this one)

Now I couldn't post without a question.. lol.

I'm now getting serious about setting up the PoolController, i.e., schedules and what not. I like to keep things simple and here is my plan, and I welcome any thoughts:

My pool gets a lot of debris in it unfortunately. I have an suction powered pool vacuum which works great. However, it has to have a LOT, almost all of the suction form the pump to really work and not get stuck. This leads my skimmer and main drain getting little to no action unless I manually adjust the valves. So this new controller plus the auto valves I think can really help and lower my pump RPM's in the process. Here's what I'd like to do, don't worry about the time I am planning to run each side either as I of course will adjust to whatever the pool needs.

1pm to 3pm - Pump on full power. Full suction on skimmer/main drain and return to pool.
3pm - 5pm - Pump on medium power. Full suction pool vacuum and return to pool.
5pm- 6pm - Pump on medium power. Full suction from spa and return to spa. Turning on booster pump, once, for 10 minutes during this.
6pm-10pm - Pump on low power. Full suction on skimmer / main drain and return to spa.

I am thinking this should be easily accomplished and off I go to the Pool Controller to try and see!

 

[rstrouse]

I have 8 valves on my pool. What you are trying to do is entirely doable. For my spa it runs for 30 min in spillway mode to cycle new water into it. I tend to run my suction side cleaner in the morning so that if I want to pull it out the pool is vacuumed by the time peeps want to get in.

 

[john800xc]

I started getting into hooking up the booster bump and air blower to some relays. I think I am going to redo the electrical panel side of my setup. I've got an electrician friend who is coming by next weekend and then I'll get started on the relays. One question about this..

I want to ditch this entire air blower switch box I have. I almost never use the air blower, as in not once in 5 years. However I want to control it. I am planning on running it direct to the electrical box separately from the booster pump and control them from separate 3hp relays. Sound reasonable?

Okay.. heater time. It looks like the fireman's switch is the jumper on this diagram is which I need to hook directly to my relay on the BAS. Any thoughts?

 

[rstrouse]

I want to ditch this entire air blower switch box I have. I almost never use the air blower, as in not once in 5 years. However I want to control it. I am planning on running it direct to the electrical box separately from the booster pump and control them from separate 3hp relays. Sound reasonable?

You should be able to hook the blower up to a 3hp relay. I assume it is 220v.

Okay.. heater time. It looks like the fireman's switch is the jumper on this diagram is which I need to hook directly to my relay on the BAS. Any thoughts?

Yes simply hook one side of the jumper to the middle connector on the relay and the other side to the normally open side (NO) of the relay so that when there is a call for heat the jumper will be engaged. You then set the thermostat to the max on the heater and it will call for heat whenever heat is required.

 

[john800xc]

Heater is all good. I had to switch the manual switch to "Pool" and max out that thermostat and all seems well.

One quick question, is their a high and low limit thermostat style option in Pool Controller. I love how my new heater control is so precise (it cycles on and off within 1 degree F) but it means my heater is cycling on and off a lot. A 2 or 3 degree swing would be fine for me. I've been looking before asking and had no luck.

I'm going to work on the booster pump and air blower after this coming weekend when I get a chance to straighten out me breaker box.

 

[rstrouse]

There is actually a short cycle timer in the heater thermostat code which heats to the setpoint + 1 degree then suspends any new calls for heat for 1 minute. Is it not suspending new calls for heat? How often are you seeing the cycle? If one minute is too short of time maybe we can allow this to be a delay setting.

 

[rstrouse]

I added the ability to edit the heuristics for the heater. The stop temp delta is the number of degrees that the setpoint will heat past an the Minimum Cycle Time is the minimum time that the call for heat should wait since the last time the heater was engaged.

Update all three software packages on your Pi and hard refresh your browser to see the changes. To update run the following commands on the pi.
cd ~/nodejs-poolController
git pull
npm -i
cd ~/nodejs-poolController-dashPanel
git pull
npm -i
cd ~/relayEquipmentManager
git pull
npm -i

 

[john800xc]

Wow! Works perfect, that's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks again for all your help!

One snag, but I'll get through it.

See below, these two valves are so close together that the bodies of the valve actuators wont fit. Unless I can orient one of them another way? From reading the manuals, I don't think I can, without losing 1/3 of the functionality of the valve.

Take a look... It's close. I'm planning on having (or learning how to do myself) some PVC work done by moving the right valve over a few inches to the right.

 

[rstrouse]

In this case it looks like you can flip the actuator 180 degrees. After you do that press the yellow and red buttons to reverse the direction.

EDIT: Correction that would cycle the valve such that it would stop suction. You don't want to do that. Looks like you are moving some pipes.

 

[john800xc]

In this case it looks like you can flip the actuator 180 degrees. After you do that press the yellow and red buttons to reverse the direction.

EDIT: Correction that would cycle the valve such that it would stop suction. You don't want to do that. Looks like you are moving some pipes.

No worries. Thanks.

I've had an intermittent Rs485 connection issue. It seems to happen when I restart the RPi. It seems like the update also caused it. It HAS to be something I am doing wrong.

Is their an order the pump vs RPi should be turned on? Basically what happens is my pump doesn't go into External Control mode and then the Pool Controller obviously won't talk to it.

It's an Intelliflo VS.

I've always worked it out via restarts and turning the power to the pump on and off but I'd like to use this time is figure out what's causing it.

 

[rstrouse]

It will handle the timing and you should get some RS485 errors until the controller completely boots. Then is should be fine. What are you seeing in the console log. Btw the pump should be hardwired to the breaker and not be shut down by relay.

 

[john800xc]

It will handle the timing and you should get some RS485 errors until the controller completely boots. Then is should be fine. What are you seeing in the console log. Btw the pump should be hardwired to the breaker and not be shut down by relay.

Here is the console log and the Pool Controller RS485 screen
\



And I do have the Intelliflo hooked directly to the breaker, it is controlled only via the RS485 connection.

I'm looking around in my RPi settings now.
SPI = Enable
I2C = Enable
Serial Port = Enable
Serial Console = Disable
1-wire = Disable
Remote GPIO = Disable

 

[rstrouse]

When it is doing that press the Save Port button. Does it restart?