Raspberry Pi for pool monitoring?

[lukeyn]

Any IT guys thought about using a Raspberry pi for any type of pool monitoring, ie. Temps, chlorination levels, etc. I'm out of any free time right now, but I like the idea.

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[jblizzle]

There are at least a couple members who have tried to do something like this.

Maintain reasonable expectations ... turning on/off the pump and lights, checking temps and maybe turning valves is easy. Monitoring chemical levels is not easy or cheap or very reliable.

 

[Aqua Lab Rat]

I'm not an IT guy, but monitoring could even be done with a simple microcontroller, which could also send texts, emails, etc. The issue with the Pi would simply be an issue with the sensor(s), such as ORP, that require maintenance to stay accurate / meaningful. There are amperometric chlorine sensors out there but cost and periodic recalibration would be issues with those.

 

[lukeyn]

I'm thinking the sensor used for a sw system that monitors fc levels.

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[lukeyn]

CHEMTROL CHLORINE SENSOR - PPM Sensor

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[Aqua Lab Rat]

Looks interesting - something more for me to learn about. My background (before the recession) was electronics so this makes me curious how the sensor actually works.

 

[tim5055]

CHEMTROL CHLORINE SENSOR - PPM Sensor

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Yea, at $2,500 - $3,000 I think I'll pass. A little expensive to see if it really works.....

 

[lukeyn]

I know that sensor is, but I know the swg systems are a lot cheaper than that so the sensors for those, has to be sub 500

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[jblizzle]

Swg do not really have a sensor for FC. They only monitor the resistance in the water and the temperature of the water and have a look up table that estimates the salt level. That is all.

There are separate additional ORP sensors that attempt to estimate the FC level, but they are sensitive to other things in the water that can make them inaccurate.

 

[GaryT58]

I am about to start a home project based upon Raspberry Pi for my own monitoring and automation. I have no experience with the pi, but over 20 yrs in embedded programming, so thought it would be fun project. I plan to initially control my SWG and pump. Will add a group of weather sensors - temp, humidity, barometer, rain detection, ...

I hope to get access to SWG's data, such as water temp, salinity and ph/orp values when I add those next spring.

Will use wifi to connect to network so can use phone or pc with web interface to monitor/control, and have it send alerts for events I set up.

Getting components for Christmas (present from my wife - well I'll get them and she will wrap ). Want to complete before pool season.

 

[xyz]

That DPD sensor looks interspersing. It appears to measure FC vs ORP. Let us know how much it costs. If it is accurate and maintains cal, it would be a way to lengthen the life of SWGs.

 

[Ozzy7750]

I am going to use an Open Sprinkler kit to control pump, heater, water features, lights etc. Hoping to set it up over the next month or so.

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[slippery pickle]

I just tossed a Raspberry Pi (old model 1b) into my control system and with the help of influxdb and grafana I have beautiful graphs and can control my pool quite nicely. Here are the details:
- Raspberry Pi - running raspbian
- rs485 shield (for GPIO serial)
- connected to a Pentair EasyTouch system control via the "com" port (just +/- rs485 feeds)
- separate ubuntu 16.04 server (actually Zentyal for home domain controller)
- on this server sits influxdb and Grafana - the dynamic duo for DYI awesome time based data graphing

On the Raspberry Pi I run two "services" (both actually pretty hacked together ruby scripts right now that I run in separate "screens" with good'ol linux screen)... one to read all data on the rs485 serial and send all stats I have it set to catch to influxdb. Second is a service I call "send_to_pool" which is just a very light weight http server that takes in webservice like commands... creates the hex data commands to send over the rs485 and returns the most basic statements back. I'm trying to make the Pi as "dumb" as possible and just really working as a blind layer between my Grafana/influxdb front end and the pool equipment.

On the Ububtu side I have Grafana graphing everything in influxdb (temps, heater, modes, pump watts/rpms, etc.) I then created the cheesiest html panels with some very basic on/off controls for various things.

I'm currently taking my franken-code "script" and turning it into a good library I plan to toss up on github.



I'm out about $25 for the Pi and $10 for the rs485 shield - only been going for about a week now and just got the controls working yesterday even.

With all of that... I would highly recommend the use of a Raspberry Pi for a pool control system!

 

[Patrick_B]

Pretty amazing what people are doing with these little things. That looks pretty slick I must say.

 

[Aqua Lab Rat]

I like it! I have a little project where I'm building the Lost in Space robot with a bunch of environmental sensors (he was an Environmental Control Robot on the show). Maybe I should think about linking him to a pool controller via wifi or Bluetooth...

 

[stevecody]

This is awesome, and pretty much exactly what I am looking to do. My pool and EasyTouch system is brand new. Is there a chance that doing any interfacing with the system on my own will void any warranties?

 

[slippery pickle]

I didn't really care about warranty... in fact (and to my wife's displeasure) I had originally done this with my PL4 system and connected a cable wrong thus completely frying the board. I "upgraded" to straight EasyTouch and now with the rs485 connected properly everything is working... albeit $330 in the hole... I just don't talk about that mistake much and my wife is quite pleased with the final end result... which is looking much better and works much better:





And it looks/functions great from our iPhones - and remotely too when we VPN in:

 

[lukeyn]

Slippery pickle, I'm going to pick your brain after I get this barn finished!

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[texasRay]

I am very interested in doing the Raspberry Pi HTTP interface for my Pentair pool system...

My current plan is to get a Pi3 + RS485 and hook it up in my Pentair Easytouch PL4 panel.
Pi would connect to my wireless internet via 802.11.

I haven't poked around in the panel yet, but am curious about getting power in the panel to the Pi. How is that accomplished?

 

[pinguy]

I am very interested in doing the Raspberry Pi HTTP interface for my Pentair pool system...

My current plan is to get a Pi3 + RS485 and hook it up in my Pentair Easytouch PL4 panel.
Pi would connect to my wireless internet via 802.11.

I haven't poked around in the panel yet, but am curious about getting power in the panel to the Pi. How is that accomplished?

Pi's run off 5.1V DC, same Micro USB interface as Android phones.

I imagine many control systems have DC output either at 5.1V or 12V which you could reduce to 5.1V, otherwise 120v inverters are cheap and plentiful (literally any cell phone charger), you just need to make sure you waterproof everything properly.