Beginner searching for some ideas, tricks to start project on "automatic control of fountain pump"
In my garden I have a pond with a foutain pump. This runs on 220 V. I thought it would be a nice beginnersproject to get this pump controlled automaticly so it runs:
- when the sun is shining (daytime).
- between certain hours (so the neighbours don't complain in summer night with long evening light or early hours).
- when the temperature is below 0 degree Celcius for longer time (say 1 day or so). It should then run day+night to prevent ice to break the wall and keep some open water.
My idea is to use some arduino controller + bleutooth/wifi (so I can adjust control it from my warm living room).
I have a broken thing laying around with this power-relais and think is usefull for feeding the controller.
So how would/should/could I proceed to get to a succesfull project?
Thank you, regards, Eef Weenink
Comments
11 months ago
Just go with an ESP32 instead of an Arduino if you want BLE and WiFi. Cheap, powerfull, small, abundant, plethora of code-examples for Webserver (to switch the pump manually) and BLE-Phone-applications.
Sensors:
- Sunlight: measure on a analog pin either a LDR, a photodiode or even a solar cell
- Temperature. Get a Thermistor like from a 3D-printer (Dirtcheap. I buy 10pcs for 3$ on Ali) and measure the reistance on a analog pin.
- Time: As you have WiFi, synchronise the internal time every 24h or so with the internet-time
Output: Be sure your relais ALWAYS has a flyback diode! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyback_diode
Your Relais IS a inductor and will kill the ESP or parts if not present!
Maybe your output cannot power the Relais directly and may need a bit more power thru a transistor or FET.