Remote pump control ideas.

[Dannyx]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

The randomness continues: woke up today, checked my camera, client was connected and relay output was on....go figure. It somehow managed to get through....after like 10+ hours for some reason...

[Dannyx]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

There is alternative. Using SSR or Tyristor. But these are much more expensive than a relay.

Yeah, that's way beyond the scope of this project at this point - we're still struggling to get the control side out of the way...

[televizora]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

Suppressing arcing at the motor contactor is expensive and hard to do. It's a big motor and nasty high voltages there. Not really feasible. Best is to keep the MCU away from it, or in a metal box.

There is alternative. Using SSR or Tyristor. But these are much more expensive than a relay.

[Dannyx]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

set a fixed i.p. for both ends.
then you can remotley ping them to check for life.

I'll try that too, to at least check if it's a DHCP issue or something wrong within the code. For instance, through experimenting, me and my buddy discovered some time ago that you're supposed to handle disconnecting the client from the server after each "poll" in a rather specific way, otherwise the same exact thing happens - code freezes to the point where it no longer PINGS. It seems where you call the client.stop() function on both the server and the client is critical to this. He found a combination which sort-of works now, which is running on the boards right now, but apparently something is still crashing...we won't know for sure if it's this or something else, or it wasn't related to this at all this whole time....

[stj]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

set a fixed i.p. for both ends.
then you can remotley ping them to check for life.

[Dannyx]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

I don't have the latest code my buddy worked with - it's on his laptop at work where the boards are currently chillin'. I set up a baby monitor camera to watch them over the weekend, that's how I know what they're currently up to

Ok, get this: the client managed to somehow get itself unstuck and actually shut off the output to the relay like it's supposed to, to keep the place from flooding if it loses connectivity. There's an LED on the relay which I can see on the camera, in case you're curious how I know that. No idea why it happened after so many damn hours though and where it got stuck...

Moving past that, it's like the client's currently got no network cable plugged into it, because it's stuck in the "errBeep" loop. Again, this will all be easier to follow once I actually show you guys some code, but my buddy and I created an errBeep function to have some feedback. Basically it's a bunch of calls to tone() and noTone() to make that buzzer sound like a PC POST code when it fails to detect a GPU or memory - some pattern like that. In this case, it's calling the errBeep function because it can't get through to the server board next to it.

The reason I say it's like it's got no cable plugged in is because of how fast the errBeep function is looping, which happens if the board's got no IP to work with, such as when the cable's not plugged in. If the cable IS plugged in and it HAS an IP but still can't connect to the server, the errBeep function loops more slowly, at around 10s intervals, because the client.Connect(server, port) function hangs for a while trying to do its thing and THEN calls errBeep function if it returns false (fails). Then it tries again - halts for a few seconds - fails again - calls errBeep.

I think the board is somehow smart enough to know there's no network to work with and immediately returns a false on client.Connect(server, port) function, hence calling my errBeep in rapid succession. We were aware of this and it's a good side-effect. Still, no idea what's happening in the background right now. This is where a debugger would be really handy, though I'm not sure how easy it will be to port this code of ours (good or bad) over to STM32 Cube IDE.

[stj]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

yes, and what the response is.

[Dannyx]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

So as to see what's being transmitted ?

[stj]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

run the ethernet through a pc and run Linux and Wireshark.
https://www.wireshark.org/

[Dannyx]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

so use fixed i.p.
or set the lease timeout to a month or something

I will try that too - it's just a speculation ATM. I'll have to ask my buddy to teach me how to dig through libraries to work out stuff like that. A debugger would really help, that's why meanwhile I'm trying to work out how to do it the "official" way, as opposed to using Arduino's IDE...this is where it gets complicated and requires a lot of time to work out sadly

[stj]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

so use fixed i.p.
or set the lease timeout to a month or something

[Dannyx]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

Ok, I managed to jinx the whole thing: client froze again just now ....it may have something to do with the DHCP lease expiring and the part that handles it freezes the code somehow....it's beyond my programming scopes sadly

[Dannyx]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

you can use a pressure sensor on the tank outlet, water has weight.

That outlet is WAY underground. We only have access to the top hatch, so we will most likely go with this

or just fit a float-switch

[stj]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

you can use a pressure sensor on the tank outlet, water has weight.
that's how washingmachines fill.
or just fit a float-switch

[Dannyx]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

My workmate and I started thinking of a different, more reliable yet just as simple way of determining the water level and we came up with this: two of these switches mounted on a long piece of tube of the right length, one at the top and one at the bottom, which we'd then lower into our tank. Although I'm sure these are nothing more than a simple reed switch with a permanent ferrite magnet on that pivot arm, I'm not confident to just fully submerge the bottom one without any insulation whatsoever, so to protect them as much as possible and keep water out from the back part where I presume the wires come out of, we thought we'd mount these in a water-tight enclosure made out of plastic pipe. We'd add 2 t-fittings at the right spots on our tube where the switches are meant to sit to properly register "full" (both closed) and "empty" (both open). We'd install the switches on end-caps onto each t-fitting. Seal everything nicely, with a silicone sealant or PVC cement if necessary, and now water can't get in to where the wires are inside the stem which runs to the top of the tank. Tweak the code a bit on the "server" and I think we'd be good

Code has been running fine for the past 2 days on my bench BTW

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

Would that be for reading the tank level ?

You might be able even this depends on how the device is made you use a optic sensor for isolation purposes

I just googled it and I found one of the adds that I have seen before

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DO2o8rG9Xw

I do not know if would help you or not

But answer your question I saw somewhere on the internet but I do remember if wasn’t some type of laser that was doing this function I saw this add but did not have time to read it that day I do not know if this add explains how it works or types of liquid it can or cannot sense

[Dannyx]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

I was talking about your buzzer

I sense sarcasm

Wasn't that hard - just called the tone() function with every "poll" to indicate I'm still getting stuff from my "server".

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

Would that be for reading the tank level ?

I was talking about your buzzer

[Dannyx]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

Time for a optic sensor

Would that be for reading the tank level ?

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Remote pump control ideas.

Time for a optic sensor