Home Environmental Sensor Array

Summary Status

After experiencing a minor flood in the basement when the water softener turned on and the sump pump was not installed, I realized that my water softener runs without electricity. So, I changed the design of the HESA to turn on power to a submersible pump when it detects water rather then turn off power to the water softener. I also added graphing capability to the web page and made the code more reliable.

Click here to read the latest updates on my blog.

• Auto-startup on power up.
• Auto-recovery on program failure
• Status light that shows when pi is running.
• Check for water in the basement. If found:
  • Turn on power to submersible pump
  • Send email to mail address. If internet is down, wait until it is up to send message.
  • Update local status page and internet database
• Send all clear email when water clears
• Read temperature and humidity in basement
• Store hourly readings to SQL tables on internet
• Check internet connectivity
• All components mounted in enclosure that is mounted on wall and connected to 120v power

• Email address that forwards mail to several email addresses as well as texting
• Web site that displays reading results in tabular and graphical form

• Schematic stored on Digikey's website.

• HESA program

• Raspberry Pi
• 120v to 5v USB power converter and USB cable for Raspberry Pi
• Duplex power outlet (2)
• Power plug for input with power cord for PC
• Power switch
• Powerswitch tail to control power
• Water sensor cable
• Connector plugs (2)
• Ethernet jack
• Ethernet cable
• Enclosure

• Wires to connect Raspberry Pi ports to devices
• 100k resistor for LED in enclosure
• Flat edge connectors for electrical wires
• Eyelet connectors for electrical wires
• Wires to carry 120 volts of electricity
• Solder

Create a device that will sense when water is spilling in to the basement. The device will shut off power to the water softener and notify people that there is a problem.

1. Order Raspberry Pi and its components – Done
2. Order Powerswitch tail – Done
3. Setup Raspberry Pi with basic configuration – Done. View the blog entry.
4. Create email group on my website to redirect email to multiple accounts – Done. View the blog entry.
5. Write Python module to send email – Done. View the blog entry.
6. Assemble Powerswitch tail – Done. View the blog entries here, here, and here.
7. Write Python module to control Powerswitch tail – Done
8. Write Python program to incorporate all features for phase 1 – Done
9. Design a sensor to detect water – Done. Decided to go with bare wires.
10. Design portable test system – Done
11. Obtain materials for portable test system – Done
12. Ensure that the basic design works 100% – Done
13. Design enclosure – Done
14. Obtain materials for enclosure – Done
15. Build enclosure – Done
16. Mount device in basement and test – Done
17. Install FTP on raspberry pi – Done
18. Install website files to the raspberry pi – Done

1. Make a backup of the SD card – Done
2. Publish on Instructables – Done
3. Install Avahi to be able to access the pi by its host name rather than IP address – Done
4. Print a raspberry pi base on the 3D printer – Done
5. Replace ethernet faceplate with one with one or two openings rather than four – Done
6. Install MySQL administration tool – Done
7. Populate MySQL tables – Done
8. Store readings to local table, then update internet table, if available – Not started
9. Make monthly graphs
10. Make daily routine to consolidate daily temp and humidity data to a summary table – Not started

• Display status on LCD screen
• Reset button
• Add a battery backup feature so the system can send alerts and shutdown gracefully in case of a catastrophe.
• Add a button to shutdown the Pi, then shutoff power
• Add a button to reboot the Pi

Members: Ken Becker