Home Environmental Sensor Array
Progress
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.
Final Solution
Features
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
External Features
Schematic
Code
Bill of Material
Components
Consumables
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
Description
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.
Tasks
Order Raspberry Pi and its components – Done
Order Powerswitch tail – Done
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Create email group on my website to redirect email to multiple accounts – Done.
View the blog entry.
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Assemble Powerswitch tail – Done. View the blog entries
here,
here, and
here.
Write Python module to control Powerswitch tail – Done
Write Python program to incorporate all features for phase 1 – Done
Design a sensor to detect water – Done. Decided to go with bare wires.
Design portable test system – Done
Obtain materials for portable test system – Done
Ensure that the basic design works 100% – Done
Design enclosure – Done
Obtain materials for enclosure – Done
Build enclosure – Done
Mount device in basement and test – Done
Install FTP on raspberry pi – Done
Install website files to the raspberry pi – Done
Follow-up tasks
Make a backup of the SD card – Done
Publish on Instructables – Done
Install Avahi to be able to access the pi by its host name rather than IP address – Done
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Replace ethernet faceplate with one with one or two openings rather than four – Done
Install MySQL administration tool – Done
Populate MySQL tables – Done
Store readings to local table, then update internet table, if available – Not started
Make monthly graphs
Make daily routine to consolidate daily temp and humidity data to a summary table – Not started
Future Ideas
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