Pool Assistant - expose pool sensor readings to Home Assistant

[vynsane]

I’ve begun work on a system that will send pH, ORP (oxidation/reduction potential), and water temperature data from my pool to my Home Assistant instance at regular intervals, inspired primarily by “raspipool” (GitHub - segalion/raspipool: Swimming Pool Automation Systen with Raspberry Pi + Home Assistant). I went a different way with the primary hardware and have an Arduino Uno Wifi rev2 board instead of the RPi. To test the setup of communication between the Uno and Home Assistant, I set up MQTT sensors, input_number helpers, an automation to translate the MQTT values to the input_numbers, and a dashboard in HA, and wrote a “mock” service that sends randomized data (within specific parameters so it’s not all over the place) from the Uno to the MQTT topics. The dashboard receiving the mock data currently looks like this:

A full write-up of the configurations I found necessary, as well as the Arduino code is at:

GitHub - VynDesign/pool-assistant-mock: A sketch for Arduino Uno Wifi Rev. 2...

I already have all the other components - the “Whitebox T2” shield, the EZO circuits, and related probes, but just ordered still need an enclosure and some other support hardware in order to flip the EZO circuits to I2C mode (they come factory-programmed for UART and the T2 only allows for I2C), and of course I need to build the plumbing necessary for the probes to actually do their job reading the pool water. But I’m glad to have the proof-of-concept already running. For the next iteration, I will attempt to tackle all of the “future vision” bullet points:

Future Vision

• Connect Whitebox T2 Arduino Uno Shield to the Uno Wifi rev2
• Connect the following sensor probes to the Whitebox T2:
  • Consumer Grade pH Probe
  • Consumer Grade ORP Probe
  • Standard Grade Temperature Probe
• And their related EZO circuits:
  • EZO pH Circuit
  • EZO ORP Circuit
  • EZO RTD Temperature Circuit
• Flip the EZO circuits to I2C mode using the breadboard/jumper wire method
  • Breadboard
  • Jumper Wires
  • Instructions
• Put the entire thing in an Adafruit Flanged Weatherproof Enclosure w/PG-7 Cable Glands
• Calculate estimated Free Chlorine PPM based on temp, ORP, and pH readings.
• Indiate “trends” (pH trending downward, ORP trending upward, etc…)
• Design a modified version of the HA “Gauge” card that has severity coloration at both the low and high end of the arch, since the pH and ORP should have a specific “good” range that does not start with 0 (pH being “good” between 6.9 and 7.4, ORP optimally being above 650mV and generally topping out at 850mV).
• Build the pool circulation system bypass rig for the probes

[alexander_martin]

This is a great idea! Pool automation is an interesting concept that allows you to remotely monitor your swimming pool while you are away and even make modifications to it when necessary. It is also great for people with disabilities who cannot regularly get to the pool because it provides them with a comfortable and fun environment to exercise in. The pool automation system that you have set up looks very promising. As far as I can see, the only thing that you need to do is to implement the plumbing for the probes. It will be good if you can give more detail on the steps that you have taken until now in order to get the Arduino working with Home Assistant. In order to make further modifications to your pool automation system, you should maintain a repository containing the different components of the system, including the Arduino firmware, the waterproof enclosures for the probes, the electronics for the enclosure, the software for the Arduino and for Home Assistant, etc. This is a very good practice for software development in general. Good luck with your project!

[vynsane]

Thanks, yeah, it's been fun researching, coding, and assembling the hardware necessary to do this. I still have more to implement than just the probe rig, the code linked in my post is a "mock" service that currently "mimics" the results of the probes and hardware interpreting the data, so I still have to write the actual code to take the readings from the probes.

I have just assembled the hardware - the Uno Wifi, Whitebox T2 shield, and the three EZO circuits for the temperature, pH, and ORP sensors. I plan to post a video of the process to switch the EZO circuits to i2c mode from UART mode and the assembly of the components.

If you take a look at the GitHub link in my post, it contains the code for the Arduino as well as a readme that details the Home Assistant setup and hardware components list.