I am brand new to Arduino and electronics.
I am trying to figure out how to monitor how long a small pump runs and then send an email once a day with the stats on how long the pump ran that day. I could use some guidance on how to tell when the pump turns on and off, and also how to do the email part. Right know I am focusing on the hardware and circuits needed. Once I have that figured I will work on the software part.
The pump is powered by AC and I would like to send the email by local wifi. Any suggestions on how to get started would really be appreciated.
By the way I have the Arduino Uno.
Thanks for any help
You might start with this:
http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/node/58
see code below
You might need this: (I'm just guessing here)
or maybe this:
Maybe only one of the above two. (I'm IT challenged. Ask me about electronics)
I used a current sensor similar to the Sparkfun one to sense the current of a computer monitor programmed with a 5 minute sleep time out. When it when to sleep, the current sensor detected the loss of current and a circuit de-energized a relay , disconnecting the internet physical connection (LAN) , until the mouse was moved to wake up the monitor. It was a circuit someone paid me to design. He ordered three all together.
Thank you sir!
From your post and the links you provided I just learned more about how to accomplish this project than I learned scratching around on my own the last 3 days.
Thank you again
Does anybody have some thoughts about using a reed switch? All I really need to do is know when the pump turns on, log how long it stays on, and when it turns off. It seems like a reed switch placed next to the power cord of the pump might work. Again I am brand new to electronics, so feel free to let me know where my thinking is going wrong.
There are more that a few ways to accomplish your objective. The old school way is probably just a relay that is powered from the same source as the pump with the arduino input connected to the NO (normally open )contact with a 10k pullup resistor to 5V.
The COM of the relay contact is connected to GND (of the arduino). When the pump power turns off , so does the relay and the arduino digital input is pulled to ground. A simple
if (digitalRead(Relaypin) ==LOW)
{
// Do something code here
}
That's an interesting approach. I'm going to look deeper into that. Thanks again!
I'm not saying that's the best way. It's just the old school way because it's simple and bulletproof. Measuring the current would work just as well but it is more complicated.
What is telling the pump to turn on and off? Depending upon how the pump is controlled, you may be able to pull a signal off of it.
As suggested, it would be pretty simple to have a dpdt relay with one set of contacts to run the pump and the other set to send an open or closed signal to the Arduino.