Hi Everyone. Im a total newbie to Arduino but have set myself a target project.
I work with machinery on lots of different Golf Courses & Vinyards where I would like to monitor the hours usage of these machines from my laptop and receive notifications when milestones are reached, e.g. Every 100 hours grease bearing etc.
Im not 100% sure I have selected the correct hardware so welcome thoughts and suggestions for more suitable items etc …..
Mounted on the Machines I am thinking of the following:
Arduino Uno R4.
DS3231 Clock Module. Not sure if I really need this as I don’t really need precision. Most of the machines I see regularly go 200+ hours between greasing. So realistically if the clock is out by 5-10% It is not an issue as the design tolerances for the greasing activity has a health safety factor. The important thing is that the greasing is actually done by the machine operators…
RYLR998 LoRa Transmitter. Some of my clients’ workshops that are remote on the middle of golf courses / farmyards. So unfortunately, No WIFI or Landline and often poor Mobile Phone Signal. However they will pass by the clubhouse or a farm building regularly within a suitable range for LoRa to transmit a signal.
SW-420 Vibration Sensor. To monitor when the machine is in use. Some of the machines are Tractor mounted and are hydraulically operated. Alternatively wondering if a ADXL3xx Accelerometer would be more suitable. On the other machinery with engines, I was thinking of piggy backing on an Ignition or battery voltage.
Hope this all makes sense, and I’m realistic this may raise more questions than solutions but hey, I have to start somewhere.
Regards Chris.
The choices globally are reasonable - the R4 might be a bit overkill and not ideal for integration, it's more a prototyping board. A simple Arduino Nano could do.
To detect operations, vibration might be good enough but an Accelerometer can do too.
Do you really need the radio operation? a display onboard that states "time for maintenance" wouldn't do ?
Adding the radio element adds complexity and since you are
Its a good question. Most of the machines already have basic Hour Meters on them. They also have a maintenance sheets hanging behind where the machine is parked after each shift. But the operators never bother looking and checking if anything needs greasing, and everything is left to me.
It's a sizeable project, probably too large for a first project. So take your time, invest in your skills, understand what you code, don't go for copy/paste or chatGPT coding as you'll hit bumps and roadblocks and it will be hard to fix.
some other thoughts
if the machines "come home" after each shift, that could be a good time to try to send the data over.
If you want to go for Lora, instead of a UNO R4, you might want to get an Arduino with built-in LoRa capability. The MKR WAN 1300 and 1310 boards in the Arduino family could be an option and there are many more out there (ESP32 with Lora for example).
You will need a "master" device — could also be an Arduino with the same radio — and with some sort of display attached and a way to operate the UI / take action (review the list of machines, clear status after maintenance, add new machines, ...). May be a simple LCD (I2C LCD 2004) and a rotary encoder and a couple buttons will do.
I would suggest to go in simple steps. Get the machine unit working first. if you power the unit when the machine starts, it likely means the Arduino will loose power when you switch off the machine. This needs to be taken into account as you'll need time after power off t save the data ➜ It should reliably detect when the machine is on operation and collect timing and store it for sharing it later (eg EEPROM or Flash local storage).
You need also to devise a strategy for how you'll send the data if power is cut . If you keep powering the unit from the machine's battery, you might impact the battery if the machine does not run for some time depending on how much current you draw.
Once this works reliably, dig into the radio stuff. Expect the unexpected. Communication might fail, so retrying might be needed, you'll need some sort of acknowledgment of reception, remote configuring maybe,
to reduce jumper wire interconnections (a major source of poor connections and intermittent problems) between modules I would recommend you get a PCB with microcontroller and LoRa module on board, e.g. WiFi LoRa 32(V3) - cost about £13 on EBAY in UK probably less than cost of UNO R4 plus LoRa module
EDIT: just remembered that the ESP32 has an onboard RTC so no need of external RTC module - see [esp32-time library](https://esp32-time library)
I knew someone who did the same thing before LoRa or BLE existed and this was the solution. Set up a short distance receiver at the door of the machinery shed and log the hours of all the equipment as it went in or out. Those receivers communicated with a web app over Wi-Fi to view the data.
An ESP32 powered in parallel with the hour meter would probably work just fine.
Can I suggest you avoid being rude and obtain all the facts before jumping to conclusions.
I am a contractor that is only called in to fix the machinery when it goes wrong. This project of mine is a pro-active attempt to help my clients better manage their fleet of machines and spend less money with me on avoidable repairs. I will then have more time to spend with my family…..
Our local (Australian) city council has such a system on the garbage trucks.
Where you have a define driver job and mechanic job, this helps to bridge the gap.
I am not sure of all the data that they get from their system, but in their case distance travelled so as to apply maintenance at economically viable times.
