microcontroller based well pump monitor

Jayne

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For years I've had this lingering fear surrounding our well pump. I have no idea if it's running or not. If a pipe breaks somewhere, the pump would probably just happily run 24/7 dumping water into the ground until the pump died.

I picked up an arduino uno and a inductive clamp and got to work building a power monitor. All the code samples and circuit info is available online, so it's really not that tough to setup for a novice electronics guy like myself.

I've designed it to have just 3 LED status lights. I had a LCD display on there, but it's overkill. I've got a green LED that blinks as the circuit runs so I always know the main loop is running. The blue LED tells me when the pump is on (or really when power is being used by the pump), and the red LED comes on if the pump has been running "too long". I'm still fine tuning what "too long" means.

In addition to the LEDs, I've got it collecting temp/humidity data (because I had the sensor in the kit) and am sending all the info out the serial port over USB to my raspberry pi board. On that end I've written a perl script to collect the info and log everything. I now have a log like this:

pump_log_sample.jpg

Every 5 minutes it's recording temp/humidity info, and tells me when the pump starts, stops and total runtime. Pulling out just the RUNTIME lines makes it easy to graph later if I want to get fancy. Once I learn what the range of normal runtimes are I can change when the red LED error light comes on.

My plan is to leave the circuit downstairs in a little box (after I solder it together) and have the LEDs wired up into the kitchen pantry. That way we know when the pump is running and if the error is on we'll likely see it since we're moving through the kitchen all the time.

Two expansion ideas would be to have it page/email me when in alert status, and one of my buddies pointed out that I should just have the pump fed through a relay and if it goes into alarm just cut power to the pump. That way if we're not home we're still protected.

The wiring to the pump looks ready made to put the clamp on, it was already messily pulled apart like this:

IMG_1961.jpg

And a gratuitous shot of the board at startup when it checks all the LEDs:

IMG_1974.jpg
 
Cool project. The wells at our rural property froze p. Thankfully it doesn't look like anything busted, but your fear of it running till it dies is not without merit.

As a "belt and suspenders" approach, you can get low pressure cut off switches for about $30 that will prevent it from running if you have a break. A coworker recommended them to me yesterday.
 
As a "belt and suspenders" approach, you can get low pressure cut off switches for about $30 that will prevent it from running if you have a break. A coworker recommended them to me yesterday.

The low pressure switch is what makes it come on. When the pressure in the holding tank drops below 22 psi it clicks the pump on until it reaches 40 psi. The pump can out-run the shower/washer/etc, but no idea if it could out-run a truly busted open pipe somewhere.

I had thought about tapping into that circuit to have a 4th LED, so we know when the pump controller is being told to run. If that LED is on, but the pump isn't drawing power, then something is wrong with the pump. I'll have to order another clamp though, only have the 1 at the moment.
 
I'm playing with Arduinos here after about a 20 year hiatus from programming . I'm getting Nano's from China for $2.59 postpaid. Amazing little devices and your pump monitor is a great application for these little tools.
 
The low pressure switch is what makes it come on. When the pressure in the holding tank drops below 22 psi it clicks the pump on until it reaches 40 psi. The pump can out-run the shower/washer/etc, but no idea if it could out-run a truly busted open pipe somewhere.

He suggested a second switch that triggers at a lower pressure that would indicate a break and cut power to the pump.
I had thought about tapping into that circuit to have a 4th LED, so we know when the pump controller is being told to run. If that LED is on, but the pump isn't drawing power, then something is wrong with the pump. I'll have to order another clamp though, only have the 1 at the moment.

I'd be concerned that this would tell you that the pump has failed, not that you have avbreak. The pump motor will draw some power just for running. You would need to compare against the speed/power/flow curves to try to determine if it were cavitating or had run dry.
 
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Sounds/looks way yonder over complicated, my Grandfather had a little light on the pump house that came on when the pump was running and went off when the pump had satisfied the pressure tank. This was way back in the 60's, probably still work today....
 
Sounds/looks way yonder over complicated, my Grandfather had a little light on the pump house that came on when the pump was running and went off when the pump had satisfied the pressure tank. This was way back in the 60's, probably still work today....
My dad wired a night light into the indicating circuit. It sits under the TV on a cheap lamp extension cord. If it comes on when nobody is using water, or it stays on for a long time, there's a problem.

Sent from my XT1565 using Tapatalk
 
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