how do you know if you loose power

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Seagals
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Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2012 7:06 am

how do you know if you loose power

Post by Seagals »

I lost power to the unit on a tripped house breaker today but did not know till I got home - luckily everything is fine but just curious is there a way to find this out remotely?? I don't have a wifi - will the wifi be able to tell me if their is power to the unit head?

Just serious if their is a way to prevent a future issue. thanks
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Sacohen
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Location: Davie, FL

Re: how do you know if you loose power

Post by Sacohen »

Well if you lose power then your router and internet would be down too so you would not be able to reach the Portal. That would indicate the you lost power at the house.

If you still have internet, but you can't reach the portal that would indicate the head unit or the WIFI lost power, but I think Lnevo has something in his code that lets him know that he lost power.

You can check out his code here

http://forum.reefangel.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2328
Seagals
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Re: how do you know if you loose power

Post by Seagals »

Thanks - that's pretty cool
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lnevo
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Re: how do you know if you loose power

Post by lnevo »

Yea the idea is to have the primary relay bar on a ups so head unit stays up and secondary or tertiary power bar on the main grid. If you lose access to that bar we can take action. As far as alerts that does depend on availability of your network...
rossbryant1956
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Re: how do you know if you loose power

Post by rossbryant1956 »

I have a second UPS on my router, cable box and laptop..the hope being if Comcast is still up but just building or area power is out I can still get an email out. Still working thru my version of Lee's code so not yet completely sure it will work, but close.
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Seagals
Posts: 127
Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2012 7:06 am

Re: how do you know if you loose power

Post by Seagals »

lnevo wrote:Yea the idea is to have the primary relay bar on a ups so head unit stays up and secondary or tertiary power bar on the main grid. If you lose access to that bar we can take action. As far as alerts that does depend on availability of your network...
Lee would you be able to clarify your process to me? If I understand correctly use have the head and 1 relay box on ups back up and if I understand correctly you have a second relay box on main power. Is that correct? If so, would your code work with just 1 relay box? It sounds like your code kicks in if box 1 recognizes box #2 fails.

I have the unit as it came from RA (1 head +1 box) on a UPS.
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lnevo
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Re: how do you know if you loose power

Post by lnevo »

Yeah, you need the second box :( that's how we detect if we lose power. If that other box goes away.

There are other things we can do....if you have a float switch port free... You could wire up a wall wart to a relay and plug the relay output to your float switch. The wall wart could then plug into main power and we can test the float switch port to see if it is open or close and then we would know I'd the wall wart has power...

If you have an io module we could do it with that also.l.
Seagals
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Re: how do you know if you loose power

Post by Seagals »

lnevo wrote:Yeah, you need the second box :( that's how we detect if we lose power. If that other box goes away.

There are other things we can do....if you have a float switch port free... You could wire up a wall wart to a relay and plug the relay output to your float switch. The wall wart could then plug into main power and we can test the float switch port to see if it is open or close and then we would know I'd the wall wart has power...

If you have an io module we could do it with that also.l.
Thanks....I do have a float switch port that is free - I was thinking of borrowing your 'skimmer full' idea but I think this is more important because the breaker has tripped twice now. I figured out the breaker issue here and reduce the breaker load in the house on that line but its nice to have a fail safe and use this controller to its fullest extent ;)

What size wall wart and relay would you suggest? Would I set the float at top of sump so if elevation gets higher than normal it sends a signal?

Also, forgive my ignorance but I am not familiar with an io module. lastly I don't have wifi but am wired to my computer and I do get heat and ph emails from this.

Thanks in advance
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lnevo
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Re: how do you know if you loose power

Post by lnevo »

A usb power adapter is 5v or a 12v wallwart. Relays are easy enough to find jn both voltages.

Not sure about the float switch. Would that be on the other port? You could still use two switches...

I monitor high sump and low sump and i do it on the same port. The switches are wired in parallel and if either trips i disable the return.
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