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Running Linux On Your Swimming Pool

Posted by michael on from the chemistry-101 dept.

Forkenhoppen writes: "Ever considered having a computer look after your swimming pool maintenance? Check out this project by Richard J. Kinch. Mr. Kinch uses a Linux box configured with several shell scripts to control the chlorination levels of his pool."

3 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Misleading Title!!!!!! by Wakko+Warner · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hooking crap up to a serial port isn't exactly the same as inserting a Debian CD in your skimmer basket and installing LILO on your pool's boot sector.

    Anyway, mine runs NetBSD just fine.

    - A.P.

    --
    "Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
  2. Overkill????? by jsimon12 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As much as I am a fan of putting Linux where ever it is possible but lets be honest, this is overkill for the application. There is considerably more mundane technology and none-tech devices that can perform this job, just as effeciently.

    1. Re:Overkill????? by ndogg · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I would not say it is overkill. I have taken care of a pool before (for over half of my life, I have lived in a house with a pool.) Taking care of a pool is a tedious and repetitive task. There are a lot of things that could and should be automated.

      For example, this guy could extend this to controling those self-propelled pool vacuums to clean the pool (and do the backwash as well.) There are actually pool vacuums that propel themselves and clean the floor bottom by themselves. They climb right up the wall and back down. It is a really neat sight to see. I could imagine using the computer, putting the vacuum in a small compartment with an automatic door that the computer could open and close to let the vacuum out. Also, instead of having the vacuum having to run the vacuum nearly all the time like you would normally do (the vacuum has no AI or anything, it largely just goes back and forth), the computer would know the dimensions of the pool and how it is shaped and so strategize the fastest way to vacuum the bottom.

      Also, chlorine is not the only chemical that needs to be put in the pool (but is the main component.) All pools have to worry about algae and the vacuum and chlorine are not enough to handle algae, so a lot of pool owners have a stock of algaecide for that.

      I could also imagine there being cameras on the pool connected to the computer so that the computer could determine if there are people in it, the cleanliness of the pool, etc.

      There are so many tedious tasks to taking care of a pool that having a system that is automated would be a blessing to many pool owners.

      --
      // file: mice.h
      #include "frickin_lasers.h"