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Running Linux On Your Swimming Pool
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."
What next? A device that runs Linux so that their toilet flushes? :-)
Karma whorin' since 1999
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?"
How about installing an electronic ozone system? They're supposed to be quite efficient and don't require much maintenance as they're basically just a fancy neon tube that the water passes by. I understand they've been required in many european countries since the seventies.
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.
Or some chemist hacker figures out a way to add "pee" to your pool by modifying what chemicals the program puts out.
Just food for thought. ;)
-- Dan
My family in The Sims could so use that. a free cookie to the first person to make that an item :)
while the use of calculated sunrise and sunset times are pretty neat, a simple photosensor might be an idea too. (Of course, the photosensor might get dirty and give faulty data.)
And what happens if the server hangs (which is possible if not likely)? The pool might get much more clorination than he hoped for.
Parallel backup safety systems is probably a good idea here - perhaps just a 555 variant (cascaded?) circuit with a long, if not accurate, delay time that shuts down the system if it ever stays on too long.
I'm willing to bet it's Aqua.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Something like this would be a prime candidate for Embedded Linux running on a smaller, weathertight, dedicated device instead of a full blown PC tho.
The headline remined me of what I used to say to the people (several years ago) in the office when I had to re-boot a NetWare server:
"Everybody out of the memory pool!!"
Soko
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
I am thinking about doing something similar with a reef tank that I am going to build. Hook a cheap 486 or pentium up to all of the monitors and dosers that I need to run the tank. I would also like to hook it up to the light ballasts and pumps and have them controlled by some sort of software that mimics the sun and moonlight in the corals natural habitat. What would be really cool is some sort of random cloud generation, as well as random storms in the winter. Even some water temperature variations would be nice.
I was origionally going to use X10 for the design, but I am going to look closer at his custom designs and possibly use those. I really would like to stay away from X10 because of those damn popup windows that they started. I really dont want to support that sort of company.
I am really glad he did this project, it really gives me some good ground work on which to base my smaller project on.
(B) + (D) + (B) + (D) = (K) + (&)
Feb 10, 2002- A test script was run to more accurately monitor the chlorine levels. everything seemed alright until a power surge interrupted the script. the box hummed strangely. The water took on an eerie glow. arcs of electricity shot through the water. steam floated over the water. small globs of matter formed and floated to the surface. they began to take shape. the realization struck me like a bat...the machine had created primordial life...it was god. dun, duun, DUUUN!
A Linux box to control the porch light! It receives sunrise/sunset times over the internet to decide when to switch the light on and off. It even factors in weather related adjustments!
We can finally throw away those damn photocell controllers!
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
= smart people who can negotiate them. By the time any kind of control for the pool filtering & lighting system reaches it, it's gone through so many physical and electrical insulations, that it should be completely safe. Heck, I could control the Atlantic ocean if my blender ran more than Redhat 4.0 and I had the right kind of seals.
/.'ed), this is a pretty neat idea, as it would elminate all of those stupid manual timers (which generally keep very poor time) and eliminate the need for continuous monitoring of pool chemical levels.
Seriously.... from what I saw on this page (before it got
--- There is a man in a smiling bag.
this is cool, but ... I always loved those pool cleaner bots that drive around the pool bottom and pick up debris. Could we get a rediculously complicated computer controlled one? let it be run by perl scripts and have a mysql database to log the ammount leaves picked up and ammount of urine in the pool. This will be served from the pool robot itself running a custom apache rig via an 802.11 underwater access point :)
this would be a proper geek project
Free Techno/Jazz/DNB/MI Music by guys obsessed with monkeys!
Sorry. I just had to.
dominionrd.blogspot.com - Restaurants on
Got one... although its only a 486 that does it. But its running linux.
:)
To to the link in my sig and go to the den cam... and turn on the lavalamp.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
I'll guess I can get an adequate Linux box for $300. Then I need power to run it, special hardware to handle the chemicals, and of course about $500 worth of my time (at best) to set it all up.
When I'm done, I can get rid of that $5 timed-release dispenser that has kept my chlorine levels stable for years. The chemical costs will remain about the same, of course, but hey, I can get a geekiness award.
As to the timer, if I were going to waste my time to create elaborate software that knows the daylight schedule, why not just wire up a few SCR switches to a photocell? Or better, run the pump at night when evaporation is lower and never have to change the timer settings?
I figure he'll earn his money back in about 2 decades. By which time the PC will have long since rotted.
OK, this kind of project can be fun for its own sake. But let's not pretend it makes economic sense.
"Thanks for inviting me to the pool party!"
"No problem, Ed."
Ed enters the water.
"Ahhh! It burns!"
"That's impossible, Ed. You see, the chlorination levels are controlled by several scripts running under Linux. It's Open Source, so it's stable and it can't help but work."
"For the love of all that's holy, someone help me!"
"You see, with open source any bugs that would have cropped up would have been immediately been fixed by the many independent programmers around the world who check the source code."
"Oh the pain! My skin is being flayed from my body!"
"See the neighbor's kid over there? The one in the Limp Bizkit t-shirt with the baseball cap? He's one of the many open source coders around the world who maintain the system I use to automate my pool. Don't let his age, lack of education, or immaturity fool you; because he's an open source coder he's far superior to any corporate drone with a masters in CS. Now don't you feel better?"
"Oh, the pain! It's like acid!"
"Ed, the chlorine level is precisely monitored, as I've been telling you. Whatever you're feeling is most definitely not the result of chlorine."
Ed finally manages to crawl out of the pool. His skin is an angry red, and his hair has turned white.
"Ohhh...someone...help..."
"Ok, I see how it is, Ed. You're one of those Microsoft supporters, just trying to spread FUD about the open source movement. I think you should leave."
Swimming poo
Ick.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
The problem with this system is that its automating something that is more easily handled by cheap mechanical devices. Mechanical autochlorinator technology is cheap and works.
Most people think a pool with too much chlorine will have a "chlorine" smell and will irritate your eyes. This is a fallacy; pools get that funny smell because the available chlorine has been turned to chloramines. The only way to get rid of the chloramines is to add more chlorine. So ironically, a "chlorine" smell in a pool is a sign of poor maintence and NOT ENOUGH CHLORINE! Your eyes will not be irritated, your skin won't turn red, you won't be harmed by too much chlorine in a pool.
Besides this is attacking the wrong problem. Keeping the proper chlorine levels in a pool with the proper chemistry is simple. Combined with the mechnical device I've already mentioned makes checking the chlorine levels a once-a-week chore for a residential pool. Its the least bothersome part of running a pool.
The tricky part is the rest of the chemistry (particularly total alkalinity and pH). It can be done via automation, but there's no particular need to have a computer do it. Again, its a once-a-week check, and then you add small doses of chemicals at that time if it needs to be balanced. But the balance is critical to everything about the pool and the health of the people in it.
The bottom line is that you have to check it once a week yourself anyway, regardless of the automation system. Spend your time swimming, not inventing the equivalent of an electric dog polisher.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
After all, houses with pools generally don't sell for much less than half a million, so if you can afford something like that you can afford to hire a human to do the work of cleaning it for you (hell, you can probably afford to hire an army of topless models to do the cleaning for you!).
When I got to the first part about not using X10, and making his own controller, (despite crud complaints about X10 stuff not being made for high voltages), I gave him the benefit of the doubt. When I got to the next part about not using a basic stamp either, I figured we were at the wheel re-invention stage, and lost interest. Not only that, it doesn't use sensors for chemical level detection ... oh well. However, this kind of stuff always has the potential for interest - folks - you might like homepower magazine too www.homepower.com - especially if you live are being shafted by California power policies right now!
There are lots of programs out there now that remind you when things need to be done in an aquarium -- but this kind of thing (not the one on his site, that's still open loop, it just acts on faith that the chemicals its adding are actually needed) would be very useful in aquarium maintenance, especially marine/reef aquariums. You could set up pH, specific gravity, etc... meters and based on those add chemicals and fresh water. Or you could run all those tests manually and have the system add the appropriate amounts based on the numbers you feed it. I'm sure large public aquariums run systems like this to keep things in check, but it would be cool to do it at home.
Worse yet, the ads are misleading. They imply that the quality of images produced by an X10 camera is adequate.
Fry's had a demonstration of the XCam, and the picture was so fuzzy as to be virtually unusable. Even the voyueristic possibilities inherent in the X10 ads would be destroyed by the awful quality.
You have been warned.
D
I wonder if I can do this with my aquariums? It would be nice to have the pH, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, Kh and GK automagically measured or easily accessable. Rather than having to use drops for each test.
Only 'flamers' flame!
... the gene pool?
;-)
Too bad we cant have a linux box control that
..pcable
Was a salt-water pool. The filtration/cleaning system was electrical based, and super simple looking and small to boot. The water was VERY gentle, you could easily open your eyes underwater without any burning, and when you got out, you weren't "sticky".
Now, true - maybe a chlorine pool can be the same way with proper care and attention to everything - I don't know, I have never owned a pool. But I tell you, the cost in savings of chemicals alone for a salt water pool make it seem worth it (basically, you use big bags of salt, and a bit of electricity - cheap).
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
True, I would have to concede that running the pump is the most expensive thing, and you don't get away from that with a salt-water pool. I tend to wonder, though, whether you have to run a salt-water pool pump more or less? Would be something interesting and worthwhile to know, to say the least.
Still, the advantages of simple salt over pool chemicals still make sense, if only for the simple reason that one is safer (overall - storage, transport, use) than the other (chlorine/acid vs salt)...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon