Hi All
im hoping you can point me in the right direction.
We have a small factory and when im in the office i cant tell if our compressor / chiller etc are working.
Each machine has a 230V AC or 24V DC output the most outputs for any machine is 3. (e.g On/ Error/ alarm)
The machines are within 30 meters of each other, and my office is about 60 meters away. We have Internet Wifi everywhere.
What im hoping to do is have a small wireless relay (or similar) from each machine that goes to a central PLC which i can then link to a computer and make a basic traffic light program.
Can you please give me some advice as to which systems (e.g arduino / raspberry/ Onion etc) would be the easiest to build and use and what modules you recommend to make my start?
regards
Tim
As a start you could have a look at these items.
If you want to use micros. (a PLC solution may better suit your environment though)
I am a Core Electronics customer and have recently purchased a PI Zero and started playing with it.
Initial observations indicate it may do what you want.
Previously I have used the ATMega328P (Arduino UNO) and Adafruit Feather micros. I have a good understanding of electronics and micro programming.
[https://core-electronics.com.au/raspberry-pi-zero-wh.html]
[https://core-electronics.com.au/pimoroni-automation-phat-for-raspberry-pi-zero.html]
[https://core-electronics.com.au/pimoroni-explorer-phat-for-raspberry-pi-zero.html]
Raspberry Pi Zero WH (Wireless with Soldered Headers) #### SKU: CE05324 $21.41
Pimoroni Automation pHAT for Raspberry Pi Zero #### SKU: PIM221 $17.50
Pimoroni Explorer pHAT for Raspberry Pi Zero #### SKU: PIM137 $16.94
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Thanks Very much for the suggestion and your time - will have a crack at this!
Hi Tim,
James has made some really good suggestions in his post. I only want to add that you might consider something like this to actually monitor the machines:
You could clip it around the power leads to the machines, and use the Pi’s to measure the current. If the chiller has shut down then there will be no current.
This would not detect a compressor that is running but not cooling though, so you might be best suited to monitor the most critical metric, temperature, directly.
Reading and transmitting temperature is pretty low hanging fruit in the world of IoT/Maker devices. You will be able to find many examples and tutorials for just this purpose.
Good luck with your project and don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions along the way!
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