Additional Panels
You will find some more information in panels provided in Home Assistant additional to the MAIN CONTROLS dashboard described above. As these are not essential and in general self-explanatory you can explore them at your leisure. The additional panels are:
- SMS Alerts: provides a list of alerts (eternal temperature > 47 deg C; Pump started; Water level < 1 meter; Embers detected) which can be switched on to be sent as text messages to nominated phone numbers. The numbers must be entered into configuration.yaml in the Raspberry Pi. If internet connection is lost for more than 5 min, the system automatically switches to Autonomous mode (see below). Once the system regains internet contact, the system remains in Autonomous mode but sends an SMS message to let the users know that they can re-assert manual control if and when they wish.
- Environment: provides details of the local weather – temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, maximum expected temperature and weather forecast, along with a panel of warnings and incidents from the Victorian Government Emergency app.
- System Current State: this simply is a panel showing which of the main functions (pump sprinklers, shed cool, reduced flow and retardant injection) are ON or OFF.
- System Health: Here you will see a control which switches Autonomous Mode on and off. To the right are the Tuya Smart Switch controls which enable the micro-computers to be reset if trouble is encountered. Note that if the Raspberry Pi goes down for some reason it will be necessary to use the Tuya Smart app to restart it as the Home Assistant dashboard will become unavailable.
Finally there is the AR1 Development Mode switch. This is a technician's switch only used during development. When turned on it ensures that no states are retained on a reboot so the system returns as a "blank slate". If turned off certain states (pump, timing, valves) are stored in EEPROM memory and restored after a reboot.
Autonomous Mode – a mind of its own!
'Even if all of the communication is lost – mobile net and wifi power off, the mains power goes down, and the water mains turn off, do not despair – the system has a mind of its own and its own resources. A powerful HC44 battery supplies power, water is in the tank, and two Arduino micro computers in the shed monitor the engine oil pressure, pump water pressure, and other sensors. They are programmed to do the following (the parameters can be changed to suit):
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- If outside communication is then it will proceed to follow a detailed set of protocols depending on the internal temperature of the pump shed (>60 deg switches shed cooling on) and external temperature (>70 deg switches the pump on at reduced flow and running the sprinklers intermittently (3min on, 7 min off).
- As temperature rises the sprinkling becomes more frequent and if the rise rate exceeds 1 deg per minute the flow is increased to high flow. Once the external temperature starts to decline the system goes back to reduced flow, then intermittent, and finally stops.
- The system also monitors the water level, changing its rates of water application depending on the amount of remaining water. If the water level gets very low, then the system sprays fire-retardant gel before stopping the pump. (Since the gel pump is made of plastic, it is monitored and if deemed to have failed it is closed off from the system using the solenoid on the inlet side and a check valve on the outlet side.)
- If sensors are lost the system compensates where it can. For example, if the water level sensor is lost the system calculates the remaining water utilising the flow sensor. If the flow sensor is lost the system notes the amount of time spent in each mode of sprinkling and uses average flow rates to keep track of the remaining water. If all key sensors are lost, the system goes through a pre-programmed routine, continuing from the state of play when the loss occurred.
- Battery voltage is monitored and while it is good (>12.5 volt) for the longer intermittent cycles it achieves those by turning the pump off and back on, but if the voltage reduces further, the battery is conserved by leaving the pump on and turning the flow on, or alternative through a recycling valve back to the tank. Full details of the decision matrix are given in the Technical Notes.
- If communication with the outside world resumes the system texts the operator allowing the operator to resume manual mode at will.
- In Autonomous mode, the various changes being automatically initiated can be tracked in both the Module 3 LCD screen and also in the Autonomous Dashboard panel.
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