*Help / Advice designing control circuit for 12V automated watering system
Hi, and thanks for reading, Ok, so I only have a little knowledge about this stuff, but I'm sure I can do this with the right help,
I've built garden boxes, where the water drains out to a reservoir at the bottom, what I want to do, is put a pump at the bottom which when activated, pumps the water back up into the soil again, the pump I plan on using is 12VDC, 1.05A 550l/h. The system would be powered by a 12V 100AH Solar recharged battery, (I plan on many more boxes if I can get this one right) I've found a tutorial on how to build a basic water detector, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofVwrIi1zII)
So, Basically, what I want to do is, put three of these sensors in the reservoir, one right at the bottom of the sump, to tell the pump to stop, when there's no water left, One at about halfway, To tell the pump when to start pumping, and one at about 80%, to tell 2 solenoids to close / open (one will be N/O and close, the other will be N/C and open) to redirect the pump flow from going to the sprinkler, into the water tank in the garden, (In cases of heavy rain where the reservoir will be overfilled), and the solenoids should return to normal again, after the water level has gone back under the half way sensor. So basically I guess I need some help in designing the circuitry for this? I could probably make the water sensors easy enough, but how to tell them how to contol the solenoids, and pump properly, I wouldn't have a clue! I'd also probably need switches to manually turn the pump on before the water reaches the halfway mark, and to manually open the solenoids to drain all the water from the reservoir to the garden tank. Is this too compicated to do?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
thanx
Hi, and thanks for reading, Ok, so I only have a little knowledge about this stuff, but I'm sure I can do this with the right help,
I've built garden boxes, where the water drains out to a reservoir at the bottom, what I want to do, is put a pump at the bottom which when activated, pumps the water back up into the soil again, the pump I plan on using is 12VDC, 1.05A 550l/h. The system would be powered by a 12V 100AH Solar recharged battery, (I plan on many more boxes if I can get this one right) I've found a tutorial on how to build a basic water detector, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofVwrIi1zII)
So, Basically, what I want to do is, put three of these sensors in the reservoir, one right at the bottom of the sump, to tell the pump to stop, when there's no water left, One at about halfway, To tell the pump when to start pumping, and one at about 80%, to tell 2 solenoids to close / open (one will be N/O and close, the other will be N/C and open) to redirect the pump flow from going to the sprinkler, into the water tank in the garden, (In cases of heavy rain where the reservoir will be overfilled), and the solenoids should return to normal again, after the water level has gone back under the half way sensor. So basically I guess I need some help in designing the circuitry for this? I could probably make the water sensors easy enough, but how to tell them how to contol the solenoids, and pump properly, I wouldn't have a clue! I'd also probably need switches to manually turn the pump on before the water reaches the halfway mark, and to manually open the solenoids to drain all the water from the reservoir to the garden tank. Is this too compicated to do?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
thanx
