Need Help with monitoring a pump

#1

Hi everybody, I’am new to Webcore so I need some help setting up some pistons for my greenhouse :wink:

I have a watering pump running 2 minutes every hour… running fine…

What I would like to do is to setup an alarm if the pump does not run.
what i figured was some thing like this:

If wateringpump power rises above 200w
Then start timer at 00:00 (Properly a variable)

If (timer variable) = 02:05
Then Send sms “Pump did not run for 2 hours”

If (timer variable) = 06:05
Then Send sms “Pump did not run for 6 hours”

Should the pump run as scheduled at the next hour the piston should fire and reset the timer back to 00:00

I need help setting up the timer part… Have tried using the time variable with no luck. (setting it to 12:00AM when triggered, hoping i would start counting onward from 12:00)

What is the difference between “Time (time only)” and “Time List (Time only)”

Am I approaching this all wrong?

Thanks in advance
Nicolai

#2

Hi there,
I assume the pump runs 2 minutes every hour but on certain time.
Lets say
12:00 to 12:02
1:00 to 1:02
etc

You can setup a timer

Every hour at :01 past the hour 
IF wateringpump power is below 50 (that means it's not working)
Send SMS "(time) the waterpump is not working"

IF the pump is running randomly 2 minutes every hour, you can use a variable that changes when your piston starts the pump (supposedly)
When that variable changes to TRUE you can wait a minute, and check the voltage.

#3

Thanks for the input, good idea. I will try to set it up.
In my experience the timers are quite unstable, often my timed pistons does not run at all or some times they run at the wrong time. perhaps I just need some more experience with setting up pistons.

Thanks
Nicolai

#4

I have a different experience with timers…
Just a couple of thing though,
1 - I wouldn’t count on very fast changes etc.
I have seen some users trying to get things happening in a matter of seconds.
IF sensor changes to ACTIVE
wait 2 seconds
etc…
That will FAIL very frequently:)))
Responce times are not that great (Webcore to ST and back to house etc)

2 - If you have multiple timers that are firing the same time that will also create problems.
Lets say you have five different pistons doing different things but all setup to execute at 9.30am
That MIGHT create problems.

#5

Hi ike2018, thanks for the input…

In your experience how fast can you do Waits? I have a setup with a 20 second wait, would that be to to tight?

I have done a test:

Every 3 minutes:
DO:
Send Push notification “Test 1”
Wait 20 seconds
Send Push notification “Test 2”

I then timed the duration between the to notifications it was from 20 sek. to 1min.5sek.

Am I using the wrong setup/system would it be an impossible task to get Smartthings/Webcore to run tasks within a say 10 sek. time frame?

#6

Your test sounds very reasonable. 20 seconds wait is good. It should work properly 99% of the time.
it could be a PUSH NOTIFICATION delay. Try your test again maybe with a light in your house or perhaps a variable change.

Every 3 minutes:
DO:
Set variable to FALSE
Wait 20 seconds
Set variable to TRUE

I would recommend that do the test again and post the full logs here. I can’t help you with trouble shooting that (I’m not that good) but i’m sure someone will.

I had very weird delay etc at some point and turned out to be a DTH causing it.
it’s better to post the logs.