System and method to monitor and control pool equipment
A multi-node remote pool monitoring system and method is provided. The system includes a master control unit and at least one slave node connected to a piece of pool equipment and serially connected to at least one other slave node in a daisy-chain configuration for transmitting power and data between the nodes. Each node may further be connected to a sensor for monitoring the output of the pool equipment connected to that node. Each relay node has a unique network address by which the master node can address and command or query each slave node to switch a connected relay/load; report the status of the connected load; and report the signal recorded by connected sensors. The data transmitted along the multi-node network and a pool signature may be processed for predicting pool equipment runtime energy demand, one or more operational states of pool equipment and equipment failure.
1 . A system for monitoring and controlling a multi-node pool equipment network, comprising:
a main control unit configured as a master node to support a serial communication protocol across a plurality of nodes; and
a first relay node connected to the main control unit by a serial interface configured for power and data transmission between the master node and the first relay node;
a cloud server configured to:
implement one or more machine learning algorithms to automatically minimize the carbon footprint of the system by scheduling operation of the connected pool equipment during a low carbon phase of a local power grid;
connect to one or more power grid API services to retrieve carbon emission rates to the local power grid and identify one or more low carbon phases of the local power grid;
wherein the main control unit is configured to send a command or a query to the first relay node over the serial interface using the serial communication protocol; and
wherein the first relay node is configured to:
switch a relay or a load connected to the first relay node;
report a status of connected pool equipment to the main control unit; and
report a measurement of the output of the connected pool equipment to the main control unit.
2 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
at least a second relay node serially connected to the first relay node, wherein the at least second relay node and the first relay node form a daisy-chain for power and data transmission between the master node and the at least second relay node,
wherein the main control unit is configured to send the command or the query to the at least second relay node via the first relay node using the serial communication protocol; and
wherein the at least second relay node is configured to:
switch a relay or a load connected to the second relay node;
report the status of connected pool equipment to the main control unit via the daisy-chain; and
report the measurement of the output of the connected pool equipment to the main control unit via the daisy-chain.
3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the measurement of the output of the connected pool equipment is recorded by a sensor in the first relay node wherein the sensor is one of: a current sensor, an acoustic sensor and an accelerometer/vibration sensor.
4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the main control unit comprises a power injector to supply DC power to the main control unit, whereby the main control unit transmits DC power to the first relay node.
5 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the main control unit comprises a power injector to supply DC power to the main control unit, whereby the main control unit transmits DC power to the nodes along the daisy-chain.
6 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising: a sensor node serially connected to the main control unit for power and data transmission between the master node and the sensor node, wherein the sensor node comprises a plurality of sensors for measuring water chemistry.
7 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the plurality of sensors includes one or more of:
a potentiometer, a redox potential sensor, an electrical conductivity sensor, a temperature sensor and a humidity sensor.
8 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising: a valve actuator node connected to the main control unit for power and data transmission between the master node and the valve actuator node, wherein the valve actuator node is configured to:
adjust the position of a connected valve; and
report the position of the connected valve to the main control unit.
9 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the main control unit is configured to transmit the measurement recorded by the sensor to a cloud server for storage.
10 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the main control unit comprises a SIM card configured for connecting the main control unit to a GSM communication network to exchange data with the cloud server.
11 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the cloud server is further configured to implement heartbeat signaling between the cloud server and a piece of pool equipment connected to one of the relay nodes.