SmartThings Community

Looking for a z-wave or zigbee device to sense if pumps are running

#1

Hi,

I’m looking for a device to replace 2 insteon on/off micro switches that I’m using to detect when my pumps are running.

My scenario is that I have a control box that alternates pump1 and pump2. The insteon has a “sense” wire that gives me a ON when there is power and OFF when there is not. Then I have 2 LEDs that I switch ON and OFF. When both pumps I have a program that sends me an alert. This is also useful to measure the flow since I get the run time.

Now, I would think this is a common scenario but I’ve not been able to find a Zwave or Zigbee device that can do this. The closest is to measure wattage like aeotec nano but wanted to check if someone has a similar scenario/suggestion.

The reason I need to replace the insteon is that it is not 100% reliable and sometimes sends me false alarms.

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

#2

The mimolite can do that, but it’s probably overkill.

There are some other possibilities, but I’m tired right now so hopefully other people will respond with those.

#3

Thanks! I’ll take a look at the MIMOlite.

1 Like
#4

The only problem is that it is low voltage. I need to sense 110V. BTW - the link you have is half the price what it is on Amazon. What’s up with that?

#5

The link I gave you is the manufacturer site. Amazon is rarely the lowest price for these kinds of specialty items except for the zigbee devices which work directly with the echo plus.

#6

That is very helpful. I expected the opposite that manufacturer site would be more expensive. Good to know.

#7

Here is a diagram of the configuration I’m looking for and the sense line needs to sense 110v.
image

#8

What about one of these. You can use the switch inputs to sense 110v , even off you don’t switch anything. An alternative would be to use the single version on each pump and cross connect the S2 to verify if the the pump was on. a bit of webcore programming on the back end for notifications or whatnot.

#9

Thanks Simon, that might work. Here is a better diagram. Basically I have a live wire and it could be anything (motor, generator, etc). So I could basically connect the wire from the control box instead of having the wall switch? This could work and I could connect the LED to the live wire instead of what I have below:

image
image.png1132×698 73.9 KB

#10

I got the Double Switch 2 (there is another one called relay - I don’t really understand what the difference is) and built a prototype that works perfectly. And I can do what I need using just one device. Very promising.

Next is to install it and see how reliable it is.

Thanks for help!

#11

What about this solution

#12

Nice! It’s probably possible to transform to low voltage. This is certainly less expensive but more work for sure.

I was able to make the Double Switch 2 replace my two insteon micro switches. It’s been running perfectly for a couple of hours so I’m happy right now :slight_smile: I think I found a reliable solution.

Thanks for help everyone!

#13

Glad it worked out. The modules referred to as a relays (FGS 212 and FGS 221) are the older model. The main differences being they do not support the power monitoring like the newer ones do, but they can switch an alternate supply (dry contact).

You could make use of the power monitoring feature to check things are running OK. you could program a Webcore piston to alert you if power moves above or below a certain threshold.

#14

That make sense. Glad I picked the newer model. I will take a look at the power monitoring feature and learn more about Webcore piston for alerts.