Saturday, July 27, 2013

Just touching basis..

There has not been much activity on this Blog for a while / no new posts - and for a reason:  We have just been using the controller and it is working well!  As such, do not really have much to say...

We have, however,  started using the Watermaker - and I have been finding a few small issues I need to adjust in the source around handoffs between generating and watermaker starting / stopping.  After I get it more ironed out (really in the corners here, the core operations works great) will post a revision to the Source.

And speaking of Watermaker:  I had an issue the other day where the pre-filters clogged up and caused the system to go out of operation range.  We noticed it when the single drive belt to the high pressure water pump started squealing.  Though I have played with the idea of 'automating' the watermaker (making it Push-the-button like the Generator), I have not - mostly due to complexity around physically controlling the valves.  But the event yesterday did get me thinking I will at least add pressure senders to both the High pressure and Pre-filter Boost pump, and monitor those for going out of range.  Am looking to do a warning (via the buzzer in the remote) if the values get into the 'yellow' range, and then FAULTING / cutting off the High pressure pump if the values go over a fault threshold.   For now, I just make sure to check the Watermaker every 20-30 minutes to see how it is doing....

And this is a LONG way from full automation, to get to that would need to add Flow sensors, as well as actuators for the valves.  That can wait, but I will feel much better once I have the controller at least monitoring the critical Watermaker pressures.






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