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1ronman

Jul 22, 2014
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Hello all I have been stumped with a question from a good friend he is trying to make a timer to control a pumping system he has sent me a drawing of what he wants but I am rubbish with circuits so I said I will find out for him I have attached the pic to this any ideas will be greatly appreciated.
 

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(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Jan 21, 2010
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Well, that's an inadequate explanation, but you would probably need a microcontroller to do it.

He could investigate an arduino and some sort of LCD "shield". All he then needs is good specifications and time and skill to program it (plus more electronics to power the thing and switch whatever needs switching.
 

KrisBlueNZ

Sadly passed away in 2015
Nov 28, 2011
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This would need a microcontroller, which would need to be programmed. If your friend can't find an off-the-shelf product and wants a product developed from scratch, he would be looking at a significant development cost. If he can make do with something simpler, with a simple rotary control (potentiometer) to set the pumping interval, you could look into 555 timer circuits. It's not hard to make a 555 produce a pulse, with an adjustable period between pulses. Google is your friend.
 

Ehsan

Jun 12, 2014
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It's very easy project, Is it a homework ?

As the moderators have said,it can be easily done by a u-controller.
 

KrisBlueNZ

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It's very easy project
For you and me, sure. To someone with no electronics or programming experience, which is 1ronman's situation, that comment is not helpful at all; it just makes you look like a show-off.

Perhaps you would like to offer to design, program, and build this very easy project. How much would you charge?
 

Gryd3

Jun 25, 2014
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I try to look at 'difficult' situations as being easy, but time consuming.
I would not be able to whip together a project like this in an hour like some of the guys on here, but I know enough to know where to start.
1ronman, is this something you want to tackle and learn about, or are you hunting for a finished circuit/firmware that you can use?
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Jan 21, 2010
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25,510
It's the sort of thing which requires some dedication to the task to complete. We've guided a person who thought they could solve a problem with a few switches and lightbulbs to a microcontroller state-machine based application with interfaces to other microcontrollers.

That guy had a lot to learn, but ended up with a solution he could customise by himself.

It wasn't fast, and it wasn't painless for him.

Whether this problem is simpler or harder is difficult to judge in absolute terms. However with effort and assistance, even hard problems can be solved.

My comment about the explanation being inadequate reflects me thinking down the track.

For instance
  • Does changing the flow rate reset the timer, if not how is the time remaining affected (does it actually use the time since the last pump event?)
  • What is the duration of each pump event? Is this time included in the countdown to the next event, or is the timer suspended until the end of the pump event?
  • What is the load being switched?
  • What is the power supply?
  • Where will this be mounted (weatherproofing requirements)?
  • Does the device need to retain the last setting when powered off, if not, what is the state on power on?
These are the sort of questions you need to investigate (and there are probably others) before you go too much further.
 

Ehsan

Jun 12, 2014
100
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For you and me, sure. To someone with no electronics or programming experience, which is 1ronman's situation, that comment is not helpful at all; it just makes you look like a show-off.

In a Math class we might have only one or two 'A' students, a few 'A-' students, maybe some 'B+' , and surely lots of 'C' and myriads of 'F'.

If you set up an one to one session after the final exam with the students enrolled in that Math class, and ask about the quality of the exam, they won't answer the same. The 'A' students say the exam was very easy, and the 'F' students say that the exam was though, and keep complaining about almost everything.

The 'A' student does not show off. He/She just simply states his/her own perception regarding the quality of the exam.

I don't want to get deep into a philosophical debate on the topic of 'boastfulness', but in my opinion the world has enough slaves and zillions of humble people. What the world lacking is knowledgeable boastful people with enough courage to show off! ( This command : "be humble" has originated from some specific religions, but I really don't want to dig into such controversial topic. I am just not religious :-D )

So even if my intention was to show off, I am still doing OK!

The OP has stated that his friend has forwarded a drawing to him, asking him to make the circuit. Either his friend is out of his mind to send such a task (LCD, push buttons and I/O, controlling, etc... ) to a guy who is rubbish with circuits (which I doubt that's the case) or the OP just following the manner of being humble and tries to tell us that he is not that much good with electronics, but his knowledge is ok to accomplish such a task.

I assumed the second case is true, and I told him that It's easy, don't afraid, just use a micro-controller.

Perhaps you would like to offer to design, program, and build this very easy project. How much would you charge?

If the OP asks this question I will start estimating the time I need to spend on this project and I will offer a price (that's of course when I am sure that he is serious to hand me the project). But in this case I won't bother estimating the price of things.

Ehsan.
 
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