Wireless pump controls?
Wireless pump controls?
(OP)
I posted this question under water distribution and have not got a response yet, so I'll try it here. I would like some information on reliability and ease of use for a wireless pump control between a water tank and pumphouse. The small municipal communication system now is hardwired underground. Would like to update but I would like some more info, especially on reliability. Or maybe certain equipment to stay away from?





RE: Wireless pump controls?
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"
respectfully
RE: Wireless pump controls?
RE: Wireless pump controls?
RE: Wireless pump controls?
What signals are you trying to transfer between locations?
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Sometimes I only open my mouth to swap feet...
RE: Wireless pump controls?
He paid extra for high gain antennas at each end to ensure a very high fade margin.
They have a spare transmitter, receiver, and lightning arrestor installed as back-up. He (manually) switches them over during an annual outage.
He uses the 1 watt, license-free, industrial I/O wireless from Phoenix Contact.
It's like replacing wires. Dry contact input at the transmitter comes out as dry contact at the receiver.
4-20mA input comes out as 4-20mA.
Dan
RE: Wireless pump controls?
RE: Wireless pump controls?
One piece of advice if you are thinking about wireless. There is no substitute for a good radio path survey (unless you have completely clear line of site). We had several obstructions but none were a problem. We had to use one Yagi antenna but all other installations us omni antennas with so-so gain. In addition to doing a topographic map study we performed field testing on all links before installation.
In our particular installation we used a Modbus base radio that received the telemetry from the field radios and stored the data in a Modbus registry. A PLC then read the register and made the data accessible to the SCADA network.
RE: Wireless pump controls?
RE: Wireless pump controls?
RE: Wireless pump controls?
http://www.phoenixcon.com/wireless/
They offer several cool products, ranging from a "cordless wire" or some such for discrete contacts and 4-20 signals, to wireless transmission of digital signals. Depending on the antenna selected, they can go something like 2 miles as I recall. I believe I heard that their wireless controls are used for the traffic signals on the Brooklyn Bridge (although it's possible I'm confusing them with another vendor). I used their controls exactly one time, for a rather critical (high-profile, not high-cost nor life-safety) installation, it's been in operation for several years now with no problems to my knowledge. We chose Phoenix over other alternates such as cell phone and telephone land line, and have been very happy with that decision to date.
RE: Wireless pump controls?
The omnex controls mentioned in that thread are actually made by Phoenix.
RE: Wireless pump controls?
But, with hindsight, I might have deleted the "3rd-party" requirement -- I think Phoenix would have done a better job than the 3rd-party guy we got in there. Among other issues we had, we had specified that his reports indicate the exact antenna locations, but neither the contractor nor us design consultants ever received that documentation.
Maybe you could find someone better though. Good luck.
At the end of the day, none of this RF site survey stuff really mattered, they just stuck the antennas in a place that seemed to work. It would have made us all feel much better at the time, though.