Home automation system for controlling swimming pools and water plants in general

Abstract

The present invention relates to an automation system which allows remote control of a water plant, such as a swimming pool.

Description

TITLEHOME AUTOMATION SYSTEM FOR CONTROLLING SWIMMING POOLS ANDWATER PLANTS IN GENERALScope of the invention

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of management and control of water plants in general, such as water parks and / or swimming pools.

[0002] In particular, the invention relates to a fully automated home automation system capable of monitoring the plant in general and allowing a remote intervention when necessary, in a convenient and precise way.Brief outlines of prior art

[0003] It is known that water plants in general, such as water parks, swimming pools and the like, need many maintenance and control operations.

[0004] For example, water temperature must be checked and kept at the correct temperature value depending on the type of plant. If the plant is a professional swimming pool, water temperature must be suitable for competitors and / or athletes who train there. If the plant is a relax swimming pool or a water park, clearly water temperature must be different and probably much warmer.

[0005] Then it is known that many elements must be monitored and therefore not only temperature.

[0006] For example, it is necessary to sanitize water regularly, check its level, clean the pools, perform maintenance and cleaning operations of the filtering elements, intervene in the event of anomalies and prevent damages due to malfunctions of plants.

[0007] All these controls, at the current state of the art,are basically performed after a visual check, to then intervene on the specific machinery to activate / deactivate it.

[0008] For example, if emptying pumps must be activated, then it is necessary to intervene on the control panel of the pump to activate it.

[0009] In addition, many parameters (temperatures, filling level of the pool, etc.) must be currently detected individually and by staff in charge through a suitable tool.

[0010] Clearly, this makes management and monitoring of water plants a rather complex and time-consuming operation.

[0011] In addition, the publication US 2018 / 240322 is known in the specific technical field.Summary of the invention

[0012] Therefore, the aim of the present invention is to provide a remote-control system, which resolves at least partially said technical disadvantages.

[0013] In particular, the aim of the present invention is to provide a remote-control system which allows not only to monitor one or more parameters of the plant or of accessories relative to the plant but also allows, in a convenient way and remotely, activation of specific accessories in order to perform operations on the plant itself.

[0014] These and other aims are therefore achieved with the present control system (1, 2, 4) for remotely controlling, in a water plant, one or more plant-devices (3) relative to said plant, for example a pump and / or a heating system and / or a filtering system and / or a lighting plant and the like according to claim 1.

[0015] Said control system according to the invention, comprises:An electronic device (4, 5) equipped with video screen through which one or more pages are displayed for the control and / or command of a plant-device (3) which is operative in the ’water plant, for example a pump or another plant-device in general;A computer (1) communicating with said electronic device (4, 5) and further communicating with one or more input / output electronic boards (2) adapted to connect, each one, to at least one said device-plant (3) in such a way that a user, through the video screen, can remotely control one or more parameters relative to said plant-devices (3) or can give a remote command to one or more of the plantdevices (3) installed through the communication between the computer and the relative electronic board (2);A remote-control module (5) communicating with the computer (1) for allowing remote communication with said electronic device (4, 5).

[0016] In this way, all said afore-mentioned technical inconveniences are solved. In particular, now it is possible to remotely control the plant-devices (3) relative to a plant, for example a pump or a temperature or level control,

[0017] In any workstation an operator may conveniently and quickly control the status of the plant-devices (3), may be warned of malfunctioning, may activate and deactivate them.

[0018] For example, now a light plant may be conveniently activated remotely.

[0019] In the same way, a fault of the light plant is detected remotely.

[0020] Advantageously, the remote-control module allows a communication through the Internet.

[0021] Advantageously, the electronic device (4, 5) is a mobile telephone device on which one or more layout pagesare displayed for control / monitoring .

[0022] An object of the present invention is also the use of a system according to one or more of the previous features, for remotely controlling one or more plant-devices (3) of a water plant, for example a swimming pool or water P

[0023] An object of the present invention is also a method (1, 2, 4) for remotely controlling, in a water plant, one or more plant-devices (3) relative to said plant, for example a pump and / or a heating system and / or a lighting plant etc.

[0024] Said method comprises a remote connection, through a mobile device, with a computer (I) configured to control one or more of said plant-devices, in such a way as to display on the screen of said mobile device one or more electronic pages through which to display one or more parameters of said one or more plant-devices and / or through which to give one or more commands.

[0025] In this way, the operative status of the plantdevices (3) may be displayed, for example by displaying malfunctioning or simply by intervening on their simple activation / deactivation .

[0026] Adv antageously, the computer (1) is communicating with one or more input / output electronic boards (2) adapted to connect, each one, to at least one said device-plant (3) in such a way that a user, through said video screen, can remotely control one or more parameters and / or can give a remote command to a plant-device (3) through the communication between the computer and the relative electronic board (2 ) .Brief description of the drawings

[0027] Additional features and advantages of the presentsystem, according to the invention, will become more apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments thereof, given only by way of non-exhaustive example, with reference to the attached drawings, wherein:

[0028] Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of the system object of the invention;

[0029] Figures from 2 to 8 show some layout screenshots which are displayed on the screen of an electronic device, for example a PC or mobile telephone device, for remotely controlling the plant;

[0030] Figure 9 shows a I / O expansion board (base module):

[0031] Figure 10 and figure 11 show a I / O expansion board (relay module);

[0032] Figure 12 shows a single board for PC preferably of type Raspberry Pi 3;

[0033] Figure 13 shows an RTC-UPS board.Description of some preferred embodiments

[0034] In accordance with the invention, a control system for automation of hydraulic plants of swimming pools and water parks is described hereafter, based on functioning specifications which may vary depending on needs.

[0035] Therefore, the system provides a hardware part in combination with a software part in order to provide and supervise all necessary operations in a plant, such as:

[0036] Guaranteeing correct filtering of water (for example of swimming pools and / or water parks);

[0037] Performing automatic washing of the filters of the plant;

[0038] Managing the pumps of slides and other water games;

[0039] Lighting plants and many other features and functionalities which may vary from a structure to another.

[0040] The system is made up of a hardware part and anassembly of software components which interact with each other.

[0041] As shown in figure 1, the hardware part comprises one or more input / output boards 2 (also called I / O boards, that is Input / Output boards) communicating with a computer 1, also called PC 1, preferably with single board. The computer is equipped with touch screen display 4 and with said PC which executes the control logic and the user interface.

[0042] The two hardware components (i.e. said one or more I / O boards and the PC) communicate with each other through serial line RS485 and with the outer environment through ethernet connection, for example Internet.

[0043] These components may be housed for example inside the electric panel powering, protecting and controlling all components of the plant.

[0044] The main features of the achieved system are the following:MODULARITY

[0045] The whole system has been conceived to be expandible depending on needs:

[0046] This means that it is possible to install a variable number of input / output boards 2 depending on the number of plant-devices 3 to be controlled.

[0047] More specifically, as well highlighted in figure 1, each Input / Output board 2 (indicated in figure as I / O board) controls, each of them, a plant-device 3 relative to the plant (for example a pump, a filter and the like). The board may be remotely controlled through the PC 1, as better described below.

[0048] For this purpose, figure 1 shows in fact a remotecontrol module 5.

[0049] Therefore, the PC 1, preferably with single board,connects with the screen 4 preferably with HDMI / USB connection and, in its turn, the PC is connected to the boards 2 which it controls and through which it sends and receives data for example through the protocol RS485. The I / O boards communicate with plant-devices 3.

[0050] Then the whole system described may be remotely controlled through the Internet.REMOTE CONTROL:

[0051] The human machine interface for use and configuration of the system is constituted by an application suitably achieved with web technology, so that it can be displayed both on the touch screen display mounted on the panel and by any remote device equipped with web browser (for example a mobile phone device, a PC and the like). In this way, the user also has the possibility to monitor everything even remotely, as if s / he were physically in front of the panel installed in the technical room of the water park and, at the same time, to optimize development and maintenance times as much as possible.Customization and flexibility of programming: regarding the control logic of plants, the solution is based on the use of a computer with single board with Linux operating system. This computer, suitably configured and programmed, allows implementation of the control logic of every function required by a client through the language Python. Therefore, the control logic is preferably achieved through a program with Python language which manages communication with the input / output boards through serial line RS485. In the same way, the control logic allows performing necessary processing and makes data available to the HMI subsystem (human machine interface) by means of a MySql database and a communication technique between the processes on the same suitably designed machine, whichcommunication technique uses a network socket.

[0052] Going ahead with the description of the invention, the control and management home automation system allows automation and supervision (both locally and remotely) of different operations and functionalities of the plant. In particular, through a suitable web interface, the different sections of the plant may be accessed, as shown in figure 2.

[0053] After registration with possible access with credentials, one accesses the web interface which may be accessible both by the mobile device (for example a mobile telephone device) and by PC or another similar device.

[0054] The screenshots shown in the figures obviously are only by way of non-limiting example.

[0055] Once logged in, as indicated in figure 2, a main page is accessed in which a short summary of the plant status and the situation of alarms are shown. The case shown in figure 2 immediately shows that the plant is filtering and that some alarms are present. By pushing the button "Pool management" the main menu is accessed, shown in the rightmost figure. In the example, the current level of the compensation tank and other information regarding the current status of the plant are shown.

[0056] Information shown summarizes the current status of different devices, the current working step (washing, counter-washing, rinse, filtering) and the occurred last washing date of the filters.

[0057] For example, the screenshot 10 shows the access page with password which allows access to the screenshot 11 and to the screenshot 12 which allow the subsequent specific control of one or more devices.

[0058] As shown in the subsequent figures, for example by clicking on the button "Plant management", it is possibleto define all parameters concerning filtering and washing of filters.

[0059] The controls shown in figures 4 and 5 allow setting of the general status of the plant, by acting on the switch "Status of filtering and washing of filters". If this switch is set to "auto", washing of filters will be performed with the parameters set below and at the preset time on the enabled days. In addition, filtering will be activated based on daily hours set by means of the button "filtering hours". Moreover, different time slots may be set for each day, during which filtering must be activated. As many time slots as needed may be added, and the times already set for each time slot may be modified.LIGHTING CONTROL:

[0060] The system object of the invention allows management of lighting.

[0061] As shown in figure 6, by clicking on the button "Lighting" on the main menu, the management page of lights of the swimming pool is accessed. This page may vary based on the actual features of the plant. In the case shown in figure 6, different games and preset lighting scenarios may be selected, their intensity may be adjusted, they can be switched on and off manually or time slots of the different weekdays when lights must be switched on may be defined, similarly to the time slots relative to filtering.HEATING:

[0062] As shown in figure 7, the section "Heating" allows seeing the water temperature of the plant (for example a swimming pool) and setting its desired value. This page may also vary depending on specifications of the plant. In the case shown in the example of figure 7, three heating pumps are provided which work together but they may individually be disabled or enabled. Obviously, the described system maymanage any number of pumps.MANAGEMENT OF ALARMS:

[0063] At any time, the alarm situation of the plant may be seen on the home page. An alarm may be due to a malfunction of a device (for example a faulty pump or a malfunctioning valve of the filters), or it may be relative to a too slow level of the compensation tank, to the absence of compressed air for controlling pneumatic valves, etc. Upon occurrence of one of the possible anomalies, the system is automatically brought to a reset and safety condition. For example, if a pump is faulty, its operation is excluded and filtering will be still performed by using any extra pump. If instead a fault occurs in the compressed air system or a pneumatic valve does not operate correctly, the whole plant is stopped and the pumps are deactivated. A red light on the panel and a system sending emails automatically will notify the technician to intervene in order to restore correct functioning of the plant (see for example figure 8). Therefore, the described system shows an anomaly and informs accordingly.Control of other devices

[0064] The described system may be broadened for commanding (both manually and on time slots) other devices, for example pumps for games and slides, blowers for whirlpools, etc.

[0065] Description of input / output expansion boards

[0066] Acquiring the statuses of the different devices by means of input signals and the command of the various actuators (motors, pumps, pneumatic valves, etc.) is managed by the input / output boards (figure 1 - component 2) suitably designed and communicating with the control system in the computer with single board through MODBUS protocol on serial line RS485. Expansion boards are designed modularly, so thatvolumes may be optimized in the electrical control panel and it may be chosen whether to use only the input module or also add output modules with relay may be chosen depending on needs.I / O expansion board (base module)

[0067] The base module (see figure 9) is made up of an electronic board with microcontroller, capable of managing 20 digital opto-isolated inputs, 4 analogical inputs and 20 digital outputs present in the additional module (named "relay module"), which may be installed in the base module through connectors from boards to boards (see figure 11). The firmware of the "base module" board, preferably written in C language, manages reading of digital inputs through filtering of any disturbances and other techniques to manage delayed or temporized signals. In addition, it manages filtration and reading of the analogic inputs for reading temperature sensors or level probes and of driving relays of the module installed (see figure 10).I / O expansion board (relay module)

[0068] The "relay module" (fig. 10) allows providing the base board (fig. 9) with 20 clean contacts normally open to control the same amount of output devices such as contactors, solenoid valves, coils, etc. The relay module has been conceived as a separate board in order to reduce volume and to be able to equip the base module with output contacts only if they are necessary.

[0069] The base module and the relay module may be assembled together as shown in the image of figure 11, in order to have a device completed with expansion of the system equipped with 20 digital inputs, 20 digital outputs with clean contact and 4 analogic inputs.Computer with single board and power board, supervision and RTC

[0070] As initially described, the whole control logic of the plant is made by means of software written in Python language executed on an SBC (Single Board Computer), operating in Linux environment. The chosen device is Raspberry Pi 3, whose features are shown below:Configuration of software and operating system:

[0071] The computer shown in figure 1 has been configured in order to be able to perform control operations reliably without the need for intervention by the user, like a common traditional PLC. The operative base system is derived from Linux Debian and has been relieved of all unnecessary packages and the following components have been added:- Web Server Apache;- Database MySQL engine;- PHP interpreter;- wireguard to create VPN necessary for remote access;- Browser web Chromium in kiosk mode;Python script for managing power and monitoring reliability by means of the suitably designed power boardRTC-UPS;- support for external RTC;- Python3 environment with installation of all necessary libraries for executing the PyPLC software which implements the control logic of the plant.Supervision, feeding and real time clock board for computer with single board (RTC-UPS board)

[0072] However, the use of the computer with single board Raspberry Pi 3 B+ described in the previous paragraph required many precautions in order to achieve a reliable system. In fact, the SBC computer has some features which makes it unsuitable per se for use in an automation plant because of the following limitations:

[0073] Risk of damaging the file system in the event of lack of power: like any computer, in case of power failure, switching off the computer suddenly may cause a damage of the file system stored in the flash memory caused by corruption of present data. In order to avoid this, the system must be correctly shut down before switching off power. Raspberry Pi computer does not own this feature and therefore a suitable board had to be designed to manage any blackout, through a buffer battery and script system for executing clean shutdown according to the supervision board.

[0074] Lack of RCT real time clock: Raspberry Pi does not own an RCT circuit (real time clock) inside it, and therefore it cannot keep current data and time without power. This circuit has been included in the supervision board (RTCUPS) in order to equip the computer with its own inner clock real time, maintained by a buffer battery CR2032.Lack of "watchdog" device, i.e. of supervision of correct execution of the software and restart of the system in the event of malfunction of the software itself:

[0075] In order to make the computer with single boardreliable, an essential "watchdog" mechanism of the system must be at disposal. This precaution allows restart of the whole system in the event of malfunction or block of the control software made in Python.Description of the RTC-UPS board

[0076] The board named RTC-UPS is a board based on the microcontroller atmega328P and interfaced with the Raspberry Pi computer through the port GPIO of the computer itself. The main function of this board is providing power at +5V both to the computer and to the touch screen display, starting from 24 VDC power supplied by the electrical panel. The board RTC-UPS is also connected to a lead buffer batter 12V 2 Ah, kept charging by the board itself. In conditions of regular functioning, the RTC-UPS board provides power to the computer and receives a signal from it called "heartBeat", constituted by a square wave at about 1 Hz indicating that the software is regularly running on the computer. If a block on the control software occurs, then the default of this recurring signal informs the RTC-UPS board of the need for restarting the computer. It communicates the need for a restart to the Raspberry Pi through a pin GPIO; a service being executed in background in the computer monitors this event and restarts the system.

[0077] The same procedure is used for "clean" shutoff of the computer in the event of lack of power: in the event of blackout, in fact, the RTC-UPS board remains powered by the buffer battery and keeps providing power to the computer. However, the lack of power is detected by the microcontroller of the board which activates the signal on pin GPIO of the computer which will be detected by the background service which will provide the correct system shutdown. The RTC-UPS board has been designed to be inserted directly into the GPIO connector of the computer with singleboard, through which it provides power and all control signals:

[0078] Definitive control panel of the plant, comprising the whole system: the described system is housed inside an electrical panel, capable of managing all power devices of the plant, with the relative management and protection circuits. The expansion electronic boards are mounted on DIN guide on the bottom plate of the board, while the computer on which the control logic is being executed, is mounted on the back of the touch screen display, installed in the suitable window made in the board door.

[0079] Therefore, as already mentioned, the central control unit has been achieved through a computer with single board based on the "Linux" operating system, instead of a traditional PLC. This required design and production of all hardware and software components capable of guaranteeing reliability of the computer as if it were a PLC. Specifically, the power and supervision board of the computer has been produced, which provides adjusted and stabilized power and supervises functioning of the computer and the occurrence of electrical blackout of the mains power supply. This guarantees a controlled system shutdown in the event of blackout and subsequent restart, it monitors the correct functioning of the computer, restarting it in the event of software malfunctions (watchdog function) and maintaining date and time through a RTC clock. The innovation brought by the system to the control of plants treating water of swimming pools concerns, among other things, as already indicated above, automation of management of filters in the different working steps (filtering, counter-washing, rinse, drain), as well as monitoring many analogic and digital sensors, from which there is the need for managing many signals in input (sometimes more than ahundred) and almost the half of signals in output. The use of standard solutions with PLC would have required the use of many input output modules, with the consequent increase of costs and volume. The achieved solution provides, as already indicated above, the use of a variable number of modular input / output expansion board depending on needs and connected with the main computer, for example, through bus RS-485, thus guaranteeing design flexibility, decrease of costs and volume.

[0080] In addition, it is to be further noted that the use of a Linux PC allows the addition of software components and a new program code without size bonds linked to the storage space and RAM memory, thus allowing any possibility of future expansion.

[0081] In addition, the computer with single board with the Linux operating system may gather inside it both functionalities of plant controller (being connected with expansion boards) and of the server component which manages the remote control of the plant.

[0082] This allowed producing a single human machine interface (HMI) for control of the plant, which may be used both locally through touch screen on the panel, and remotely through a traditional web browser.

[0083] This solution has been made possible thanks to the use of a browser on board the control computer which by opening in "kiosk" mode on the touch screen of the control panel reproduces the same web page visible in a remote PC. This solution allows remarkable development time saving given that a single HMI interface is necessary for both uses.

[0084] The software made for controlling plants, written in Python language, and the HMI interface written in HTML, PHP and Javascript, make the system fully self-configurable, that is capable of adjusting the low-level control modulesand the HMI interface to any plant built using standard components provided by the control system, although with variable number. This means remarkable saving of time and resources because the control system and the graphic interface of each plant may be achieved by modifying a description file of it, configuring the number, type and enabling of different standard components, without the need for resorting to ad hoc software and graphic developments for each produced plant.

Claims

CLAIMSA control system (1, 2, 4) for remotely controlling, in a water plant, one or more plant■■■devices (3) relative to said plant, for example a pump and / or a heating system and / or a lighting system, said control system comprising:An electronic device (4, 5) equipped with video screen through which one or more pages are displayed for the control and / or command of one or more plantdevices (3);A computer (1) communicating with said electronic device (4, 5) and communicating with one or more input / output electronic boards (2) adapted to connect, each one, to at least one said device-plant (3) in such a way that a user, through the video screen, can remotely control one or more parameters or can give a remote command to one or more of said plant-devices (3) through the communication between the computer and the relative electronic board (2);A remote-control module (5) communicating with the computer (1) for allowing remote communication with said electronic device (4, 5).

2. The control system (1, 2, 4), according to claim 1, wherein the remote-control module allows a communication through the internet.

3. The control system (1, 2, 4) according to claim 1 or2, wherein the electronic device (4, 5) is a mobile telephone device on which one or more layout pages are displayed for control.

4. The system, according to one or more of the previous claims, wherein the computer (1) is a single-board computer.

5. The system, according to claim 4, wherein the computer has a Linux operating system.

6. The system, according to one or more of the previous claims, wherein the communication between the computer (1) and the one or more electronic boards (2) is with RS485 protocol.

7. The use of a system according to one or more of the previous claims for remotely controlling one or more plant-devices (3) of a water plant, for example a swimming pool or a water park.

8. A method (1, 2, 4) for remotely controlling, in a water- plant, one or more plant-devices (3) relative to said plant, for example a pump and / or a heating system and / or a lighting system, said method comprising a remote connection, through a mobile device, with a computer (1) configured to control one or more of said plant-devices, in such a way as to display on the screen of said mobile device one or more electronic pages through which to display one or more parameters of said one or more plant-devices and / or through which to give one or more cormands.

9. The method, according to claim 8, wherein the computer(1) is communicating with one or more input / output electronic boards (2) each one adapted to connect to at least one said device-plant (3) in such a way thata user, through said video screen, can remotely control one or more parameters or can give a remote command to a device-plant through the communication between the computer and the relative electronic board (2).

10. The method, according to claim 8 or 9, for controlling one or more parameters of the following ones:Temperature;Lighting;Activation / deactivation of pumps.

11. The method, according to one or more of the previous claims, wherein the remote connection occurs through the internet.

Images