Air Compressor Remote / SwitchClock

I have a loud air compressor in my basement. Lots of time I forget to turn it off, and the in the middle of the night the air pressure leaked enough so that it switches on. Another annoying thing is when I remember to turn it off, I need to walk to the compressor to turn it back on when I need it. Therefore I want to automate it a bit, with a controller / remote control.

What I want this system to do:

  • Switch off at 23h00, but it should not automaticity switch back on, for this it requires user input.
  • A remote control within reach of each air outlet.
  • Some sort of pressure readout at the air outlets.
  • A mode that turns the compressor on only once, so that it switches completely off again when the set pressure is reached.
  • To ensure safety all the above without touching the existing protections of the compressor.
  • Wired remote controls

 

For this I designed a pcb with a PIC microcontroller. With the long wires all inputs have individual filtering to prevent noise switching the compressor on or off. This made the pcb to be full of small components.

The board:

These board contains:

  • 7 RJ45 connections for the remote control boards
  • Compressor current measurement (to detect if the motor switched off)
  • Pressure sensor input (Is translated to red->green light on a RGB LEDs on the remotes)
  • LCD connection
  • Realtime clock
  • Button interface for menu
  • 12V power supply
  • Drive circuit for an external relays

Schematic:

For the remotes I made some boards that fit in a 3d printed piece designed to go in a Legrand dlp cable tray.

Schematic:

The controller board is build in an enclosure with transparent front:

Demonstration video:

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Firmware download: Compressor_Remote_FW_V1_0

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