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EZY Switch products in North America.
Tank and Reservoir Level Control
Because of the extended distances involved, a hard-wired system is either too costly or impossible to install. Wireless RF communication systems can be used to control the pumps, but they have limited range and depend on line-of-sight access to the remote station.
The solution, where cellular service is available, is to use SMS messaging for control system communications. This creates a small-scale SCADA system which uses the massive infrastructure of the cellular provider as a low-cost vehicle for effective and reliable communication.
The EZY Switch Tank and Reservoir Level Control System is a neural network that allows a central control module, monitoring the tank level, to communicate simultaneously with one or multiple remotely located pumping station control modules via SMS messaging. For level control, this design means that all well pumps feeding the tank or reservoir will begin pumping when a single SMS message is transmitted and received at their location. Pumping will continue until the tank is full and a second SMS “stop” message is sent and received.
A fail-safe feature is built into the system to avoid overfilling the tank in the event of a communication failure. The master control node at the tank sends out a refresh SMS message every 12 minutes. If the pump controller has not received the refresh within 15 minutes, internal logic will turn the pump off. In the event of a system fault, in the worst case, the pump can only over run for 15 minutes.
The water level in tanks and reservoirs is often maintained from wells located thousands of feet and sometimes miles away. The level sensor is generally a float switch with a contact closure to signal low and high water or an analog device such as a resistive or pressure sensor. The challenge for the level control system in this widely dispersed geography is to start and stop remotely located well-head pump(s).
