IOT on HVAC-R

[Psicool]

Hello fellow professionals. I am an industrial refrigeration technician and automation engineer working on a company. I currently reside in Brazil and I created an IOT product for refrigeration equipment in general. It collects data from equipment in real time and sends it to a server where an AI analyzes the data and based on the experience it has created, issues a fault diagnosis. Currently it has been working well in split, self and rooftop equipment. And now I want to move it to chillers, which creates a new scenario for me in which chillers have more complex behaviors and a variety of equipment configurations. Whoever is interested in the project and wants to discuss it or likes IOT I am open to hear tips and criticisms.

Big hug to all.

Data on the project:

Resume:


The hardware monitors variables such as temperature, current and voltage of the equipment, sends the data over the internet (WIFI) where the AI ​​issues a diagnosis with 80% accuracy and 7 days in advance through a mobile APP.

How long to install: 3 hours on average

How many sensors: 7

Consume of data: 1mb hour.

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[knighty]

ok... I know this is a spam thread....

but if anyone is interested in this stuff just ask some questions, I'm running an esp32 board (same family as the picture above) and have 20 temp sensors connected to it reporting back via wifi

I'm about to add current and power sensors to it

pressure sensors look easy but I don't think I'll bother



board plus temp sensors set me back about £20

[Brian_UK]

That looks like a useful piece of kit and at that price it's got to be worth a try.

Edit: not actually designed as a spam thread but our Josip got hacked and was being used by some oik from far off lands.

[al]

no brainer at that price @knighty, fair play to you for getting it set up. Would you have any guidance/advice for someone not too proficient with this stuff for doing what you have put together?

[knighty]

I bought some ESP32 boards like these...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304561797507

temperature sensors like these...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111434870374

and isolation boards like these
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/362990277340

easier than me writing it up, here's an online guide

https://randomnerdtutorials.com/esp8266-ds18b20-temperature-sensor-web-server-with-arduino-ide/

I haven't added the mains power boards yet, I'll come back and update tis when I have

the temperature sensors are really cool, they have a chip in them which can talk to the ESP32 board, so you wire all the temp sensors in parallel.... negative wire, 5v wire (to the 5v on the board) and a daa wire (all data wires joined together)

[Rob White]

I bought some ESP32 boards like these...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304561797507

temperature sensors like these...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111434870374

and isolation boards like these
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/362990277340

easier than me writing it up, here's an online guide

https://randomnerdtutorials.com/esp8266-ds18b20-temperature-sensor-web-server-with-arduino-ide/

I haven't added the mains power boards yet, I'll come back and update tis when I have

the temperature sensors are really cool, they have a chip in them which can talk to the ESP32 board, so you wire all the temp sensors in parallel.... negative wire, 5v wire (to the 5v on the board) and a daa wire (all data wires joined together)

.

Very interesting.

Whats the legality of putting all the bits together in a functional box and selling as a unit?
Would you be allowed because of licences or other patenting requirements.

Could the monitor be converted to a controller?

Rob

.

[knighty]

Very interesting.
Whats the legality of putting all the bits together in a functional box and selling as a unit?
Would you be allowed because of licences or other patenting requirements.
Could the monitor be converted to a controller?
Rob


it's all open source, so you can do (pretty much) whatever you like with it

lots of the expensive systems that you see are based on the same board and sensors

there's loads of options for the controller boards... they can do all sorts, and they're used in all sorts of things already - I have LED colour changing bulbs which are based on the same system

[knighty]

bit of an odd one here.... I'm setup reading evap temp, air in temp and air out temp...

but there's hardly any difference between air in and out temp?

one freezer right now says...

-20.9'C evap temp
-15.1'C air in temp
-15.3'C air out temp

used as a blast freezer so -20evap and -15 air in sounds about right to me?

am I using the wrong type of temp sensors? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111434870374


I'll pull all 3 temp sensors and drop them into a cup of water to calibrate them, make sure they're all reading right.... but I had 10 running on the bench and they were all within 0.5'C on the bench - I took that as fine because they were spread out a bit etc..

there's plenty of evap airflow there

condenser is tossing out plenty of heat

[al]

If it's a blast freezer, small compartment? If so may need warm product in place to see wider delta T

[knighty]

box is the box from the back of a truck, 27ft long 8ft wide, about 8ft high

evaps are standard freezer evaps - calling it a blast freezer is using a bit of poetic licence :-o

it's nice to see graphs of what's going on.... here's air on / evap / air off temp probes for 2 boxes yesterday

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one freezer made it down to set point so you can see it cycle on and off, other one never got that low


I think my evap probs are badly places... too close to the incoming air so that's throwing the reading off?


I need to add an extra temp prob at the other end of the box to use as room temp - or at least a probe somewhere out of the airflow


graphs/numbers etc/ will really help me trouble shoot problems in the future and find them before they cause trouble

colour changing bulb is up and running.... but different shades of blue are too hard to tell apart... I'll change it to stick with full colours and change colour instead, so red/yellow/orange/blue/green

[seanf]

Any ice on the evap coil? front face, back face, inside the coil.
All the fans running, and blowing air in the right direction?
Suction superheat ok?

[knighty]

everything is running great, good airflow, no ice build up

just the evap probs are reading too high, I think they're too far on the incoming air side, so that incoming air is throwing the reading off

it doesn't really matter, I'll push them in a bit further, they're only for a rough guide

could always fix them to the a coper pipe at the end of the evap instead

[frank]

How do your temp readings compare to a normal thermometer reading ?