Hi,
May I ask suggestions, recommendations, options for PLC operated domestic water booster / storm pit / sewage pit / sump pit and similar set ups commonly found in the plumbing trades? Looking for minimalism ie: controlling 2 pumps that alternate run times on clock timers with inputs such as 4 floats set up (for sewage pit) pumps or for domestic water booster, 4 pressure switch inputs: ( low suction shut down/ low pressure turn on system pressure made/ and high pressure shut down)? Btw can modern analog pressure sensors handle more than one function..for example could one suction pressure sensor be tasked to trigger low pressure signal and also trigger a low shut down pressure? Could one sensor trigger for events such as low suction emergency shut down, low system prssure, system pressure and high pressure emergency shut down all in one sensor?
Has technology evolved that these basic functions can be done with smart relays? Or Arduino even? Can a basic Teco smart relay handle these basic type of operations? Most of the electrical supplied at these locations would be 3 phase 480 in the scenarios I'm thinking about. There are a lot of packaged systems out there that run $25k and up but

 

Even high end pressure transmitters typically do not have discrete output(s). Logic is typically done in the controller, not in the field device. Supposedly Foundation Fieldbus protocol could digitally talk to another output device on the same FF bus and give it an open or closed command, but one does encounter FF in commercial operations, only heavy industry controlled by DCS (distributed control system).

The multiple trigger events deserve a discrete for each event, not a common output.

Instrumentation and controllers commonly use a instrument transformer to reduce the AC voltage for the PLC and for a DC power supply that can run the instrumentation.

The last waste water treatment plant I was in was running a Precision Digital Consolidator Plus as a combination controller and HMI, which would do all the functions you listed, with industrial grade AI's and electromechanical relay DO's.

 

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience. I've noticed consistently whether it being a domestic water booster system or pumping out sewage/storm/sump pits that a common theme is alternating wear/hours of run time on 2 or 3 pump systems with the difference being the inputs ie floats or pressure switches. I would imagine on a campus setting with upwards of 20 or 40 separate buildings that aligning all of these systems with a single, simple, easy to troubleshoot cheap and basic PLC set up would be optimal. I noticed plenty of sophisticated, complex packaged systems that sound great but require a contractor to be called in to troubleshoot minor glitches. Meanwhile lots of older systems continue to press on, switching pumps every 12 hours on an analog timer and coming to rest only when pressure is made. These require common sense to troubleshoot and are reliable through the decades. Any examples of simple effective PLC based low cost systems that would allow upgrading to newer more accurate inputs such as analog pressure switches or plc based timers that can take over/replace exsisting older systems?

 

I noticed a Wise-7102 is one potential option for the above purposes but is there a link to a demonstration where it is being used as a storm/sewer pump down station controller?