Sewage pump controller

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Couple of times my basement had suffered from ... well... sewage overflow due to different breaks in sewage pump. That's nasty and this must be terminated.

In Github there's full description of the project, including:

  • Pictures;
  • Hardware design;
  • ESP8266 code;
  • Node-RED code;
  • Installation instructions.

The controller monitors the water level and the pump work. If something goes wrong (water too high, pump is broken) it takes some actions (when applicable) and reports to MQTT broker.

Thoughts for improvement are welcome.
Hope this will save someone else the serious renovation...

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Cool project. Thanks for sharing. Not a problem that I have thankfully but the principles are applicable elsewhere as well. Particularly the point about one of the sensors being susceptible to interference.

One other point that I'd mention that a lot of people overlook is that the ESP8266 devices are prone to crashing and/or losing WiFi connections. Not sure how good Homie is at handling that now - I'm using ESPeasy and that sometimes still has issues.

To get round those issues, I tend to try and build restarts into the ESP8266 code - using network checks for example and rebooting the device once it fails to have a connection for a while. But also, I configure MQTT LWT's for every device and use a flow in Node-RED that monitors for the device going offline, I then get a warning over Telegram. I can also see the status and last update timestamp in my home dashboard.

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Thank you for your words, Julian.
Indeed, firmware stability was the boldest reason why I switch all my projects from ESPeasy (or Espurna or Tasmota) to Homie. Another significant reason was ease-of-customization. Plus a gazillion of minor reasons. :slight_smile:

For the fair word, Tasmota is closing the gap with ESPeasy by adding local rules, keeping good stability.

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Thanks. I've used all of them. I was finding Homie too complex, ESPeasy gives me config rather than code - I'm being lazy! I need to go back and look at Tasmota again. I use it for SONOF devices but I haven't updated any of them for ages.

I also have a custom code build that I use on 1 device which is very reliable but it is hard to extend as it has no OTA update.

I will take another look at Tasmota when I get a chance.