unique ballast switch question

[scott_fx]

Hey guys,

I'm currently designing a custom touch panel interface for my ballest system. i was thinking; to free up some real estate, that i would have a universal 'fill' and 'empty' button and then individual 'off' buttons. I dont plan on using the ballast for anything but wakeboarding. do you guys see any issues with setting it up like this?

basically:

main fill button turns on all fill pumps
then three 'off' buttons that will allow me to shut off each bag's pumps individually (one button would interrupt both fill and empty pump's electrical circuit)
then a nother button that will turn on all of the empty pumps.

[ridininmd]

so you want 8 buttons? why not just use 3 3-way switches? fill-off-empty

[scott_fx]

it would be five buttons.

one main fill
one main empty
ome port side off (controls both pumps on that bag)
one starboard side off (controls both pumps on that bag)
one ski locker side off (controls both pumps on that bag)


it dont think of it as a penel of switches. think of it as a flat panel that has a graphic of a boat drawn on it (backlit) with led's. there is a 'fill' icon as well as an 'empty' icon (to turn on the appropriate set of pumps) off to the left. then on the graphic of the boat (simple top down) there would be another icon at each of the bag locations where you'd just touch the icon and it would shut down the pump on that bag.


i figured out how to do it with a q-prox capacitance ic a simple regulated power supply and a bunch of latching relays.

think of a panel like this:


as for why... well i'm a huge geek and i think this would be pretty cool. i know 3 simple spdt switches would work just fine... but it wont be as cool

also the simple circuit that i have worked out in my head would allow people to use 5 push button momentery switches to duplicate the same functionality if they so wanted to. they could do something similar w/o having to dive into the q-prox ic's.

[scott_fx]

so i dropped the idea for an even cooler controller. I have the project spec'd out and for some of you it could be a relatively inexpensive way to incorperate a touch panel ballast controller into your boat.

[Cyclonecj]

It would be easier to do controls with a PIC microprocessor, I'm planning on "reprogramming" my factory soft switches and LED indicators to control the factory two tanks and three other sacks. I will make a board with a PIC processor and inputs and relay outputs that will replace my factory one that has limited capability. I will also make it make a one second output to open and close a gate valve. I haven't heard of the IC for the touch screen you mention, sounds interesting.

[scott_fx]

yeah, i scrapped that idea in favor for possibly integrating an ipod touch to control everything. i have the hardware all planned out, i just need help with a simple app now

[Cyclonecj]

I'm still doing the pic thingy, I looked at an Ipod touch app but it's too quirky for me to learn to program to their specs. I would really like to do a touch screen and rs232 out to a relay board, I might try a handheld with a windows app I can do in VB. Def not as sexy as the wireless Itouch, good luck man!

[scott_fx]

one thing i realized with the setup. you can just use 'bookmarks' and have those as buttons on the iphone on a seperate page that will control the relays. this will remove any need to write an iphone app.

[Cyclonecj]

Wow, that's interesting. I'll put my kid on it, he has some experience with Ipod apps.


What did you have to hack in the firmware of the router? I'm curious how it interfaces with the ethernet relay module.

[scott_fx]

i didnt do the hack but basically; from my understanding you just have to install dd-wrt (i think... i have no idea when it comes to networking) the interface to the board is via webpage.

if you are interested i would probably sell my whole setup.