IOLinc to warn when condensate pump full

[tome]

I recently had a leak detector alert me when one of my condensate pumps failed (yay!).  The new pump has a safety switch on it (pump was cheaper on Amazon with the switch than without).  It is a relay that is closed during normal operation though I could rewire to be open if need be.  If the pump fails to evacuate the tank for some reason a float will rise and open the relay.  I figured I can use that with an IOLinc to send me an alert BEFORE the overflow rather than waiting on my leak sensors to alert me after there is water on the floor.  Do I connect the NC relay to the GND and Sense terminals on the IOLinc?  

-Tom

[stusviews]

Yes, that's correct. But, you may want to change that to NO contacts so an indicator turns on if the pump fails.

[tome]

Yes, that's correct. But, you may want to change that to NO contacts so an indicator turns on if the pump fails.

Thanks Stu.  Is there a way (other than using the NO contacts) to reverse the behavior of the indicator?  I would like to have the indicator come on with pump failure, but more importantly, I want the result of a relay failure to send me a message.  Using the NO contacts, if the relay itself fails, I may not get notified....

-Tom

[stusviews]

You can use the NC contacts if you enable Trigger Reverse on the I/O Linc. Unfortunately, there's been a number of posts indicating that the nightly query reverses the reverse condition (i.e., disables Trigger Reverse).  But I agree, having NC contacts is a better way to create a notification if the pump fails.

 

Do you have a link to the pump manual? I'd like to know a lot more before I suggest a possible solution.

[tome]

You can use the NC contacts if you enable Trigger Reverse on the I/O Linc. Unfortunately, there's been a number of posts indicating that the nightly query reverses the reverse condition (i.e., disables Trigger Reverse).  But I agree, having NC contacts is a better way to create a notification if the pump fails.

 

Do you have a link to the pump manual? I'd like to know a lot more before I suggest a possible solution.

 

This is the manual: http://littlegiant.com/media/131846/998086_VCMA-Series.pdf

It's a VCMA-20 I believe.

-Tom

[stusviews]

It seems that you would connect the NO contacts to the I/O Linc. According to the manual, then NC contacts are for a closed circuit alarm, that is, the alarm is set off if the circuit is interrupted (open).

[tome]

It seems that you would connect the NO contacts to the I/O Linc. According to the manual, then NC contacts are for a closed circuit alarm, that is, the alarm is set off if the circuit is interrupted (open).

 

As it says in the manual for the condensate pump, it comes from the factory wired to COM and NO.   What this means in practice is that when the pump is NOT overflowing (ie, the way it should be operating most of the time) COM and NO are a closed circuit.  Apparently Little Giant's interpretation of "normal" is when the pump is overflowing  .  So this means that the other contacts (NC) are actually open typically and they close when the pump overflows.

 

In spite of that, and as you suggest, I connected the wires from COM/NO to the IOLinc.  This causes the LED on the IOLinc to light and I am getting IOLinc-Sensor == On in the ISY.   The program to alert me when the pump overflows can be written either way, so I don't really care.  The LED on the IOLinc is on all the time (good condition) and off if the pump overflows (bad condition), and really that too is fine.  Green is good, off is bad - I can probably remember that and the real alert is the text i'll get anyway, not the LED.

 

Now to write my program...

 

-Tom

[tome]

So if I simply have:

If
     Status 'CondensateIOLinc-Sensor' is Off

Then
     Send Notification to 'sms' content 'Condensate Pump Problem'

Else
     - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

Will this work?  If the pump overflows and the -Sensor signals Off will I get notified?  It seems to work fine if I trigger it by hand....

[stusviews]

Looks good. Wire it up, turn the pump on and off once or twice (with a lull). If the notification is reversed you have two ways to correct it

[tome]

Looks good. Wire it up, turn the pump on and off once or twice (with a lull). If the notification is reversed you have two ways to correct it

It seems to work fine.

Thanks for your help.

-Tom