Wireless Start for Water Pump on my Farm

[Tristar]

Dear All,

Situation - I am located out of India and our farm is almost 1.5 kilometers away from the river, where our water pump is located. Everytime we need to start or shut down the pump for irrigation, our farm assistant need to walk over to the river (since route is not motorable). One option is obviously to put copper cable line and the switch on our farm and thus save us from walking.

Query - But is it possible to have a wireless switch in place of wiring, something that can operate over 1.5 kms.

Please let me know your suggestions, if there exists any such equipment already or how to build it. Apparently, several of farmers in my village can end up using it, if this is economical or feasible.

Thanks and Regards,
T

 

[Kam]

Hi Tristar

One route you could try is a modified radio control setup
the sort of thing from a radio controlled car.

the reciever instead of activating a servo could trip a relay
and turn your pump on and off.

you would need a larger antenna than the standard one on the transmitter control box,
but these are quite easy to make, depending on what frequency you end up using.

 

[(*steve*)]

The problem with "simple" radio solutions is that they can suffer from interference. A classic example would be where you and a neighbor use the same frequency and you turn each other's pumps on and off.

How are these pumps operated? Are they electric? If not, the control of them could be quite hard.

If they are, you might be able to control them using a power line signalling device. Another approach (which may not be feasible) is to leave them turned on all the time and turn them on/off at the circuit breaker (but I'm pretty sure you'd be doing that if you could)

Id the pumps are not electrical, you also face the issue of powering the remote end which has to start and stop the pump(s).