Greetings, all. Please forgive my ignorance regarding electronics, and newb question!
I want to make a device to turn my house’s hot water circulation pump on, and keep it on for 2 minutes. I bought a device to do exactly this but it died, and the one-man company is impossible to deal with anymore. It uses a valve in the water line that closes a switch/circuit when water moves through it. That’s still working.
Any ideas for how I can use those two low voltage wires from the valve, and connect them to something that turns the power to the pump on? And then starts a countdown to shut it off in 2 minutes? I’m hoping this is doable, and that with a pile of spares, I’ll be self reliant.
I assume the pump turns on automatically when the water flow is triggered by the flow switch? If so, you need a [time delay relay to keep the valve open for a preset interval when triggered. You can build one yourself, but it’s hardly worth the time since you’ll probably end up spending more.
The one pictured is just the first one I found at AD. They have various ones for different time intervals and switching voltages.
When the electronics were working, it operated exactly as you describe – the flow valve completed a circuit and turned on the pump. Now with the control box dead, the pump has to run 24/7 (or on a cheapo plug-in lamp timer). I need to figure out how to use the two wires from the valve to start the pump, and for a timing relay to keep it on for the preset interval.