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Jason C
Jason C

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A Deep Dive Into Building a Pool Bot

In this multipart series we will take a deep dive into my journey of building an internet connected device that monitors my swimming pool. The data it collects flows through the azure cloud and be accessible on a smart phone running a web browser. I'll also show how I turned that same website into a PWA.

Diving In

What We Will Cover:

  • Original Idea / Need
  • Hardware
  • Sensors
  • Making it a Thing on the Internet
  • Back End Services / Data Storage
  • User Experience / Front Ends

Original Idea / Need

I’m Lazy! My pool is outside and I don’t want to have to go out there unless the conditions are ideal for swimming! I want to monitor / control my pool from my phone. Commercial units are really expensive, some are well over $1,000. I bet I can build one for faction of that cost!

What Should This Pool Bot Do?

Before we jump in, lets talk about what features this bot should have:

  • Monitor water temperatures and ground/air temperature.
  • Measure the water level in the skimmer to make sure the pump isn't sucking air.
  • Turn the Pump on & off to save energy or if the water is low.
  • Measure the filter pressure so I know when to clean it.
  • Measure the Ph and alert me if it needs adjusted.
  • Push data to the cloud, track historic records and be accessible from my phone.

Let's dive into Part 2 and look at the hardware

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