Pump Timer Question

[Red Baron]

I've designed a solar-powered water pump for another industry that I need a suggestion on. The pump is connected to a float to turn it on, and rather than just running until the battery goes dead, I'd like it to run for about 2-10 minutes to start a siphon then shut the pump off to conserve the battery and extend pump life. Ideally the float/pump would then be "alive" again in about 6 hours if there is still enough water present for the float to turn the pump on. The timer would be outside but covered from direct rain.

Ideas?

 

[Greg Pack]

I guess a delay off timer might work but I guess it would wait for signal from the float switch to be cut before it "delay offs". It seems to me that unless you were on a real budget with this assembly a simple PLC would offer some flexibility to do a lot of things. For example, you could install some sort of flow switch on the discharge side of the pump to control when the pump turns off. The PLC could also restart the pump if certain parameters were met, like the float switch still senses water but there is no flow in the line. you could also do a LV shutdown, all kind of things.

Tell us more about your project!