Put a Sump Pump on the Web with Embedded Linux

摘要

My wife and I bought our house in the summer of 1996. In early spring of 1997, the basement filled with water. In early spring of 1998, the basement filled with water. In early spring of 2001, the basement filled with water. Fed up with the basement filling with water, we decided it was time to install a sump pump. Late in 2003, looking up the hill at more than four feet of snow waiting to flood our basement, we realized we never got around to installing the sump pump we decided to get in 2001. This time we vowed we really were going to do something, and we did. After a week of jackhammering the basement, we had ourselves a shiny new sump pump complete with a perimeter drain, battery backup and snazzy cover. Not trusting the ability of this little pump to eject all that melting snow, I become obsessed with the sump. I checked the water level every ten minutes. I woke up at night to check the water level. I called home from work to get a report―it was getting absurd. The very thing that was supposed to make me sleep easier was suddenly consuming me. Then it dawned on me: why not rig up a contraption that would let me monitor the pump remotely? I established some goals for the project: 1) do not in any way burn the house down, 2) do not in any way cause the pump to stop working and 3) learn something.