Help Needed With an Automated Control System For Vac-Pumps

If I was doing that project, I'd start by developing the switching unit - make it so it took 8 low power (5v?) 'bits' as an input, along with the 3-phase power and using one bit to switch on one vac pump. Or you could make it smart (D type latch) to only require a pulse to switch on, then another pulse to switch off. That combined with a way of reading which pumps were switched on (another feed coming from the D latches) would mean that if the control unit went off-line temporarily, the system could be restored without altering the state of any vac pump.

Once you have that, the problem becomes a low power control system, and due to the fact you want to alternate the continuous pump, I'd probably use a simple microprocessor style circuit... or a computer, 'cos I'm lazy. ;o)

If I was doing that project, I'd start by developing the switching unit - make it so it took 8 low power (5v?) 'bits' as an input, along with the 3-phase power and using one bit to switch on one vac pump. Or you could make it smart (D type latch) to only require a pulse to switch on, then another pulse to switch off. That combined with a way of reading which pumps were switched on (another feed coming from the D latches) would mean that if the control unit went off-line temporarily, the system could be restored without altering the state of any vac pump.

Once you have that, the problem becomes a low power control system, and due to the fact you want to alternate the continuous pump, I'd probably use a simple microprocessor style circuit... or a computer, 'cos I'm lazy. ;o)