Left Coast residents and businesses are reeling from recently announced mandate to cut water use. I for one have been experimenting with ways to remotely monitor my water meter readings from inside my home. Has anyone got experience in using a wireless link that will display accumulated water usage via a USB port on a PC or directly to an inexpensive 6 digit digital counter.
1. I have already installed a sub-meter in my yard equipped with a reed switch that outputs a contact closure every time a gallon flows thru the meter. My meter registers between 7K to 12K gallons a month.... Obviously it run in spurts (so to speak) so there is a lot of the
meter is not running unless there is a water leak.
2. I currently use a Radio Shack 6 digit LCD digital counter (no longer available) to allow me to see accumulated water use via a two wire cable (CAT5) connecting the water meter and the counter module. The LCD counter is taped to the exterior my office window which is some 60 feet removed from the water meter. That way I can see what when water is being used and how much per cycle when water appliance are used... as well as irrigation zones are on... or leaking
Now I want to move to the next level and put on my big boy pants so I can track my water usage and do use analytic's wirelessly via low power RF and a USB attached PC.
The Mailbox and person counter project got me thinking that some creative people may have suggestions on how 30 million or so Californian's can begin to get a handle on their water usage via your forum?
Any Ideas?
Larry
It'd be easy enough to connect your contact closure to a Moteino, with ground on one wire, a digital input and a pullup on the input line (internal or external). If you leave the LCD attached, you'd need to verify it's also closing to ground and share a ground. If not, be careful to see what exactly it IS doing so as to protect your Moteino. If you get rid of your LCD, you could use the two wires for your contact and then not worry about having to keep your moteino enclosure weather proof wherever your meter lives.
As far as what to do on the Moteino, just count on edge transition, keep a counter, and send it every so often to a gateway. Put up some web pages.
C
Well, even easier than the battery-powered Moteino in the yard would be to replace your LCD counter with a Moteino. Move the two wires you are using to your reed switch to ground and an input on the Moteino. This way, your Moteino can live indoors and not require batteries.
To get the data out, you would typically attach a Moteino to a sensor gateway, such as a Raspberry Pi, that can present the data in web pages. Here is how I set mine up, for example:
http://www.cupidcontrols.com/2015/02/cupid-v2-rf-hat-pi-b-pi-2-moteino-in-action/
I have web pages that access and read the Mote, and put it up in pages.
The other nice part about putting the Moteino inside is that you only need one. In fact, unless you want to use other RF nodes inside your house, you could really just use an Arduino for this project, but why not Moteino? You can add sensors later around your house as you see fit. If you still need a local display, just use I2C or SPI and one of those little displays with a dab of arduino code and you'll have a nice little readout.
C
Your suggestions are great.. and inline with whats going on in the water submetering community. I've discovered one supplier that makes an industrial strength entry level water logging "system" for $500+-
http://www.ekmmetering.com/ekm-metering-products/water-meters.html
What I, and other residential users want initially is a twisted pair (Cat5) connection from a outdoor pulse outputting water meter to a indoor powered pulse counter and LCD display showing alternating GPM and month to date (MTD) water use. Then as you describe a gateway to get the same data to the web. Later a sensor to indoor display would be phase II. Sounds simple on paper but I'm not a programmer.... I can cobble circuits together but have not coded since my tiny basic and fortran days.
How do I/we make this happen?
L
Have you seen this project (https://lowpowerlab.com/blog/2013/02/02/meet-the-watermote-moteino-based-water-meter-reader-ee-sy310/)?
Electronics with MCU brains need programming so it's time to spin up some C++ ;)
Felix,
Your original work with the water Meter Project was quite visionary. In those days residential water was cheap and available everywhere. Now in the western states we are involved in water wars. No shooting yet.. but who knows.
I'd like to resurrect your old water meter project using the MCU combo you described in your post above. To simplify, I'd like to use my water meters dry contact pulse output via twisted pair to an indoor Motino/RaspberryPi or whatever configuration that listens to the incoming pulse data and runs the appropriate sketch(s) to eventually gets it to a display (EmonCMS) and a database.
I have attempted to locate your original sketch(s) you describe above (for the remote node , the gateway node and python code) to no avail. Maybe my novice status with using Github is the reason. My hope is that an adaption of your original work will get some
Hopefully by eliminating the Motino sensor & wireless link I will be simplifying the task of adapting your original watewr meter project.
I want to keep it simple as possible with the goal of getting the consumption on the web and viewable in graphic form.
Thanks in advance,
Larry
Sorry for the tardiness, just came back from vacation.
I uploaded an example sketch I use for the water meter here (https://github.com/LowPowerLab/RFM69/tree/master/Examples/PulseMeter).
It uses the EE-SY310 sensor to read pulses visually from the water meter.
Thanks Felix,
I'd like to get started with my water meter project.
I assume I'll need two Moteino R4's with SPI flash and side header options as well as the SY310 pulse kit. Are there any other Low Power Lab products that I should order? Serial programmer etc?
Larry
Sounds like that is everything you will need.
Serial programmer is needed for non USB moteinos. It's a cheap and easy way to upload programs to your Moteinos and also power and debug them.
Thanks Felix,
I've been stumbling around trying to copy your Pulse Meter sketch from your Git repository to my Aurdino sketch Library. Somehow I got the includes copied over but the pulsemeter.ino file eludes me. Whats the trick? I have a Git account....
I'm learning loads and having fun... but going from zero to 100 mpg learning themany new tools is giving me headaches.
Larry
Just download the ZIP of the repository then get the .ino you're looking for from that.
Or click the RAW button for that sketch, then copy paste all the code into the Arduino IDE.
I recently stumbled into this thread and I am wondering how to get started in building a water meter w/ Arduino. Is there resources you guys can point me to?
Thanks!
Really depends on what kind of water meter you got. Does it have a pulse output? Then you'd use an IR detector diode to count the pulses, assuming it's IR. If it's an analog meter like I got, you can read this blog post (http://lowpowerlab.com/blog/2013/02/02/meet-the-watermote-moteino-based-water-meter-reader-ee-sy310/) to get some ideas.
I've spent a few years looking for the best ways to monitor my residential water use. I started with a small 5 digit battery powered LCD counter module from (Radio Shack) for $20 and bought a gallon reading Precision brand brass water meter from our local "water works" supply business. Then modified the meter to deliver a contact closure pulse output every time a gallon flows thru the meter.
After installing the meter in my water line from the street (sub-metering), I connected the two-wire output from the meter to my counter module via a length of #22 gauge speaker wire to my kitchen window where I placed the LCD. The module ran for years with on one AA battery. You can duplicate the same 1990's level solution using a meter and a LCD counter from EKM http://www.ekmmetering.com for few bucks more than my original expense. That assumes you can install the meter yourself.
After an estimated 100 hours of experimentation using Felix's original 2013 Water Meter sketches and two Motinos I'm still learning a ton. My first and foremost discovery was that Felix's Water Mote solution was powered a/c powered and when I implemented his design I was counting a zillion pulses a day using the leak detector triangle on my meter.. and burned thru batteries on the water meter mote at a two-a-day clip.
That kinda where I am today. Logically I went back to the one-pulse-per-gallon reed switch on my existing sub-meter I found that I needed a debounce sub-routine to clean up the pulses... and discovered that Felix's sketch needs updating in order to handle the dramatically lower pulse rate my gallon meter delivers. Enter C programming language.
I summary... There is a reason few others have announced and delivered a whole home water conservation home automation solution... It tough to do if you are a garden variety experimenter. EKM will sell you a industrial strength ready to go package but that will set you back a few hundred dollars... but that's too easy and a heck of lot less fun to learn new things.
In the mean time I just pre-ordered a gadget for my bathroom shower from Amazon that will sub-sub-meter our shower water use.