water tank level monitoring ?

[Tim Tuck]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has network attached water tank level meters ?

Also wondering if anyone has such things integrated with Weewx ?

I'd like to monitor my rain water harvesting by plotting tank levels vs
rain vs usage etc.

thanks

Tim

[matthew wall]

On 16 Apr 2023, at 19:38, Tim Tuck <ti...@skybase.net> wrote:

Just wondering if anyone has network attached water tank level meters ?

Also wondering if anyone has such things integrated with Weewx ?

for many years i have been using maxbotix sensors to measure water tank levels and tides.

https://maxbotix.com/

the sensors are not 'network attached' - they have serial output, which you can connect to a computer then read using the weewx-maxbotix driver:

https://github.com/matthewwall/weewx-maxbotix

attached screen shot shows output from a maxbotix 7363 and a davis vantage pro, collected by weewx, stored in influxdb, and presented using grafana.

dave sprague has been using a radar sensor for a long-term tide measurement comparision.  

https://edgecollective.io/projects/belfast/

the radar sensors cost 8-10 times more than the ultrasonic sensors, with higher power requirements.  the results so far have been pretty close, although if you are in extreme cold conditions then you should consider the separate temperature sensor for the ultrasonics so that they can do additional corrections for the speed of sound in cold air.

btw, be sure to coat your ultrasonic sensors.  we were monitoring water levels in freshwater tanks, and the (mild) chlorination that was applied to the water as it was pumped out of a quarry ended up corroding the aluminum sensor membrane.  similarly, we got salt encrustation on the sensors when measuring tides.  a thin silicone coating prevented the corrosion.

m

[Graham Eddy]

i put a detailed description of lorawan river level/temp sensors under weewx in this forum not long ago. a search will find it. cheers

⊣GE⊢

[MikeQ]

Having worked on industrial water systems for many years, I highly recommend you use a pressure transducer to measure water tank levels instead of ultrasonics.  I have a 2500 gal poly irrigation tank in my yard with a booster pump.  It was there when I bought the house so I didn't get to pick the tank and I had to use an ultrasonic in the top of tank as there were no locations to mount a pressure transducer at the bottom of the tank.  Ultrasonics in tanks need to be mounted in the middle of the tank so they are not effected by the tank walls, and at low water levels you can have issues with the signal bouncing off the bottom of the tank.  Even with a good mounting location, you are going to have some echo in a closed tank and that will make your signal less stable.

I run my sensors into a PLC but I believe Matthew has a 1-Wire driver for weewx (https://github.com/matthewwall/weewx-owfs).  You could buy a standard industrial pressure transducer which will measure 0-100 inches of water column, connect that to a 1-Wire current loop transmitter, connect the transmitter to a 1-Wire / USB Adapter to get the level into a PC and into weewx.   Links below for some hardware options.

https://www.automationdirect.com/adc/shopping/catalog/sensors_-z-_encoders/pressure_sensors/pressure_transmitters/ptd25-20-0100wch

https://www.paralanstore.net/teracom-systems/sensors-1-wire/teracom-1-wire-current-loop-transmitter-tsa200

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Analog-Devices-Maxim-Integrated/DS9490R?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtvgPjL1CTBXsN%2FJcYwIfV6830kDp%252BYR5Q%3D

You didn't say how many tanks you need to monitor, but if it is more than one you could get a micro-PLC with ethernet for a couple hundred dollars and it can send the data wherever you want with MQTT. 

[weatherl...@gmail.com]

Matthew, do you have a site showing the details of how you have connected up the Maxbotix nd associated devices?

[Graham Eddy]

i continue to run my old pressure river level sensor with my new ultrasound river level sensor.

i found the cable from pressure sensor (at river bottom) to prioprietary transmitter (above flood level) very inconvenient, whereas ultrasound sensor/transmitter are together (above flood level), much more convenient.

as i am measuring out in the open, i don’t have the echo issues described for a tank. but i will add that there are pressure sensors avail for LoRaWAN.

cheers

⊣GE⊢

[ti...@skybase.net]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the info, I'll take a good look at all those links.

I have two tanks to monitor but they are interconnected so their basic fill level will be identical as they are both mounted on the same pad, thus I only really need to monitor the level of one to know the level in the other.

FYI... one tank is a 2500L poly and the other is a 4300L corrugated steel Colorbond tank.

I'll need to use WiFi for network so I could use a 1-Wire to Wifi gateway for that if I go down the 1-Wire path.

In any case it will all be battery/solar powered. The LoRaWAN stuff looks interesting, I'll have to investigate that too.

thanks

Tim

[Karen K]

I realized the Maxbotix Wiki page, and from my location no picture is found.

[matthew wall]

> On 19 Apr 2023, at 15:32, Karen K <kk44...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I realized the Maxbotix Wiki page, and from my location no picture is found.

karen found the maxbotix guide while it is still in draft form. pictures and the rest of the recipes (and wiring diagrams) will arrive in the next few days.

there is more (uncurated) information about one of the monitoring projects here:

https://github.com/matthewwall/tide-watcher/wiki

that project uses a maxbotix sensor and davis weather station for the primary tide monitoring station, but we are building out a lorawan network for additional sensors.

m

[matthew wall]

> On 18 Apr 2023, at 17:49, weatherl...@gmail.com <weatherl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Matthew, do you have a site showing the details of how you have connected up the Maxbotix nd associated devices?

the maxbotix recipe is now online:

https://github.com/weewx/weewx/wiki/maxbotix-recipe

i still consider this a draft, but hopefully it will help. please let me know where it is unclear, ambiguous, or just plain needs some work.

there are many different ways to connect a maxbotix sensor to a computer. for example, there is direct to external serial port, using usb-serial adapter, or directly to serial pins on a raspberry pi. you need to get the 5V power from somewhere. if you are running everything from battery with solar, then you can step down to 5V and pull from there. or you can get 5V from a usb port on the computer. so many options.

the guide shows the basics, and hopefully that will get you to an implementation.

m

[weather list]

Thank you, appreciated.

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