mechanical Levelmeter

[honselbonsel]

Hi Community,
i´ll do a short introduction for my problem.

in the cellar we an watersoftener which has an reservoir for salt. So last i totally forgot about this and the salt was empty over long period. And i thought how could i meter the level of the salt?
There is also water in the reservoir but this is alwys on the same level with no connection to salt level.

My Idea was to use an end/limit switch to bring in the reservoir with something like a ruler glued to it.
so if i now lift the ruler and put in the salt the endswitch will have an on/off signal depends.

My question is now. Does anybode have an idea how to find an endswitch with zwave oder another technic to get the signal open/close from the endswitch send to domoticz?

Thank You all in advance and sorry for the not pefect english

br
Jens

[febalci]

You can use raspberry GPIO ports or use an arduino with the switch connected to GPIO pins of that arduino. Or if you want a wireless connection, you can always use esp8266 for this.
For zwave you can use a binary sensor, but that might be an overkill regarding the price.

[emme]

Salt water is much more float capability, so my opinion is to get a calibrated weight with a magnet in it... (depending on the salt % the weight will float or sink)
then you can use 2 reed switch for high/low level and use GPIO to get the info

[honselbonsel]

Hi,
thanks for the repiles I think the esp8266 is what i need. I took a short look on this but actual i dont understand how i can get the measurement or the i/o status into domoticz. I would mention somethin like an url to the api. If e.g. gpio 2 = on to have an event like set domoticz switch n =on

How is the interface between the board and Raspberry (domoticz ) hanldled?

Thanks
br
Jens

[febalci]

Check this out for an example sensor: https://diyprojects.io/esp8266-web-clie ... m8QUHmYOM8. You can find many more examples on the web.

[heggink]

Hey honselbonsel,
This is exactly what happened to me a while back. I decided to hook up a HC-SR04 to an esp8266 and measure distance that way. IN fact, there are even 3d printing enclosures on thingiverse I could use. Unfortunately, my HC-SR04 needs level shifters (there are 2 versions where only 1 type works without and guess which one I ordered ) so I never put this in production but it should work without any issues. if you put espeasy on the 8266 then it will update the level in domoticz and you can then run a periodic check to see if the distance is > xxx
H

[honselbonsel]

Hi, thats cool. meanwhile i came to the same conclusion
i will try to build it with an hc-sr04

It will be a bit programming but at the end i t will be very cool

Thank You all
Jens

[honselbonsel]

Hi All,
now that all parts are bought
-an usb power adaptor
-a mode mcu esp8266
-hc-sr04 sensor
i just wired all and used espeasy to flash espeasy firmware
it works great
Created an Dummy device in Domoticz with an Leveldevice
in the espeasy webinterface you just put in the domoticz credentials and where the sensor is connected. Also the IDX from domoticz of your device.

If anybody need more detail. please ask

Thank You
br
Jens

[heggink]

You used the ultrasonic meter without level shifters? Good to hear it works!

[honselbonsel]

Hi Heggink,
yes it works like a charm i used the pin with 5v on the left lower corner it´s maybe because it is an Mode MCU Board
Today i put it in electric distribution box with hot glue. And since now 5 Minutes it sends me the measurement
Only not so well is that the wlan signal is very weak but it seems enough.
To get information at the moment i put an blockly in place, maybe later i change this but at the moment ok
br
jens

[honselbonsel]

hi, tested over the weekend and it is not stable.
The ModeMCU is rebooting every couple Minutes for any reason. I will try it with the level shifer but which one to buy?


br
jens

[honselbonsel]

Hi, here is an update.
today the esp had an total outage with no feasible reason. So i relodad the espeasy firmware and configured and since now it wokrs with no reboot and very stable. We will see

[NetEye]

Hy honselbonsel,
2 questions.
The new version: Release v2.0-20180206 ?
Will the levelmeter also work now with dirty water (dark river water).
I had some problems with it, in air ok (except the first 20cm).
Regards

[honselbonsel]

Hi,
i used the older espeasy release. The v2.0 doens´t worked but maybe now there is a newer version out.
the measuring i do is a saltlevel -> means there are salttablett in a jar which getting more and more into the water on the ground.
The measurement worked in tests on all levels.

Unfortunately after a vers long period of running - the module reboots now every 2 minutes to about 20 minutes.

br
jens

[honselbonsel]

Hi, here is an update to my levelmeter.
since installation it delivers all the time an Calue for the distance of the saltlevel. For any reason the reboot suddenly disapperar! the device works really fine.

Thanks for supporting and ideas