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Water tank level monitor using sonar and wifi and leak detection

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(@chumley)
Member
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 5
Topic starter  

Hi guys,

Ran into a situation that needs help from me. I have a cabin the has a low producing well and a 1200 gal storage tank. I want to be able to tell over wifi if I have any/enough water for planned activities when someone (my adult kids and their kids etc). My wife and I went there last week and  we had no water. I called a guy and he delivered water the next day for $300. and had another guy come out to check the system and diagnosed no water from the well. Well, after the diagnosis of no water guy left, the water guy came and gave use a 1000 gallons. the tank was full Six hours later the tank was half empty. Panic time. In our panic we discovered a unused toilet had a flapper open and the water had been running for days with no one there. Bummer. So, what I want to build are two things. First I want to be able to monitor the water level in the tank form my house/phone 65 miles away and adjust the volume of the maine tank with water from a second reserve/emergency tank. 2. I want to be able to tell if I have a leak by water flowing through the main line prior to the pressure tank so I can get there to fix it, eg, broken washer line spews water all over or a toilet tank flapper stuck on open after everyone has left for the weekend or weeks. The cabin is unoccupied for weeks sometimes.

So, again. I have found on YouTube things like I am wanting but not exactly and since I am a total noob. Retired Pharmacist (78 uo) I don't know what I am doing, but I do like to mess with things. Its always easier to adapt something that someone else has created but I look at it and I can think of the possibilities but not know how to implement them/

I have Arduinos, nanos, esp8266s, exp32s, transmitters, receivers, iphone xr and all sorts of othe stuff I know just a little about. I built an East Indian design of a long pole with sensors at intervals and a panel with light and water reaches a certain height the sensor lights up. Simple crude but effective if someone is there. I have also built a sonar unit that displays % full. Doesn't work right because I programmed the arduino incorrectly. Will fix but again only works if someone is there. 

So two fairly simple projects for you that know something that revolve around a central theme: keeping water in the tank.

I know that products I mentioned are commerically available but there is no fun in that and my sister who owned the cabin befor me spent many hundreds of dollars  on those commercial products which did not work well. I could make something that didnt work well and would cost a lot less, but my goal is to make it and make it work well.

Hey guys and gays, Many thanks for listening and maybe someone has a good seed idea to get me off the ground and pointed in the right diredtion.


   
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frogandtoad
(@frogandtoad)
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Joined: 5 years ago
Posts: 1458
 

@chumley

Posted by: @chumley

First I want to be able to monitor the water level in the tank form my house/phone 65 miles away and adjust the volume of the maine tank with water from a second reserve/emergency tank. 2. I want to be able to tell if I have a leak by water flowing through the main line prior to the pressure tank so I can get there to fix it, eg, broken washer line spews water all over or a toilet tank flapper stuck on open after everyone has left for the weekend or weeks. The cabin is unoccupied for weeks sometimes.

Your first problem is indeed the 65 miles away!

There are some LoRa devices available for long distance, but I haven't seen anything beyond ~30 km.  Your best bet is to set up an online service of some kind (there are many ways to do that), but in a nutshell, say for example, you would incorporate an ESP32 on the sensor side and set it up as a web server, and then from your home you can log into a browser to obtain the readings - Some basic HTML and JavaScript knowledge is pretty much all you need for that remote side of it.

Cheers.


   
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(@chumley)
Member
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 5
Topic starter  

Thanks for your reply. Much appreciated. 
 Are you saying I  could set up a website and use that address for connection to the remote sensor? I  had one years ago but had no real use for it but now I  do.
I  tried Blynk but couldn't get it to work which is my m.o.(Can't get it to work).Sigh.
You mentioned other ways also?


   
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