Advise on a sensor choce

Nothing is immediately coming to mind but what is in the hopper. Is it plastic pellets? If so what size?

What level of accuracy do you need? Full, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, empty, or better?

@andydowns

Thanks for the reply...

Yes it is plastic granules.Size of each granule would be about 5mm, they are usually cylindrical or with rounded edges to flow easily in the hopper.

Full, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, empty, or better?

Maybe 8 tranches would be better.

Also any suggestions on networking all the machines to a central display ?

Thomas

@embsysdev 

i was thinking about optical, but I think they would be too unreliable. I did a search and found these, which seem to be designed specifically for your use case.

https://www.sick.com/br/en/industries/basic-materials/material/building-materials/level-monitoring-in-the-dust-hopper/c/p510999

On the networking front, something I am playing with is MQTT to allow devices to connect to a central point called a Broker. In my case this is run on a raspberry pi, but is also used in industrial settings.

Worth looking into.

There are lots of YouTube’s videos on the subject. This is one such series.

@andydowns

https://www.sick.com/br/en/industries/basic-materials/material/building-materials/level-monitoring-in-the-dust-hopper/c/p510999

Thanks for doing some of my homework ... :o) , I have sent them a mail. I wonder it will be commercially viable, some of these sensors cost "an arm and a leg" .  But i guess we have to pay for reliability and support.

On the networking front, something I am playing with is MQTT to allow devices to connect to a central point called a Broker. In my case this is run on a raspberry pi, but is also used in industrial settings.

Thanks for the pointer.

I was checking ESP Now from Sir Dronebot and also this :

Any opinions ?

Thomas

@embsysdev 

I have no experience with ‘ESP now’ but from what I’ve read it is for connecting ESPs together and not to other things.

MQTT can connect sensors to PCs to RPIs etc. I’m going to use Mosquitto broker and connect several ESPs to it. There will also be a MQTT compliant mains relay connected to it to turn an extractor on and off.

There is also a program called Node Red that connects to Mosquitto and has a very configurable dashboard that can include various different gauges and so on. I think it will serve you well for being the central display for the hopper levels.

@andydowns Correct, MQTT is more useful, but do NOT use Mosquito. Everyone can test there, but it crashes and is restarted all the time as it is a test mule. It is a simple matter to create your own broker on any computer you leave on all the time your MQTT traffic is possible. A Pi3 or 4 is ideal for that. Use mosquito to test then just change the broker to your own Pi.

I had heard of Node Red but thought it was a coding tool, did not know it was a dashboard, will have to check out, thanks.

I have no experience with ‘ESP now’ but from what I’ve read it is for connecting ESPs together and not to other things.

That actually works for me. Each machine would have an esp32. The central monitoring unit would also have an esp32. the display would also be a row of LEDs for each machine. Depending on the data from the individual machines , the LED display would get updated.

@zander 

Posted by: @zander

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Correct, MQTT is more useful, but do NOT use Mosquito. Everyone can test there, but it crashes and is restarted all the time as it is a test mule. It is a simple matter to create your own broker on any computer you leave on all the time your MQTT traffic is possible. A Pi3 or 4 is ideal for that. Use mosquito to test then just change the broker to your own Pi.

Ron, does the RPI support MQTT as a part of its operating system, or are you saying another piece of software needs to be installed in place of Mosquitto?

If so, do you have any suggestions?

Posted by: @zander

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I had heard of Node Red but thought it was a coding tool, did not know it was a dashboard, will have to check out, thanks.

It is a graphical coding app that supports dashboards.

This is an example:

Full youtube video here

@andydowns I will need to check, but if I figured it out it must be easy. I am sure it's an add on package and I am not sure if it's still installed, or how to tell. I just finished what I was working on, so I will give this query top priority (at 82 that could still be days) If I am slow, I bet @byron will know off the top of his head, he is the one who convinced me to try it.

I even have some on my iPhone and Mac, see pics 1st is iPhone, second is Mac

@andydowns I just pulled my old project to of the archives and did a few screen grabs. I think you are qualified enough to take it from there, but if you have any questions just ask. Screen grabs are NOT in any particular order. In case it isn't obvious, this library outputs to both MQTT AND regular Serial if it's connected. I used this tool to debug via Serial when I was connected, but in 'production' mode with no computer attached I just looked at my Pi screen. Great tool.

@andydowns I think I probably used the nerds instructions to set up the pi.

Do you have any pointers for me about node-red?

https://randomnerdtutorials.com/how-to-install-mosquitto-broker-on-raspberry-pi/

@andydowns BTW, when I said do NOT use mosquito, I was referring to the public test broker, not the software. Use mosquito software, but your own broker if that makes sense.

Posted by: @zander

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Do you have any pointers for me about node-red?

Found this on YouTube. I haven’t watched this yet, but it seems to be fairly comprehensive.

Posted by: @zander

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@andydowns BTW, when I said do NOT use mosquito, I was referring to the public test broker, not the software. Use mosquito software, but your own broker if that makes sense.

Ah, that makes more sense. 👍🏻