G+_Fran Michalak Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 Possibly someone may be able to help me ..... I bought a water flow sensor for my swimming pool. My thought was so I'll know for sure that my pool pump is moving water and not seized up. Each time it rotates it pings. Any help getting started would be greatly appreciated... Here is what I have. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LVZ22E6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_John Sullivan Posted December 30, 2017 Share Posted December 30, 2017 I would use an Arduino and start with this: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/DigitalReadSerial Instead of the push button switch, I would connect your sensor to + 5 v (red wire) and GND (black wire) on the Arduino, and the yellow wire to pin 2 on the Arduino. You may or may not the resistor that is shown, but I would use it, connecting one end to Ground and the other end to pin 2. Power up the circuit and open the Serial Monitor and verify that it is detecting the "pings" from the sensor. If so, you can attach whatever indicator (LED or whatever) that you want to use to show that there is flow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Fran Michalak Posted December 31, 2017 Author Share Posted December 31, 2017 I don't own an Arduino ... I currently (in summer months) use a raspberry pi to control the pump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_John Sullivan Posted December 31, 2017 Share Posted December 31, 2017 Fran Michalak So buy one. I have a Ras Pi here, but would not know how to control the pump AND interpret the flow sensor .. maybe someone else does? I would just buy an Arduino and run it separately... they're only a couple of bucks (US) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Fran Michalak Posted January 3, 2018 Author Share Posted January 3, 2018 UPDATE: Finally..........after hours of testing.... I now have a working script if anyone is interested I'd be willing to share... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_John Sullivan Posted January 4, 2018 Share Posted January 4, 2018 Fran Michalak What does your code run on? Your Pi or did you go with the Arduino? I'd be interested in seeing your code. don't know if you want to paste it here, or perhaps open a free account somewhere like pastebin.com and then give us the link to it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Ben Reese Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 cosmic Ray I've chatted with Fran quite a bit outside of the community. He currently has a Raspberry Pi setup at his pool to remotely start the pump. Since the pool/pump is away from his house, the Raspberry Pi gives remote access. Connecting the Arduino to the Pi would probably work, but may be an extra step and probably unnecessary hardware. And this goes along with his other recent post about Autoremote. He's made some great use out of the tool for both remote control of Pis and notifications. I agree that an Arduino would be the natural option for this project, just not sure how it would fit in with what he already has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Fran Michalak Posted January 5, 2018 Author Share Posted January 5, 2018 @cosmic Ray I'll post as soon as possible .. long day at work for today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_John Sullivan Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 Ben Reese Hello Ben. The reason I took an interest in this is that I have experimented with building some sort of indicator that shows that a three-wire "computer" type fan is running. I have a single solar panel which I use to trickle charge a deep cycle 12v battery. I installed a 12v fan like used in a computer case to keep the air moving across the battery and hopefully exhaust any hydrogen gas generated. I wanted an indicator to let me know that the fan is running, or if it failed. A simple LED would do. The third wire in a fan of this type is a rotation sensor which I imagine is similar to what is in the water flow sensor that Fran bought. There are various tachometer circuits using Arduino that are available online, but I found the signal from the fan to be difficult to work with. Recently "Santa" brought me a nice digital oscilloscope and I used it today to visualize the fan sensor circuit. The sensor wire is at 12v, but momentarily drops toward ground when it is triggered by the rotating element. I see now that the pulse is spiky and of relatively short duration, so am going to experiment with shaping the pulse into more of a square wave using a 555 IC. Depending on how well that works, I may be able to drive the LED directly and eliminate the Arduino altogether. We'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Fran Michalak Posted January 6, 2018 Author Share Posted January 6, 2018 cosmic Ray here is my script. I use autoremote (app) to receive messages from the pi on my phone I hope this link works ... let me know if not pastebin.com - ################################################################################ - Pastebin.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Fran Michalak Posted January 6, 2018 Author Share Posted January 6, 2018 if anyone has any questions ..ill do my best to answer them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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