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Elax

Elax

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I'm looking for a way to detect the level of water in a tank so I can turn on the borehole pump which is already on a smart switch. Problem is that the tank is 10m up with little to no signal and no power currently. I can get signal and juice closer but that might defeat the purpose

Has anyone done something like this?
 
bwana said:
Why not just put a float valve/switch in the tank and have that control the pump directly? Sometimes old school just works.
Click to expand...
I would but this is on a plot with the tank 50 plus meters from the pump
 
lkpat said:
No power required. When it empties, the valve opens, triggering the pump. Works like a toilet.

Click to expand...
Same distance problem and I'd don't want the pump to toggle that quickly. I have some sensors that would tell me if they're submerged which I could bring closer with a smaller tank. Just need to read those signals and act on them to toggle pump on and off. Not sure what to use for that though
 
lkpat said:
No power required. When it empties, the valve opens, triggering the pump. Works like a toilet.

Click to expand...
Same distance problem and I don't want the pump to toggle that quickly. I have some sensors that would tell me if they're submerged which I could bring closer with a smaller tank. Just need to read those signals and act on them to toggle pump on and off. Not sure what to use for that though
 
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Note that this is the main supply for the house. There are some other gotchas coming but this is the main thing I want to accomplish.
 
Elax said:
Same distance problem and I'd don't want the pump to toggle that quickly. I have some sensors that would tell me if they're submerged which I could bring closer with a smaller tank. Just need to read those signals and act on them to toggle pump on and off. Not sure what to use for that though
Click to expand...
How deep is the borehole you are using? If the pimp is surface mounted and not in the borehole, then you can add a pressure regulator on top op the pump. Add the float valve kit to the water supply feeding the tank. If tank level drops valve opens and pressure drops in the pipe, when the pressure drops the pressure regulator switches on the pump. As the water level rises the valve closes and pressure in pipe builds up and switches off the pump.
Alternatively what I used to do was measure the water level with a water pressure sensor. The pressure sensor (hooked up to a plc) would lie at the bottom of the tank. As the water level drops the pressure lessens. The plc would determine the level based on pressure and switch on the tank when needed to top up.
 
eepr0m said:
How deep is the borehole you are using? If the pimp is surface mounted and not in the borehole, then you can add a pressure regulator on top op the pump. Add the float valve kit to the water supply feeding the tank. If tank level drops valve opens and pressure drops in the pipe, when the pressure drops the pressure regulator switches on the pump. As the water level rises the valve closes and pressure in pipe builds up and switches off the pump.
Alternatively what I used to do was measure the water level with a water pressure sensor. The pressure sensor (hooked up to a plc) would lie at the bottom of the tank. As the water level drops the pressure lessens. The plc would determine the level based on pressure and switch on the tank when needed to top up.
Click to expand...
Pump is about 50m down, nett rise about 60 to the tank
 
eepr0m said:
How deep is the borehole you are using? If the pimp is surface mounted and not in the borehole, then you can add a pressure regulator on top op the pump. Add the float valve kit to the water supply feeding the tank. If tank level drops valve opens and pressure drops in the pipe, when the pressure drops the pressure regulator switches on the pump. As the water level rises the valve closes and pressure in pipe builds up and switches off the pump.
Alternatively what I used to do was measure the water level with a water pressure sensor. The pressure sensor (hooked up to a plc) would lie at the bottom of the tank. As the water level drops the pressure lessens. The plc would determine the level based on pressure and switch on the tank when needed to top up.
Click to expand...
So basically a smart water pressure monitor
 
Elax said:
I would but this is on a plot with the tank 50 plus meters from the pump
Click to expand...
What difference does distance make? The pressure switch on the pump would trigger the pump when the level drops.
 
bwana said:
What difference does distance make? The pressure switch on the pump would trigger the pump when the level drops.
Click to expand...
Yes, but the level goes down slowly. I don't want the pump to toggle for one load of laundry for example. I only want the pump to run to fill the tank from say 10% to 100% and not 10 litres at a time.

Basically I need a gadget to tell me the open or closed state of two circuits. If both are open, start the pump and if both are closed, turn off the pump. That I can do with HA or Google.
 
Elax said:
Yes, but the level goes down slowly. I don't want the pump to toggle for one load of laundry for example. I only want the pump to run to fill the tank from say 10% to 100% and not 10 litres at a time.
Click to expand...
Float valves designed for water tanks are adjustable for this very reason.
 
Hi,

On my jojo tank (on the ground) I've hooked up an ESP32 to a Ultrasonic distance sensor (think it's SR-04) and then flashed the ESP with ESPHome and calculate the (approx) water based on the distance. The SR04 is mounted at the top of the tank, so the greater the distance the less the water level.

I've never actually got around to it (since there is a plug point installed nearby) but you can use a 3.7V lithium battery and a solar charging panel. Since you probably don't need 100% real time data (assuming) you could get a reading ever hour and then put the ESP into sleep mode.

In terms of there being no signal up there, that one I don't really have an answer for that I've fiddled with, perhaps a GSM model with a sim?

Can probably be in all on the above (minus the GSM module stuff) for about R1200
 
Rig a float stick/PVC pipe in the JoJo that come out the top through a membrane.
If you see no stick then it's time to flick on the water pump. As the water level rise the stick will become visible.
 

I use this for my greywater system. Bathroom water collects into a tank, when the tank is full the switch float switches on a pump that feeds the garden sprayers.

You can use it to switch on the pump when your tank is either full or empty. You also get different length of cords, 5 or 10 meters.
 
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Elax said:
I'm looking for a way to detect the level of water in a tank so I can turn on the borehole pump which is already on a smart switch. Problem is that the tank is 10m up with little to no signal and no power currently. I can get signal and juice closer but that might defeat the purpose

Has anyone done something like this?
Click to expand...
you can easily fit a delay on relay onto the pump,fully setable for time delay ,so after the pump switch detects loss of pipe pressure from the ball valve it will only turn on say 1 hour later .or if you can get power to the tank an ultrasonic water level detector on the outside will work quite fine ,you can stick it at any height .
 
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