Toopy14
Axe-Master
You know how they say, 'necessity is the mother of all invention'. Well, let's just say water coming out of the recessed light holes in the 'new' basement laundry room ceiling over the weekend reminded me of that...among other things.
After I finished saying several choice words, I popped the lid on the septic tank and unglogged the ABS pipe. We cleaned up the water and dried the room with a dehumidifer. Thankfully, the recessed light holes acted as drains, which likely kept the ceiling from collapsing and there was a drain in the basement floor that is attached to the weepers.
I started looking for a backup warning solution and although there are a few for minmum $150 USD, I came across this little sensor, for about $15 CDN on Amazon;
"XKC-Y25-NPN Waterproof Non-Contact Liquid Level Sensor Switch Signal Output DC 5-12V"
After I watched the video, I thought what the heck, for that price I'll get two and see if they can detect water through the wall of a 1/4" ABS pipe. The specs. said it can detect liquid through a material thickness of about 1/2". I received the sensors yesterday, connected one to the power of a 3.3 V PIC-WEB microcontroller to turn an LED on if the sensor detected water. Tried it with a glass of water, it worked as advertised. Tried it with a section of ABS pipe...it worked! So now I have a switch that can detect rising water in the ABS pipe.
Then I wrote a bit of C code, modified some HTML and Javascript to update an XML file and web page in real-time on the PIC-WEB, wrote a rule in openHAB running on a Raspberry Pi to read the logic of the sensor connected to the PIC-WEB and configured openHAB to use Sendmail to send SMS alerts via Yahoo's SMTP server, to everyone in the household.
Here are the results in screen caps.
PIC-WEB
openHAB
SMS
I'll likely have openHAB flash some Wemo light or sound the security alarm. I may even look for a servo valve and have the PIC-WEB automatically shut off the water supply.
I'll use two sensors on the ABS pipe, just behind the wye on the cleanout. One wired to the PIC-WEB and the other running on battery connected to a piezo alarm, in case the power is off. Although, once the power is off, there is limited water in the supply line. However, I'm getting a back-up gen., so still need to monitor the sewer line with no power.
Fun little, non-guitar project!
My wife preferred the original message...
(BROWN ALERT SYSTEM) The SHIT pipe is blocked, stop using water IMMEDIATELY!
After I finished saying several choice words, I popped the lid on the septic tank and unglogged the ABS pipe. We cleaned up the water and dried the room with a dehumidifer. Thankfully, the recessed light holes acted as drains, which likely kept the ceiling from collapsing and there was a drain in the basement floor that is attached to the weepers.
I started looking for a backup warning solution and although there are a few for minmum $150 USD, I came across this little sensor, for about $15 CDN on Amazon;
"XKC-Y25-NPN Waterproof Non-Contact Liquid Level Sensor Switch Signal Output DC 5-12V"
After I watched the video, I thought what the heck, for that price I'll get two and see if they can detect water through the wall of a 1/4" ABS pipe. The specs. said it can detect liquid through a material thickness of about 1/2". I received the sensors yesterday, connected one to the power of a 3.3 V PIC-WEB microcontroller to turn an LED on if the sensor detected water. Tried it with a glass of water, it worked as advertised. Tried it with a section of ABS pipe...it worked! So now I have a switch that can detect rising water in the ABS pipe.
Then I wrote a bit of C code, modified some HTML and Javascript to update an XML file and web page in real-time on the PIC-WEB, wrote a rule in openHAB running on a Raspberry Pi to read the logic of the sensor connected to the PIC-WEB and configured openHAB to use Sendmail to send SMS alerts via Yahoo's SMTP server, to everyone in the household.
Here are the results in screen caps.
PIC-WEB
openHAB
SMS
I'll likely have openHAB flash some Wemo light or sound the security alarm. I may even look for a servo valve and have the PIC-WEB automatically shut off the water supply.
I'll use two sensors on the ABS pipe, just behind the wye on the cleanout. One wired to the PIC-WEB and the other running on battery connected to a piezo alarm, in case the power is off. Although, once the power is off, there is limited water in the supply line. However, I'm getting a back-up gen., so still need to monitor the sewer line with no power.
Fun little, non-guitar project!
My wife preferred the original message...
(BROWN ALERT SYSTEM) The SHIT pipe is blocked, stop using water IMMEDIATELY!
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