[How-To] Measure Salt Level in your Water Softener

Excellent...thanks...being a true geek and having a drawer full of old electronics I couldn't wait. Even though I had already cut up the Nokia Wart I went looking for another. I found a wart from my Intel Print Server that was listed at 5V...tested it and sure enough 5.12V...was even able to squeeze some test plus in the hole so I didn't have to cut it up!!!

This thing is sooo cool. Can't wait to test it out over the edge of the pool tomorrow. We'll see how well it does in water and see if it is accurate enough for me.

Quick question about the analog. Does the analog scale on 10mV boundries or will it read the in betweens? If it reads the in betweens then I would think the analog solution would be more accurate? I am in the process of installing an Elk M1 system that has analog to digital conversion which I could connect up. Thoughts?

Thanks for the response...heading to Radio Shack tomorrow to pick one of those diodes up.

PiperPilot
 
PiperPilot said:
Quick question about the analog. Does the analog scale on 10mV boundries or will it read the in betweens? If it reads the in betweens then I would think the analog solution would be more accurate? I am in the process of installing an Elk M1 system that has analog to digital conversion which I could connect up. Thoughts?
Make sure you read all the posts in this thread (especially mine that is the fifth one back from yours). :rolleyes:
 
Hi Guys


Gerry Duprey will soon be making an announcement regarding the Maxbotic project he has been working on .....I have built a board which i can connect up to 4 Maxbotic sensors and im running Gerrys code and have been testing it using xPL and so far it works well .....

Frank
 
That's great Frank;

I don't have any way of programming a PIC so I wasn't much use during his beta testing. Hope all works out well!
 
Howdy,

Just posted a notice in the main HA forum, but the maxbotix controller is now available. For details, just go to the main HA forum.

FYI

Gerry
 
And just posted another announcing the availability of the the PC board and pre-programmed PIC chips as well as kits with all parts and such. Please see that post for details.

Gerry
 
Hi Guys

Just received my kits from Gerry today (thursday) and must say im impressed how small the Maxbotix pcb is .....My test board is approx 5 times the size of the pcb ...so im really glad i purchased the kits......I,ll build one up soon and bench test it , but its going to be a while before im able to have i t controlling the level of my pond as i need to install a sizeable box outside which will have power supplies for Maxbotix , RGBLED Boards etc..... serial / network devices (mss100) and what ever i may need in the future.... and i need to relocate my irrigation system to allow for the enclosure ....

I purchased 2 Maxbotix kits ....my intension is that if i need more than 4 sensors is to make the second kit a slave of the first...or i might even have them as seperate devices..... My initial thoughts were to use the Maxbotix sensors for pond level monitoring as well as future tank level monitoring but im now giving some thought to use it for sensing when people pass certain areas to turn lights on etc........

Frank
 
Can you take some pictures of the kit next to i.e. a dvd case? Also, where did you get your sensors? I was all ready to order, then found out how expensive these sensors are.
 
Howdy,

I've been getting the sensors directly from www.maxbotix.com which seemed pretty inexpensive for what they are ($30 for one or $25/each for a 5 pack).

As for the controller, you can see the board with a ruler by going to www.rgbled.org, select the "store" link and scroll down to the MaxBotix boards. Click on the icon next to the BareBones kit and you'll get a good size photo of the board.

Gerry
 
>I was all ready to order, then found out how expensive these sensors are.

You got to be kidding !!!!.....Here in Oz we have to pay approx 25% more and even at that i reakon they are good value.....

Frank
 
I didn't say they weren't a good value, just that one sensor is a lot of money for people like me :lol:
 
>I didn't say they weren't a good value, just that one sensor is a lot of money for >people like me wink.gif


Maybe a bulk buy is in order ? ;-)..........How does the 10 off price look at $21.00 US...? I would be willing to buy 5 + shipping to Oz....

Frank
 
I have had mine in use for a while now and one thing I can tell you is the Maxbotix Sensor does not like the heat. Here in Las Vegas during the summer my garage will have a room temp of 108 F. The sensor gives me flaky values while turned on (seems to read OK at first, and then gives erroneous data).

I don't have the sensor on all day, just when I want to take readings (once a day for a few seconds).

Now that it's a little cooler outside, the sensor is working properly.
 
Hello,

Im just wondering how homeseer could manage a constant temperature of a solar water tank by reading the temperature and measuring the depth of the water tank..

The idea is to make sure that we always have hot (mild) water (for bathing) always constant in any of the following situation:
i) sunny: The water tank will provide as usual warm water
ii) if rainny or cloudy or cold: then the electrical heater inside the solar water tank should be triggered by HS using a X10 module and operate until the water temp reaches a value X degs. Provided also that there is enough water inside..

The idea is that HS will sense the temperature and depth of water and will trigger events depending upon the situation.

It should trigger when water temp is down and when the water is at reasonable level.

Should the weather become sunny, then the electrical heater will stop

Hardwarewise I have an idea about the conception about the temperature reading (One wire circuit ) but it should cater for temperatures low and above 40 degs.

As regards depth measurement, ive heard about ultrasonic sensors.

If anyone has ever setup this, i would appreciate your help..

I use HS 2.4.0.11

thanks
 
I would start a new thread about this project, so the title accurately reflects what you are trying to do (some people skip topics that don't look interesting to them when viewing new posts). It sounds like you have most of it figured out, except I wouldn't rely on X10 to control a heater.
 
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