Hey Jeff,
If you have some wire, you already have a water level sensor!
All you need to do is enable the pull-up resistor, or add a 100K
pull-up resistor, on one of the RPi GPIO pins that is configured as an
input. Then connect a ground wire from whatever power source you are
supplying power to the RPi with to the bottom of the water container. NOTE:
Since copper oxidizes you will want to "tin" up/galvinize any wire ends
that will be in water. Then place the other lead that is going to the RPi
GPIO pin to the tree's water contain at a point such that when the water
goes below the wire the GPIO pin will then read HIGH. As we all know water
conducts, but you probably also needed to put some extra minerals/food for
the tree to help it last longer and these all help to using water as a
conductor, i.e. a wire. So as long as the indicator wire is in the water it
will connect the submerged ground wire to the input pin and the Input pin
will read low.
If you really want to make it fancy, you can use two pins. One that
lets you know when the water is getting low and turns on a visual
indicator, i.e. a REALLY bright LED. Then place the 2nd wire at an even
lower point and when that point is reached have it activate an audible
alarm!
I hope this helps! ;-)
- Manny
On Wed, Dec 3, 2014 at 12:18 PM, Jeff Garrison <[email protected]>
wrote:
> Does anyone have a water sensor that they'd be willing to sell that works
> well with a RPi? I'm looking to create a small project to sense the level
> of my christmas tree water level. I've looking to projects online and seen
> various sensors...
>
> e.g.
>
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/Analog-Water-and-Liquid-Level-Sensor-for-Arduino-or-Raspberry-Pi-/141442350922
>
>
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B006Z968LK/savagehomeaut-20
>
> The second link... i'm not sure if that is RPi friendly... (meaning just
> hook it up directly)
>
> I wanted to get this project done before the weekend, so small 'r' me if
> you have suggestions and/or have a sensor.
>
> Thanks,
> Jeff
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> dorkbotpdx-blabber mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/dorkbotpdx-blabber
>
_______________________________________________
dorkbotpdx-blabber mailing list
[email protected]
http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/dorkbotpdx-blabber
