Pulse Output for water meter

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Teken
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Re: Pulse Output for water meter

Post by Teken » Thu Nov 13, 2014 9:16 am

Hello Ryan,

A new member is asking for the steps to set up his SEG account to capture the water pulse. Since you have already done this portion could you list out the steps for those to follow?

Much Thanks
Teken . . .

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G550_Pilot
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Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2016 1:25 am

Re: Pulse Output for water meter

Post by G550_Pilot » Thu Apr 28, 2016 8:57 pm

I know this thread is a bit old, but I figured I would throw in my 2 cents.

My GEM is nowhere near where my water meter or my mains are located. In my case, I cannot get any reading off the meter that the water company has put in place and I wanted more than just water for the mains being monitored.

I purchased three NextCentury pulse meters (M201C) for about $80 each. These are two wire reed style pulse units. One unit goes on my main water supply, one goes on my irrigation supply line and one goes on my pool fill supply line. One pulse is equal to 10 gallons of water.
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Because I didn't want to run wire all over the place from my GEM, I connected the meters to an emonTH unit from OpenEnergyMonitor.org. The emonTH is an arduino based microcontroller with a 433Mhz wireless unit for about $35. I wrote a sketch for it that accepts dual meters on one unit and it transmits this information back to a Raspberry Pi once per minute.
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I already run and host my own instance of emoncms so this is how I graph my data, but you could easily get a free account at emoncms.org and dump the data there or into a MySQL DB or whatever.

More steps then just hooking it up to a GEM, but in my case, my meters were way to far away from my GEM to make it practical to run wire to them!
Teken
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Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2010 4:09 pm
Location: The Bad Lands

Re: Pulse Output for water meter

Post by Teken » Thu Apr 28, 2016 11:22 pm

Did I read that right 1 pulse equals 10 gallons of water?!?!
Teken . . .

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mwareman
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Re: Pulse Output for water meter

Post by mwareman » Fri Apr 29, 2016 7:24 am

Teken wrote:Did I read that right 1 pulse equals 10 gallons of water?!?!
I believe so. That's why (personally) I have not gone with this meter in the past. I'm in need of *much* higher resolution....
Teken
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Location: The Bad Lands

Re: Pulse Output for water meter

Post by Teken » Fri Apr 29, 2016 8:47 am

I would think so too because unless you just want some kind of general monitoring I suppose that would be OK? :? This simply would not work in my home because we have lots of instances where short duration uses are ever present.

Such as flushing the toilet for pee vs poo, washing your hands, doing some light dishes, brushing your teeth etc. Thus far I have been extremely pleased with the Water Hero system that is currently in Alpha tests in my home in terms of resolution.

I can see pretty much what ever the actual water meter sees in terms of draw / consumption. :mrgreen:
Teken . . .

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G550_Pilot
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Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2016 1:25 am

Re: Pulse Output for water meter

Post by G550_Pilot » Sun May 01, 2016 9:04 pm

mwareman wrote: I believe so. That's why (personally) I have not gone with this meter in the past. I'm in need of *much* higher resolution....
Yeah, I'm beginning to see what you guys mean. I get my data, but not at very high resolutions and not enough to see what event may have triggered a short burst. Running the launder, taking a shower, watering the lawn, those all work as they are typically long duration.

I just ordered some meters that support 20 pulses per gallon. It will be interesting to see if my hardware (basically an arduino) can support 600 pulses a minute which is my max flow when I am filling my pool.
mwareman
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Re: Pulse Output for water meter

Post by mwareman » Sun May 01, 2016 9:05 pm

Which one did you go with at 20 pulses per gallon?
G550_Pilot
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Re: Pulse Output for water meter

Post by G550_Pilot » Sun May 01, 2016 9:10 pm

MJR-075-20P

http://www.poolweb.com/Home/Other-Produ ... JR-075-20P

http://www.seametrics.com/sites/default ... 1414_0.pdf


The 20 Pulse unit use dual reed switches...should be much better than 1 pulse per 10 gallons, now I will get 20 pulses per 1 gallon!
Last edited by G550_Pilot on Sun May 01, 2016 9:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.
mwareman
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Re: Pulse Output for water meter

Post by mwareman » Sun May 01, 2016 9:11 pm

Thanks! I'll check it out..
G550_Pilot
Posts: 61
Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2016 1:25 am

Re: Pulse Output for water meter

Post by G550_Pilot » Sun May 01, 2016 9:13 pm

mwareman wrote:
Thanks! I'll check it out..

Just updated my post with the link to the specs as well....
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