Monday, November 21, 2011

Lake Level Sensor- Success!


I was able to get the lake sensor system to successfully push data to google docs: LINK



The “lakelevel” is the distance in inches from the sensor to the lake surface. I need to change this to lake height above sea level in feet and inches. I also need to add some sort of smoothing function to remove ripples and waves from the output. The water temp is in degrees F. (not working correctly at the moment) The photocell is relative sky brightness- 0 is no light, 1000+ is full sunlight. Air temp is in degrees F, and air RH is relative humidity.

I’m having some sort of hardware issue with the lake temperature probe- you’ll notice the anomalous reading in that column. Right now it’s sending data to google docs every 10 minutes. Once I figure out the water temperature probe, I’m going to add some data visualization -graphs over time + a graphical current status icon - then attempt to send those to the Mooney lake association website.

Also, the current code is a resource hog on the host PC. I need to dramatically reduce CPU use and then export the application as a stand-alone executable. Right now it's running from the Processing development environment. 

It's been a very interesting project- a great excuse to dive a bit deeper into hobby electronics and programming. 

at

6 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 19, 2013 at 1:29 AM

    HI Andy, great project indeed.

    I was coincidentally working along similar lines, to measure the level in a tank using the SR04. What kept me from going that route was my apprehension regarding the durability of the SR04 module to withstand humidity and dampness out in the open (or the humidity within the tank).

    I am very curious how your sensor performed over the range of time its been installed.

    Best regards,

    Anand Dhuru

    ReplyDelete
  2. Andrew ForsbergMarch 19, 2013 at 5:01 PM

    To tell you the truth I haven't had the sensor package running for the last year. I discovered some inaccuracies on how it was calculating lake height and some issues on data transmission, and I didn't have the time to solve the problems. I'm hoping to attack the problem again this spring.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownMarch 21, 2013 at 1:09 AM

      Right, thanks for that information. But did you notice in physical degradation in the module, on acount of the close exposure to water?

      Delete
  3. Andrew ForsbergMarch 21, 2013 at 9:00 AM

    No, it seemed to be fine. I did have the module in the bottom of a waterproof box- the PCB was on the inside of the box, and the two ultrasonic transmitter / receivers extended through the box wall through two holes which I sealed with hot glue. So the only part of the module that was actually exposed to weather was the very ends of the transmitter / receiver cylinders.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownMarch 21, 2013 at 9:54 AM

      Perfect! Just what I was hoping to hear.

      I also tried using the weatherproof sensors used in car parking aids (additional advantage being that those units use a common transducer for Tx and RX), by decoding the main controller unit. Seemd like a good idea, but the controller firmware resolves the distance only in 10 cm units, so I wasnt very happy with that.

      Thanks again.

      Regards,

      Anand Dhuru

      Delete
    2. Andrew ForsbergMarch 22, 2013 at 2:36 PM

      Good luck- if you post details online about your build be sure to post the link here. I'm curious to see how your project works out.

      I'd also like to build a ice thickness sensor, but that isn't quite as straightforward.

      Delete