ESPHome water level sensor

Will this work on a water tank? I read some of the specs for a more high end model and water tends to refract the signal.

Hello, are you able to integrate this tranductor pressure on esphome? Can you share the solution? Thank you

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I’m hoping to hook up one of these float sensors to a xiaomi door sensor as the state transmitter using this technique. Hardware in snailmail. Portable rain drop sensor made with Xiaomi door sensor

I’ve got one setup and ready to put on a water tank. Read that the max distance you can measure is 60cm, which would not work for me. Let me know how you fared.

As per private message, still have not implemented this. Should work by reading voltage as per the data sheet.

Now stop me if this is a dumb idea or if I’m missing something basic (physics class was a long time ago), but is there any reason why I can’t pop a xiaomi temperature/pressure sensor in a condom and drop it in the bottom of a tank? Pressure range is up to 110kpa. That’s around 10m of water? https://m.gearbest.com/access-control/pp_626702.html

Nice idea, very imaginative. I think it could work and you would also have the temperature.
Don’t forget to tie a wire to pull the sensor up when you need to change the battery;)
Let me know if your experiment works as expected, please.

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Yep, same here, I would love to know how that works out.

I could need a sensor for the water tank of my espresso machine :smiley: :laughing: And fortunately I still have one of these aqara sensors laying around :slight_smile:

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Does anyone who knows a bit about waterproofing under pressure and water permeability of materials (and knots?) have a view on whether a condom or balloon (maybe two?) will leak water for this idea? I guess we know that a knot in a ballon is quite air tight but I don’t know how these things will hold up over time (creep)? I guess a nice silicone sealant dip could do it too but would make battery replacemnt harder. Thoughts?

Have you thought about using sealer or lamination? :slight_smile: Not sure, if these are the right terms, but here is, what I mean:

Both things could work, especially the sealer should do the trick. If I get time this weekend, I’ll experiment with both. :smiley:

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Cool. Yeah I probably won’t get to test for a few weeks. Keep me posted. I wonder if you’ll need to put a ‘sinker’ in there too?

Initial results are here: Use Xiaomi temperature/pressure sensor as water tank level sensor

@paddy0174, @malesci

For anyone wanting to implement a ultrasonic sensor as a liquid level monitor, here is a link to a very good video, Ultrasonic Level Sensors - Range, Tank Height, Fill Height and Dead Band Explained, about how to choose and setup an ultrasonic sensor as a liquid level gauge. It explains the basic things you need to know.

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I used on of those pressure transducers (5v, 5psi) to measure my 1.8m hight water tank level, connected to a Wemos D1 mini running ESPHome. Very simple to set up as a voltage sensor as the transducer simply outputs a voltage proportional to the pressure. However I’m finding it is not consistent, and varies by >30% all the time. I’m not sure why but maybe the supply voltage is not stable enough, or perhaps the influence of atmospheric pressure. Has anybody managed to get it working accurately?

I’d imagine that the atmospheric pressure is your issue. This is why when we use pressure transmitters to determine level in cases like this we (in industrial applications etc.) use pressure transmitters which give a value relative to atmospheric, so the output is automatically compensated.

I have this sensor hooked up to a 8266. Works perfectly with a 3,000 gallon 8 ft tall tank. Basically rock solid

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Hi @teich, how did you connect it? And can you share the esphome config?

I read on the page:
We sold this product together with our Gravity: Analog Current to Voltage Converter. The converter can convert current into voltage signal which can be read…

Didi you do this? Or hook it up to 8266 directly?

There is literally a connection diagram on the page!

I know, but that’s not the question. It is WRT this item: https://www.dfrobot.com/product-1863.html
and if you do need that converter yes or no.

You do need that (or a similar conversion circuit, which can be done with a couple of resistors) because your ESP cannot read current directly, only voltage