Water Tank Level and Water Volume with ESPHome

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Few days ago finished the installation in the place of operation. There are few challenges in the installation process but finally was ok.
My sensor (AJ-SR04M) is working quite well with accurate results although is reporting, constantly, a difference of +0.4 to +0.6 cm between each reading (per second). This is resulting a constant update of related “sensors” and causing a kind of flooding of useless information/updates.
I’m digging around to reduce the update time or something similar.

So far, the sensor is working from 40 cm up to 110 cm range and I’m intending to leave it until the max (150-160cm).

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AJ_SR04M_Sensor(UARTComponent *parent) : PollingComponent(5000), UARTDevice(parent) {}

Update every 5 seconds.

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It seems that the refresh rate is remaining the same.

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These two screenshots are showing the performance of the sensor.
in a certain point I did use of the filter/delta but without any improvement.

Any idea why sometimes are having this margin/error in measurements? As we are standing is reporting 57 to 88 cm. It is a range of 31 cm which is practically is making it useless

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When i was looking at water level reporting the more i read indicated that using any form of ultrasonic sensor would be problematic due to a a number of factors including, high moisture environments, signal bounce due to water surface, signal bounce due to internal tank designs etc
This led me down the path of a throw in type sensor.
I have installed about 3 weeks ago a throw in sensor linked to a Shelly uni. The only issue i am now dealing with is scaling my battery/solar power supply to ensure that winter months do not result in the shelly switching off.
The value received goes through a median filter and then a calculation shows volume.
If you are interested look at a video from Lars Klint on youtube.
Pat

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169

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N90C9Xge8Z4 I think this is the video that you are referring to…
My objections are 1) supply voltage 24Vmake it difficult 2)Shelly Uni is something new for me (thinking the time spending to understand esp/esp32 3) pricing

My thoughts about the ultrasonic sensors? very sensitive to the voltage supplying these boards, moisture and the surface reflections.

really I’m confused, I think I should try few things before condemning ultrasonic sensors.
I’m thinking
a) a pipe (holed pipe) with the sensor on top of this
b) a floating surface underneath the sensor eg a plastic plate.
These are something theoretical, on the application may have different results.

Thanks for the feedback

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Foufoutos,
I supply only 12v power with a battery/solar setup. I have a dc step up to power the sensor. On the test bench it was using about 30mA when running. Shelly uni - connect power, connect wire from sensor. HA picked up immediately (using Shelly add-on native).
I was just making suggestions as I went down this rabbit hole over the past 4 years.
I know some people made 3d printed cones for their ultrasonic sensors - can’t use a tube as that then deflects and distorts signals. I don’t own a 3d printer.
Anyway give it a go and best of luck
Pat

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yeah, I have that feeling!
These days we have a temp of near 40C outside and I’m doing an experiment related to the ventilation of the tank. I believe that there is a concentration of moisture in the empty space which is affecting the measurements

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I recommend using sliding average median, this removes the erroneous readings.

sensor:
  - platform: ultrasonic
    trigger_pin: D1
    echo_pin: D2
    name: "Tank Level Sensor"
    unit_of_measurement: "L"
    device_class: volume_storage
    icon: "mdi:water"
    accuracy_decimals: 0
    update_interval: 1s
    filters:
      - median:
         window_size: 59
         send_every: 60
         send_first_at: 3
      - lambda: return (1-x) * 1000.0 - 55;
      - filter_out: nan
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173

Good morning,
I have indicated your information correctly but it does not work?
I saw that some talk about mqqt?
THANKS

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Thank you for this information. After reading about the HopperHawk monitor for pellet grills, I started looking at using an ESP32 device in the same fashion. This is looking at water levels, but I see no reason to think that it won’t work for wood pellets. This looks just like what I need to setup a device to monitor my pellet grill bin.

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Wow, this is awesome! Definitely going to use the info in this thread.

I have a water purifier (Berkey). And I want HA to refill the tank when empty. ESPhome will measure the amount of water left and HA will refill. I already have a Zigbee water valve that works. And as a bonus I will be able to monitor when the filters need replacement (they last about 22.000 liters I believe).

Only challange now is ti actually get a waterpipe to the Berkey. But with a little luck, I am able to fix that.

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@nawafbana as above - any chances of sharing the solution?

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Can you please share your complete setup, which hardware you use, how you connect it and the code?
I’m struggling with getting this working.
I’ve tried a ESP8266 and also a D1 mini, both don’t give any information through.
I don’t know if i have to get a LED signal on the AJ-SR04M board, but I didn’t see that.
Thanks in advance!

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Check this diagram if you need the code ping me :wink:

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Thanks for sharing, but this is a different configuration then I have. So I can’t compare it.
I bought a new D1 mini (with 5V) and a new AJ-SR04M sensor (I thought maybe it was broken). But also now after different tries it doesn’t work.

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can i do this with esp32 ?

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@jonasmoreira could you share your code please. This seems to be the perfect setup. Really close to what I had but I’ve lost my configuration in some tests I was doing.
Long story. I would gladly use your code if it’s working as you seem to say.

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hmm, seems this hits me again this year.
I used a tf 131 pressure sensor last year, worked perfect. Now wanted to install it for this season - dead. Reading some amazon reviews this is a common problem after 6 month of use - moist is getting in the sensor.
Now may switch back to a ultrasonic sensor.
This drives me nuts.

183

Hello everyone,

I set up a configuration using an ESP32-CAM AI THINKER along with a security camera near my cistern.

I had an issue with sensor reading errors, generating logs of inexplicable timeouts, so I added a relay that interrupts the GND connection cable to the sensor board for 4 seconds, resetting the sensor every time it obtains a NAN value. It worked! Below is the code:

esphome:
  name: cisterna-espcam
  friendly_name: EspCam Cisterna
  platform: esp32
  board: esp32dev

wifi:
  networks:
  - ssid: xxxxxx
    password: xxxxxx
  - ssid: xxxxxxxx
    password: xxxxxxx
  - ssid: xxxxxx
    password: xxxxxxxx
  ap:
    ssid: "Cisterna-Espcam Hotspot"
    password: "xxxxxxx"

logger:
api:
ota:

esp32_camera:
  external_clock:
    pin: GPIO0
    frequency: 20MHz
  i2c_pins:
    sda: GPIO26
    scl: GPIO27
  data_pins: [GPIO5, GPIO18, GPIO19, GPIO21, GPIO36, GPIO39, GPIO34, GPIO35]
  vsync_pin: GPIO25
  href_pin: GPIO23
  pixel_clock_pin: GPIO22
  power_down_pin: GPIO32
  # Image settings
  name: esp32-cam-cisterna
  # resolution: 1024x768
  resolution: FHD
  brightness: 2
  contrast: 2
  jpeg_quality: 18
  vertical_flip: false
  horizontal_mirror: false
  max_framerate: 15 fps

sensor:
  - platform: ultrasonic
    trigger_pin: GPIO12
    echo_pin: GPIO13
    update_interval: 30s     # 5 minutos. Você pode mudar este valor
    timeout: 3.5m
    name: "Agua na Cisterna"
    unit_of_measurement: "L"
    accuracy_decimals: 0
    filters:
      - lambda: |-
          if (std::isnan(x)) {
            id(relay_switch).turn_on();
            delay(4000);
            id(relay_switch).turn_off();
          }
          return (1-((x-.30)/2.86))*10000;
      - median:
         window_size: 5
         send_every: 3
         send_first_at: 2
         
output:
#flashlight
  - platform: gpio
    pin: GPIO4
    id: gpio_4
#relay para resetar sensor
  - platform: gpio
    pin: GPIO2
    id: relay_output

light:
#flashlight
  - platform: binary
    output: gpio_4
    name: Cam Cisterna flash

text_sensor:
  - platform: wifi_info
    ssid:
      name: Cam WiFi

switch:      
  - platform: restart
    name: Cam Cisterna restart
#relay para resetar sensor
  - platform: output
    id: relay_switch
    output: relay_output

Initially, the sensor was presenting reading errors probably due to secondary echoes, always giving the minimum distance as a result. I fixed this by covering the sensor with foam. But now I have a huge fluctuation in readings, generating a variation of up to 800 liters during the day.

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Has anyone achieved stable readings by modifying any code in the sensor, such as the pulse time?

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If you are having issues, might want to consider using a float sensor - simple and super reliable even in pretty hostile environments. Mine has been working now for over two years without a hiccup. Basically it’s a stainless steel rod with a float outside that changes the resistance as it moves up and down the rod. As much as I wanted to use something like a sonar or pressure sensor, I went for a float sensor as I suspected that otherwise I would be continually replacing sensors… :slight_smile: