[Lab] [Bulk] Re: [Bulk] Re: ESP8266 Issues

[Ken McKinnon]

Good point on the power limits with US sensors, however it would only 
need to be triggered a few times a day, so stay in sleep mode for most 
of the time, trigger a few times to average, log and snooze.
Or you could use one of these
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8958
IR range sensor, good for about 1.5 m at just a small amount of current 
(think about 20 ma in operation).  Although the Adrian didn't indicate 
the range he was expecting to cover....

Ken


On 2014-11-25 5:31 PM, chris at dreaming.org wrote:
> Maybe a variable resistor (float arm or solid state) would allow for
> measurement with lower power requirements than ultrasonic, and perhaps
> with more accuracy.
>
> e.g. https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10221
>
> There are also MPPT charging solutions that help squeeze the most out of solar.
>
> e.g. https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12885
>
> Note these examples are rather spendy but could be DIY'd for less.
>
> - Chris
>
> On 25 November 2014 at 17:20, Ken McKinnon <klmckinnon at rogers.com> wrote:
>> I had thought about doing this a few years ago for ground water height (but
>> long before really low power stuff and decent solar cells) - and power was
>> the problem that shelved it.  Your idea is very close to what I was going to
>> do.  I never got as far as testing, but am curious as to what the sonar
>> bouncing off the walls of the pipe would do.  The other difference is I was
>> going to use a ping pong ball to make sure it would be oriented right
>> without sticking to anything.
>> I would be interested on how it works out for you.
>>
>> Ken
>>
>>
>> On 2014-11-25 2:49 PM, Adrian Jones wrote:
>>> Hello all,
>>> Thanks for your suggestions.
>>> Turns out that the baud-rate is 9600 for newer units and at this rate, and
>>> with a stable 3.3v power supply (this little puppy sucks power!), was able
>>> to connect it to my WiFi.
>>>    I am toying with the idea of making a data logger to measure the
>>> fluctuations of the water level of our lake. As a dammed river, the water
>>> level fluctuates depending on the amount of water in the Rivière Blanche
>>> watershed.  I'm thinking that the design will have an ultrasonic
>>> transducer
>>> at the top of a length of ABS pipe that is partially submerged in the
>>> water.
>>> A disc of plastic inside the pipe floats on the surface of the water and
>>> provides a large surface area to rebound the transducer's ping. As the
>>> water
>>> level rises, so too does the float and the ping echo is made shorter. I
>>> plan
>>> to add a small solar cell and set of rechargeable batteries and an RTC to
>>> wake the software up every few minutes. The software will take a number of
>>> readings which, when averaged, will be sent over the WiFi connection to an
>>> online data logger. Interesting?
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> ... Adrian
>>>
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