Hi all,
Before I buy a Flukso from the shop I'd like to know if it is possible to actually somehow power the device via a battery? For the electricity and gas there is no issue (thanks for the new sensors by the way), they are in the same place. The water however arrives in the hall of our (very old) house and there is no power socket nearby. Ideal would be if I could somehow buy a second Flukso which I could somehow power with a battery or something.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.
Cheers,
Bram
I also don't have a socket in my fusebox
I use Power over ethernet. Power is added in my switch, and then splitted at the flukso
http://pliki.interprojekt.pl/wiki/attach/ADA-POE-AP_en/poe_duze.jpg
I also thought about that option but there's also not a ethernet jack at that spot :s But it would indeed be a good solution.
Could you not run the sensor lead from the water meter back to the Flukso at the other place?
Bazzle
Not without it being very visible and without it having to be over 5m long.
Maybe run the sensor lead to a phone socket and extend it via telephone wiring?
Also not an option, there's really nothing of connection on that side of the hallway (it's the common wall with the neighbours which is a hallway up until the back of the house). If a battery is not possible then I'll have to start cutting into the wall (or work with cable guides which at some point will also require drilling) and I really want to prevent that at all cost. Our hallway is pretty much the only part of the house we want to keep as it is :D
Can you not feed a thin 2 wire cable behind or along skirting board? Ive run many a teephone wire behind skirting, thru the wall etc in my past.
Ive also read the pulse leads can be up to 50M long .
Bazzle
The issue with that would be that it's not a wooden boarding but made from stone which I can't just remove to but the wires behind. Even then I still would have to go somehow around the front door in which case the cable would be visible (no option their either to put it behind something).
As you can see, not a lot of option that I have :) I thought about several solutions in the last couple of weeks but always came back to the idea that required a battery or something (also not ideal, I'm not the kind of person that would remember the change the battery in time :) ).
How about following the water pipe? Sometimes there is a tiny gap between the pipe and the wall/floor it goes theough. I imagine the sensor doesn't pass much current so an extremely fine pair of wires may be able to squeeze through. Or maybe you could peck away a small enlargement of the hole to fit the wire?
Failing that is there a chance of putting a seperate water flow meter inside your premises where it is easier to wire to the Flukso, something like this maybe eBay water flow sensor This was the first one i found on eBay, it may not work but it is reasonably cheap and you could test it on a tap before commiting to fitting it inline to your premises water supply. There may be others more suitable and maybe this one is totally not suitable.
Thats about it, i have run out of ideas..
Here is a link to a pulse repeater but it looks expensive and probably is an overkill
http://www.spinwavesystems.com/DataSheets/A3/Pulse%20Counter%20Data%20Sh...
Greets - JG
Good option, might have to have a closer look (but first thought is indeed overkill) :)
With regards to following the pipe, it's impossible as well. Ok, never say never, but there is no gap plus on top of that there is no basement under that part of the house.
I believe I'll just have to do it with only 1 Flukso for now with power and gas measurement. But already a big thanks for all the ideas. I'll give it a though, perhaps I can somehow convince my girlfriend to also drill some wholes in the hallway :)
Ok, this may be a little clutching at straws but all you want to do is relay the pulses across a halway.
What about hacking one of those wireless bicycle computers.
The sender unit would have some sort of reed switch or hall effect sensor to sense the magnet on the spinning wheel. Maybe it could be adapted to pick up the pulses from the water meter.
As the sender is such a low powered device it could probably be powered by a tiny solar panel and batteries scavenged from a cheap LED garden light. Even without direct sunlight the hallway light may give enough to replace the sender units current draw.
Then crack open the cycle computer (receiver) and see if you can tap into the received pulses.
If it works its a cheap solution.
Sorry to disappoint you but I have a Sigma wireless speedometer on my bike and it barely covers a distance of 50 cm. I'm afraid it also will not work through a wall. For the record: it is indeed a reed switch, I can hear it clicking when the magnet passes by.
Meanwhile, I found another kit:
receiver: http://www.elv.de/elv-fs20-ue1-1-kanal-universal-empfaenger-komplettbaus... (in German!)
sender: http://www.elv.de/sendemodul-4-8-kanal-fs20s8m-komplettbausatz.html (also in German!)
However, yet another thought. After a couple of weeks the usefulness of the Flukso undoubtedly became clear. Electricity generation and consumption data combined with data from a Davis Vue weather station yield invaluable information.
The water consumption data - and to a lesser extent the data of the gas meter - are not that important mainly because they are difficult to interpret.
Better idea: from your water bill, you can calculate your mean daily water consumption. Then, after some manual note taking of e.g. bath, washing machine, cleaning etc., you will have a pretty accurate idea of your water consumption. Of course, this method will not immediately detect minor leaks or a faulty water meter.
In short: the effort of trying to pick up the water data in a wireless way, will not offset the value of the Flukso's other more meaningful readings.
Just my two euro cents - JG
I am looking at something like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-3-5-24V-G3-4-Hall-Effect-Water-Flow-Frequency...
to measure my water. I can not utilise it yet though as I have used up my pulse inputs with my solar and consumption :(.
The receiver/sender thought is actually a good idea, I might have a look into that. Although it probably is quite out of my league (as in the Pacific is a quite big puddle of water ;) ).
It's true that water metering isn't that important, it's a nice to have. For now I've ordered just one Flukso, I'll see what I do with it in the coming weeks.
Thanks already for all the feedback, it's much appreciated.
@JG I do find the water readings to be quite useful. Combined with the nightly consumption tab, you can already get a good impression of much water is leaking. With the threshold alarms bound to be released in the near future, the readings will only become more relevant. See the toilet flushing incident I encountered this spring. The latter was discovered 'by accident'. A friend of mine had a huge water leak for weeks and only noticed when his floor started sagging (in Dutch: grondverzakking)...
Yes indeed, if I had had a Flukso some years ago, I would have noticed the water meter was broken. The water supplier took the readings from the year before the meter broke down to calculate cost. Pity, because our actual consumption was less because we just started to pay attention to water spillage.