Water Meter Monitoring

[jrich523]

So, the one part thats discouraging me from doing that is, ideally it should use something like MySensors, which I was never able to get to work correctly. I'm fairly certain it was power issues with the radio, but i gave up before i was able to get it sorted out. Also I was doing it with just a simple temp sensor, and the mysensors example code for it was broken and based on other posts i've seen it still seems to be that way. Basically nothing they had worked right, so meh...

 

[tangent]

You can always try to capture and decode the wireless signals. But it will be a fairly slow frustrating process. Keep in mind all your neighbors have the same kind of meter, broadcasting with a different serial number. Yours is the closest so it should be the strongest signal, but you still have to deal with all the other transmissions. We also don't know what interval it transmits at, it probably isn't every time the water flows.

Some kind of flow meter installed inline in side the house it going to be the best option.

 

[jrich523]

yeah so, thats basically what we've been talking about. Also because im the first house on a dead end, all of the water meters are on the front of my yard, so there are 4 within 5 ft of each other.

I was able to find the interval in some of the docs, I believe it blasts out every 4 seconds.

the problem is that i dont have the equipment to listen to a single range which is the real problem.

 

[switchman]

Depending on the frequency in use, you might be able to use a SDR receiver. You can pick up the RTL2832U based USB dongles cheap.

http://www.rtl-sdr.com/about-rtl-sdr/

 

[jrich523]

yeah it uses FHSS which is frequency hopping.. so that lets say it uses 4 different frequencies to send the data, you need to know the order it jumps to "decode" it so to speak which could maybe be ok if i could isolate it, and monitor a frequency range (i think its like 900-950 or there about, its documented some place)

that looks pretty neat and might work, but i wasnt able to find any mention of FHSS on the site or forums.. which... if it could do it, i assume i'd come across at least one reference?

at any rate, that looks really cool for other uses anyways... maybe i'll see what those goes have to say about this.

thanks for the link!

 

[jrich523]

hmm so i found this
https://www.amazon.com/FortrezZ-Flow-Meter-Z-Wave-Plus/dp/B01EVQZ9L8/

which for the price, isnt much different from what @nayr posted, only this has zwave built in to it. Seems to be the only zwave option from what I can find too.

 

[tangent]

hmm so i found this
https://www.amazon.com/FortrezZ-Flow-Meter-Z-Wave-Plus/dp/B01EVQZ9L8/

which for the price, isnt much different from what @nayr posted, only this has zwave built in to it. Seems to be the only zwave option from what I can find too.

They basically built a zwave interface for this meter: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-PRM-1-NPT-MULTI-JET-WATER-METER-W-PULSE-OUTPUT-NIB-/261971111593

There are other similar meters on ebay without the zwave hardware for less:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-4-ECO-MULITMAG-WATER-METER-MALE-LEAD-FREE-BRONZE-PULSE-OUTPUT/331766705202
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Badger-1-Plastic-Water-Meter-Cu-Ft-HRE-Encoder-Output-Register-WITH-Couplings/301951214557
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Zenner-5-8-x-3-4-Model-PPD-PPD02US-EPPB-ILC-ZPM-NITRO-II-Meter/172173135977


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Badger-Recordall-Model-25-5-8-2-wire-RTR-Register-for-Water-Meter-R25-NOS/351711788413 +
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BADGER-MODEL-25-LEAD-FREE-WATER-METER-BASE-5-8/351772211256

 

[jrich523]

interesting, so, they basically all just send 'pulse' data which should be pretty easy to capture on a beaglebone huh? im actually going to toss a BB in the garage for the garage doors, could probably use it for this too. I'll have to dig in to these to figure out the differences, but this seems like a really good option.

 

[tangent]

interesting, so, they basically all just send 'pulse' data which should be pretty easy to capture on a beaglebone huh? im actually going to toss a BB in the garage for the garage doors, could probably use it for this too. I'll have to dig in to these to figure out the differences, but this seems like a really good option.

I was thinking they generated a electricity for a pulse internally, but I found a datasheet for the Badger RTR and it's open drain with support for up to 30V input. https://www.badgermeter.com/resources/a69b89fe-1a7f-4263-afb4-1415fbc22853/recordall transmitter register rtr tech brief rtr-t-05-en.pdf/
the longer your cable run they higher the voltage you'll want to use.

The resolution varies, different products / models pulse at different rates. 1/gal, 1/ ft^3, 1/10gal, etc some are more precise. Also note, mismatches between the meter and register will cause problems.