Hikvision Alarm triggering / Water alert

[kwtrading]

I think some model Hikvision's such as the 2052 have input / outputs that can possibly be used to trigger recording / alarms.
I just finished my basement (took 5 years of weekends - sigh) and I would hate to see it get flooded. My basement is dry but you never know - broken pipe, well pump, water heater, etc.

I'm trying to think of a good alarm system to notify me of water in the basement remotely if I am not home. Was thinking maybe I could set up a camera that has a wired trigger capability that I could wire water sensors to. When water is sensed, it would trigger an alarm and I would get notified and then check the video.

Anyone have any good ideas to accomplish what I am looking to do?

Thanks!

 

[acvb]

What's your basement worth after fixing up?
http://www.pumpalarm.com/

 

[nayr]

If you have a standard alarm system it could be wired up to a float valve just like a door contact, if you have a sump you can mount the float in there higher than the normal float. Also if you have a sump you might consider a battery backup (for power outages in a thunderstorm) and a generator (for long term emergencies) to keep that pump online.

These sensors will wire directly up to an alarm panel and give you audible output: http://www.smarthome.com/sonin-00752r-water-alarm-with-relay-output.html

you could wire something like an Arduino or raspberry pi to do this very easy but i would keep it as simple as possible so it works reliably.

you can get electronic shutoff valve installed on your main water inlet pipe and trigger that to shutoff if a float/water sensor or if your alarm goes off, that can help reduce flooding in several of your instances.

put a nice metal pan under your water heater, they have a drain hole on them and if you can run this to a nearby drain or pump thats good insurance... most hotwater heaters leak from rust failure and it starts off pretty slow can can be contained with one of these if your alerted, so put a sensor in the pan.

Amazon has several battery powered audible alerts that work allright when someone is home, they are a good backup at least.. Put name brand lithium batteries in them and check them with your smoke alarms twice a year.

Unless your already putting a camera in your basement I dont see a reason to put one just for flood detection, it may be very hard to see flooding on your camera and could lead you to believe everything is fine when it is not.

 

[kwtrading]

Thanks both of you for responding. Sorry I haven't been able to respond sooner.
The pump alarm is interesting for a bit of a price premium. $30 a year for cellular alerting seems reasonable if you made the investment in the hardware.
The smarthome sensor also seems interesting in that it has a relay output.
I see Smarthome also sells an electronic water shutoff valve and there are probably others out there. I'll have to investigate what needs to go in between that and any water sensors.
My brother in law is an electrician and although he has no experience with them, he said there is also a way to trigger the breaker for my well pump to shut off power to it. Having a shutoff valve after the well tank won't help too much if the leak is at the well tank. I've had the well tank bust a leak in the past flood the basement pretty good.
Thanks again

 

[nayr]

I just bought 3 of those Sonin Water Sensors on CyberMonday sale, I'll let you know what I think once I have them installed.. I am putting two in basement.. in laundry room & my server room.. Another is going under the 55g fish tank upstairs and all will be wired to my home automation microcontroller..

If you have a water tank might be good idea for a shutoff valve on output and relay on well pump that a flood sensor could trigger both and cut off the source and drain, but your right if the tank leaks then it will drain entirely.. but it wont try to fill back up again with the leak.

I have two 55g drums full of RO Water in the basement that we use for the aquariums, house plants, nursery water and backup water supply (I live in a high altitude desert, water > gold), it auto refills and uses a pump to get it upstairs to the fishtank and kitchen.. due to issues with siphons and pump failures I am putting several valves in place to cut off water at various points to help isolate the leak.. nothing like draining 110 gallons into the basement then having the fish tank upstairs siphon back out and half empty before the siphon was broken.. Ive been using electronic water valves from http://stores.ebay.com/valves4projects and have had much less flooding, the valves only open when water needs to move..

Of course the flood sensors will trigger my microcontroller to shutdown all valves and pumps, then push a notification to me instantly.. If the worst does happen hopefully I can localize the damage and get to it before it grows too large to deal with.. Ive been thinking of making a tile tub about a half foot deep on basement slab with a drain or sump pump to sit my RO tanks into, so if they do leak/overfill/etc they drain right into the sewer.

 

[Peter]

I am also thinking about wire some things to these cameras that support it.
I am in the middle of a long email thread with a guy from hikvision overseas about how to connect things on these alarm ports.
2432F-IW has 3 terminals I G O but no info about internal circuitry, max voltage and current etc on these pins
Is the O-pin the collector of some opto coupler or just a digital pin.
Is the I-pin anode or cathode or a digital input pin.
The A-pin on some cameras is also a mystery to me regarding function and voltage/current level.
I will try to post info about these things when and if they reply with some info.
-Peter

 

[nayr]

dont know what there connected to internally; typically there 12v signals and the inputs are quite tolerant of 3.3v/5v logic levels, usually anything over ~2v will trigger a high state.

pretty much all alarm/security logic are 12vdc, low voltage logic levels wont make it as far down a wire as 12v+

if you wish to use the alarm output with a microcontroller you will need circuitry like a logic level converter or a zener diode clamp to ensure its at a safe level.

 

[nayr]

Got those Sonin Water Alarms in today; they exceeded my expectations.. they are very well made with a very long sensor lead and an ample spaced battery compartment if you wish to shorten the wires up and splice them back together or just shove the unused wire into the unused space.. The wires for the relay/sensor run across the battery compartment and out the bottom through some small ports.

I would highly recommend purchasing some nice name brand lithium 9v batteries, the china ones they came with I would not trust.. but the rest of the hardware seems well made.

here is a pix of the inside:

If you have a camera nearby that has an alarm input you could very easily wire those terminal posts to your camera, then use the camera's notification system to send you an email that the sensor has gone off.. I suspect it would work very well.

If you dont have a camera nearby, and dont really want cameras inside your house consider a RasberyPI, Ethernet Arduino or BeagleBone Black to wire those water sensor outputs into.

Note these dont have any front buttons to disable the alarm, so if you have a flood you'll probably yank the battery to shut it up.. I perfer this, because once you take it off the wall and pull the battery you will leave it in an obviously disabled state... if a little switch is off there is no clear indication the sensor is disabled.. I have other flood sensors with shutoff switches on them and I am always testing them because I worry something bumped the switch, which has happened and caused me to miss a flood until it was too late... damn Murphy's law

 

[LittleBrother]

The alarm output on that is good. I have had for a few years the $10 watchdog alarms. I check them every year or so. One has its lead in my sump pit just above where the water line is allowed to go, and another I have on the floor next to my AC, which drains down a small hole into the concrete. Sometimes it has plugged up, so this should let me know as soon as it does (I built a wall around it with silicone).

Neither of these have ever gone off, but I know people do sometimes lose basements because they weren't aware their sump had failed. I think it's really stupid to be honest not to have a back up sump or at least a way to know that it has failed.

 

[nayr]

Next time there is a torrential downpour that causes your sump to cycle as much as possible time how often it sits idle before draining the sump... if that pump kicks on frequently, more than once an hour then thats how much time you got to catch a failed pump before the sump starts to overflow.

My parents basement would cycle the sump constantly during thunderstorms (every 20mins or less), all it would take was a power outage or a pump failure (there going to fail in a storm when they are worked the hardest)... We lost power one night while I was asleep and I woke up to shin high water in my room.. total destruction.. we had at least 3 epic floods of the basement that were horrible experiences.

In the last few decades they have added a big deck, lots of pavers/concrete around the house and buried pipe to take gutter water away from the house.. and now almost no water gets into the sump during a storm, it only cycles a few times a day in the spring when its raining hard and they havent had a flood in eons... the pumps are lasting longer and if the power goes out it has to be out for much much longer before water starts coming in... and then if it does its so much less its unlikely to breach the laundry room.

So time the frequency of sump pump cycles and get an idea if your one of those whom need to take immediate action and be notified ASAP, or if you just need a backup plan for a very extended time without power or a working pump.