I'm back to working on some more #homestead automation projects. This week I installed a water meter at the head of my maze of outdoor irrigation lines. Mostly, it's there to sound the alarm when a pipe breaks (lots of leaks this summer as the ground has dried out so much, there's tons of movement against the pipes underground, pulling joints apart, etc). But it's also useful to monitor how much water I'm using on any given task, or to set an alarm to notify me when X gallons have gone into a zone or through a sprinkler or soaker hose so I can go turn it off or move it.
The next step will be to add solenoid valves to the system to automate watering even more and also turn off the water automatically if a leak occurs, but this is a great first step.
Like my other #automation projects, this uses a Wemos D1 Mini to read the output of the water meter and communicate it to the Home Assistant server. The meter is from MCS, I opted for a cheaper one that sends a pulse for every gallon that passes through it. I wasn't sure how well it would work, so I didn't want to spend a lot on a nicer meter until the concept proved itself. I'll eventually put in one with finer resolution that will be able to detect smaller leaks.
https://mcsmeters.com/products/mcs-3-4-poly-water-sub-meter-pulse
#homeassistant #grownostr