PICAXE based wireless water tank indicator/controller?

Devlin32

New Member
Hi I new to word of PICAXE and micro controllers - have basic electronics and radio comms knowledge.

Have been looking at using a picaxe for a system to measure the level of a tank, transmit this information wirelessly to a OLED display and have pump control when the water falls and rises to certain levels.

I was looking at: https://electrosome.com/water-level-indicator-controller-pic/ but was wondering if anyone was aware of a similar system use picaxe controllers as I not confident with c type programming!

Any help or links really appreciated

D
 

geoff07

Senior Member
Welcome aboard!

You should be able to substitute Picaxe Basic for C without any difficulty. You may even find that the Picaxe version is simpler to code than in C, which uses all sorts of libraries that Picaxe does not need, because the functions performed by the library code are often built into the firmware that runs the Picaxe command. The hardware would be pretty much the same, just needing a suitable download connection to program the chip, and quite possibly a much simpler display interface. The Oled displays can be acquired with serial input driver daughterboards, thus only needing +V, data, and 0v connections.
 

grim_reaper

Senior Member
Looks like a good project for getting your teeth into all the general areas of control & automation.

I feel I must make a point about something though; the linked article seems to skip over the whole physical installation of the probes, but the chip used is connected to several probes that are grounded through the water. I had problems with this method a few years ago due to oxidisation of the probes - since they have a constant voltage on them!
My workaround (which still needs improvement) is to only check the probes once every half hour and store the value in the PICAXE until it's requested by some other system. My probes have survived years in a butt in the garden - I think - they've been disconnected since Christmas.

Have a google (other search engines are available...) for 'probe oxidisation' and there are many other methods and suggestions.
 

lbenson

Senior Member
An 08M2 and a couple of float switches will give you your water tank readings, easy as can be. The question of what wireless units to use depends on the degree of failsafe that you need in the wireless reporting. If the readings are critical (you don't want to overflow the tank or pump it dry), then you need some handshaking.

This is certainly doable with the picaxe, but not trivial (not trivial with other micros either). To assist with reliability, you might want to use 14M2s with the built-in manchester encoding, along with 433mHz or 315mHz wireless units which can range from cheap but probably reliable to relatively expensive but with excellent reliability.

The system you design will also depend on whether you have power at the tank, or you need to run off of batteries (how kept charged?).

Does your system already have low and high switches for the pump (assuming there is one), or do you also need to control one or more pumps?
 

Devlin32

New Member
Hi thanks for the comments and welcome.

I been having a further browse around and something like this looks http://www.instructables.com/id/Water-Recycler-Grey-Water/?ALLSTEPS what I am looking for.

Would it be relatively simple task to use the local parameter, ie motor on/off, tank full empty send that via a 433Mhz link to a picaxe based receiver which would then display this info on an OLED/LED display? I'm keen to mess around with one of these that a friend has passed on to me!

Thanks to all
 

SAborn

Senior Member
Persomally i think you are trying too much planning and need to do some basic playing with the picaxe, then you will realize what tools you have to work with, and how simple this project can be.

Reasearch is valuable, but its a stage one project and requires some basic circuit construction to test applications.

I suggest you set up a picaxe and start doing some code to monitor a simple level then work from there.

Many of us has done versions of this project in various ways, but until you start your assembly we cant really help you, posting links to other projects dont help us help you.

Its a simple picaxe project, so make a start and we will help.
 

Goeytex

Senior Member
Persomally i think you are trying too much planning and need to do some basic playing with the picaxe, then you will realize what tools you have to work with, and how simple this project can be.

Reasearch is valuable, but its a stage one project and requires some basic circuit construction to test applications.

I suggest you set up a picaxe and start doing some code to monitor a simple level then work from there.

Many of us has done versions of this project in various ways, but until you start your assembly we cant really help you, posting links to other projects dont help us help you.

Its a simple picaxe project, so make a start and we will help.
Words of Wisdom
 

lbenson

Senior Member
Note that when you get to construction, you should test first with your two subsystems connected by wires (including 0V). This will assure that you are not trying to debug what you think are wireless transmission problems when they really are programming logic problems.
 
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