Water Usage interface to House database
Doing an instrumentation experiment with our water consumption. Over the years I have put in a number of underground pipes, and I do the winter shutdown later and later every year. There is no meter on my well so I can’t really tell if the well pump is on or off for long periods of time. I also have no idea how much water we use. I am considering a computer controlled shutoff valve, or maybe a remote controlled power switch for the well pump to turn it off when there is abnormal usage. I picked up a Clark Model CLXC-20D-C-S and I am going to connect it today. I have not looked into the details of the output signal and how to interface it to some type of computer, something small like a Basic Stamp or maybe just get a board or USB device for one of the servers. If I were to buy a new house I would actually ask if you can get one with a built in web server with local instrumentation.
My brother created two solutions for me to try. I have to make some time to do the interfacing. I found the solutions extremely creative.
1) Have the computer send audio out and and have the pulse complete the circuit and “listen” for input audio on the audio in.
2) His second solution is this cheap circuit board that generates a tone every time there is a gallon. Like 1) above I need to read the audio in. I hope reading audio on Windows is easy. I will probably just use Java. I wonder what this input will look like.