Household Water Monitoring System known as

“The Water Widget”

David Carpency (ENGR), Ian de Vlaming (MEEN), Lucas

DeWitt (CECN), Kyle Fisher (CECN), Josh Hiatt (CHEN), Cody

Mask (MEEN), Jim McCabe (MEEN), Chiny Okafor (CHEN),

Josh Ruff (ECEN), Lisa Smith (ECEN), Kyle Sparrow (ECEN),

Minda Wei (ECEN), Josh Zschiesche (CEEN)

AggiE Challenge

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-311

Faculty Members: J. F. Chamberland, G. H. Huff

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Household Water Monitoring System known as “The Water Widget”

Introduction

Our challenge

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This semester we set out to design all the induvial parts to achieve the a water monitoring system for home faucets.

Engineer a system-of-systems that:– Monitors water usage at all access points

– Senses impurities and water quality

– Provides visualization tools for mobile devices

– Links this information to social media.

Project Goals

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Household Water Monitoring System known as “The Water Widget”

Introduction

Household Water Monitoring System known as “The Water Widget”

Propeller Alternatives Considered

Pelton Wheel and Kaplan Wheel

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Household Water Monitoring System known as “The Water Widget”

Outlying factors– Used in high head and low flow

– Angular flow

– Variable angle on the cups

– Variable number of cups

Needed modifications – Compressed and redirected flow

– Flow angled properly

– Support added in the design for increased pressure

– Housing

Propeller Alternatives Considered

Pelton wheel

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Household Water Monitoring System known as “The Water Widget”

Outlying factors– Can be used in low head

environments

– Has an axial flow that does not hamper water flow

– Blades are variable

Needed modifications– Added magnets

– Possible patent

– Contained housing

Propeller Alternatives Considered

Kaplan Wheel

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Household Water Monitoring System known as “The Water Widget”

Goal: Find optimal propeller blade angle and flow rate

Method: – Flow rate is varied from .00035

to .00015 m3/s

– Blade angle is varied from 105 to 165 degrees

– Torque imparted in blade is measured

Propeller Alternatives Considered

Flow Simulations

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Household Water Monitoring System known as “The Water Widget”

The conductivity of water correlates to the amount of dissolved solids in solution.– Pure water is not very conductive;

dissolved solids like salts, electrolytes, etc. provide most of the conductivity.

Hardness is related to the amounts of Calcium and Magnesium ions in solution

Water Analysis

Conductivity of Water

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Picture from sciencedirect.com

Household Water Monitoring System known as “The Water Widget”

A know voltage is applied to the water and then the voltage is measured after the current passes through the water

The change in the voltage is proportional to the conductivity of the water and therefor its salt content

Water Analysis

Salinity Sensor

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Household Water Monitoring System known as “The Water Widget”

RGB LED light detection: changes in the refraction of water can be correlated to the amount of dissolved solids– More dissolved solids include mean more particles that the light

can bounce off of

Potential: Can use a similar method to detect the color of a water sample, which could then be correlated to dissolved solid concentrations

Water Analysis

Other Electrical Measurements

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Household Water Monitoring System known as “The Water Widget”

We used the Teensy++ 2.0 Microcontroller to take in sensor data and transmit the data over the Bluetooth module.

The 2++ specifically was used because the logical voltage level required to power the sensor is 5V and the 2++ can provide this.

In addition, the 2++ performed minor data formatting functions

Hardware and Sensors

Teensy++2.0

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Picture from pjrc.com

Household Water Monitoring System known as “The Water Widget”

Contains a water rotor and hall-effect sensor.

When water turns the rotor and the sensor is powered, the hall-effect sensor outputs a pulse signal.

Pulse signal corresponds to the rate of flow.

Hardware and Sensors

Water Flow Sensor

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Picture From seedstudio.com

Household Water Monitoring System known as “The Water Widget”

Uses UART serial transmission to communicate with microcontroller.

Sends byte arrays from microcontroller to a server for data to be processed.

Hardware and Sensors

Blue Tooth Module

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Picture from miniinthebox.com

Household Water Monitoring System known as “The Water Widget”

JSON serializes objects in string format and has implementations across a wide array of platforms, making it perfect for communicating between an Arduino, server and an Android.

Data Acquisition

JSON Serialization

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The data which was taken into the microcontroller is formatted using a serialization method called JSON.

Picture from json.org

Household Water Monitoring System known as “The Water Widget”

Data Acquisition

Data Path

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Water

Sensor

Teensy Server

Bluetooth

Module

Collected

Data

Download

Data and

Serialize

with JSON

Process

Data

Android

App

Connected

via WiFi

Household Water Monitoring System known as “The Water Widget”

Utilizes SQLite database stored locally on Android

Stores floats into SQLite database

Android version 5.1

Visualization

Android Application

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Acceleration SQLite Test App

Household Water Monitoring System known as “The Water Widget”

Capable of low power Bluetooth transmissions with very little overhead power usage

Requires Embedded programming but the potential benefits are much better than those offered by traditional DIY chips

Visualization

Nordic

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Picture from mouser.com

Household Water Monitoring System known as “The Water Widget”

The project will continue next semester to:– Further develop the sensors for water quality

– Finish setting up the Nordic Platform

– Integrate each induvial component into one device

– Test the entire device

Future Work

Next Semester’s goals

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