sensor connectors for use outside

Are you using the sensors to detect Rod/Probe that is in the water for hight?

Yes. 3 sensors are on outside of plastic tote. Floating material with magnets embedded inside sits on top of water. I know there are other ways to do it.

How about set your flotting sensor inside a plastic tube attach the sensors to that tube , then you can set another tube around then to seal them from the elements like 1 PVC tube inside another like 3/4 inside 1" . Sealable , adjustable, and able to have maintance.

or set your current tote inside another and seal it that way

That's a good idea, thanks. However, I still want to get from 9 wires (3 +, 3 -, 3 signal) from sensor to arduino to 5 (+, -, and 3 signal). So how do I connect them together?

you'll only have 5 Postive + , Negative - , and 3 signal wires. At the sensors have the power leads paralleled, and then you will only have the 3 individual signal wires coming back. easy :slight_smile: So a cat5 (8 wire) will be more than enough :slight_smile:

bobhawkens:
I need to place 3 hall effect sensors outside and a considerable distance from the arduino.

Which "hall effect sensors" and what is "a considerable distance"?

For instance, if the distance was 1000 feet, and those "sensors" are just the bare packages, without any amplification or anything (ie - non-"active" sensors), you might end up finding nothing more than "noise" on the other end of that 1000 feet.

But all of that is speculation; a link to a datasheet for the sensor in question, and a general distance would be better.

woody_unreal:
you'll only have 5 Postive + , Negative - , and 3 signal wires. At the sensors have the power leads paralleled, and then you will only have the 3 individual signal wires coming back. easy :slight_smile: So a cat5 (8 wire) will be more than enough :slight_smile:

Sure, but then I still have a bundle of wires. How to connect them without wrapping in electrical tape?

cr0sh:

bobhawkens:
I need to place 3 hall effect sensors outside and a considerable distance from the arduino.

Which "hall effect sensors" and what is "a considerable distance"?

For instance, if the distance was 1000 feet, and those "sensors" are just the bare packages, without any amplification or anything (ie - non-"active" sensors), you might end up finding nothing more than "noise" on the other end of that 1000 feet.

But all of that is speculation; a link to a datasheet for the sensor in question, and a general distance would be better.

It's the standard hall sensor from adafruit. I'm going something like 5 feet from inside through a window and onto a balcony. I'm more interested in how people do these sorts of projects. What kind of connectors do they use? Is there something obvious I'm missing here? I made a sort of ribbon with electrical tape. I isolated the gnd pins and put a stripped wire over them, then put another piece of electrical tape over all of that. I repeated for the + and signal pins, so I had a ribbon with 3 layers on top of each other. It works but it's really ugly. There has to be a better way, right?

Ya use somethign to the effect of a cicuit board RadioShack.com Official Site - America's Technology Store run your ribbon to it ,, then a few wires to the Sensors. you may even put that part in a project box of some sort. the possablities are endless. its only up to your imagination :slight_smile:

So a circuit board? Thanks, I'd never heard of that before.

More seriously, I take your answer to mean that most people would just make a breakout board and that people don't really use connectors for my purposes. That's helpful, thanks again.

weather proof connections are possable , but the 3 sensors part makes it difficult. since your reducing your wire count run.

alright good to know. Thanks.

@woody_unreal

Those Radio Shack boards you suggest are great.

I've made 15 DPDT Latching DIP relay modules for my model railroad automatic signal control blocks using them.

woody_unreal:
weather proof connections are possable , but the 3 sensors part makes it difficult. since your reducing your wire count run.

I agree.

OP, you ever consider a different sensor type?

How about an automotive fuel tank sending unit?

Fairly inexpensive, reliable, built to take the elements, don't need floating balls in your tank and you'd get a more acurate reading due to it being variable not stepped.

Just throwing it out there.

Good luck!

agree roncoop , even just 3 wires danging in the water at hight, but i think he said something about already having them- (didnt feel like rereading) :slight_smile: so i went with that possable solution - Even just a POT connected to a flowing arm would have worked :slight_smile:

I use these on farms for measuring dam and tank levels:

The good thing is they only need three wires, they provide infinite measurement (not just three levels) and they have no moving parts and are not in contact with the water. i.e. no wear and tear, no corrosion or fouling of terminals.

For $26 they are simple to use and save you time and money over cheaper but less reliable systems.

Just to update everyone on what I decided to do. I bought some of these:

I stick the pins of the hall sensor right into the female jumper wires, then wrap the whole thing in electrical tape, then tape that to the outside of the tank. On the inside, I have a pvc I sawed in half and duct taped to the wall of the tank (which in my case is just a plastic tote box). Inside of the half pvc, I have a simple float made of styrofoam with some rare earth magnets duct taped to the bottom. Put it all together and you have a cheap float sensor.

Originally, I wanted to wire several hall sensors together in series to eliminate the number of wires running a longish distance. There still isn't an elegant solution to this problem, but now I can at least try to wire in series away from the hall sensor pins. But it's such a hassle, so I'll probably just run redundant ground and 5v wires all the way out to the sensors. If I try again to wire in series, I will connect the other end of the female jumper cables to these:

Shrink tubing with hot-melt adhesive inside is good for watertight connections. You can find it at a lot of online suppliers and it's even showing up in hardware and automotive supply shops.

You can also put connections inside a watertight enclosure and use gland nuts for your cables to make something that is pretty much watertight.