Arduino for remote solar application

Hello everyone,
I am in the planning stage of building a remote solar water we for my cattle. The solar end of things doesn’t bother me but the possible reliability issues do. I would like to use an arduino as a ‘tattletale’ to send me two different texts. One for low water level and one for low battery voltage. I would also like to have it shut down the pump if the voltage drops too low (11.9V). Is this feasible? And which components would I need to have it send me texts? I am a complete beginner as far as programming and arduino are concerned.

ABfarmer:
Hello everyone,
I am in the planning stage of building a remote solar water we for my cattle. The solar end of things doesn’t bother me but the possible reliability issues do. I would like to use an arduino as a ‘tattletale’ to send me two different texts. One for low water level and one for low battery voltage. I would also like to have it shut down the pump if the voltage drops too low (11.9V). Is this feasible? And which components would I need to have it send me texts? I am a complete beginner as far as programming and arduino are concerned.

Welcome to the Arduino forum. You can get lots of help from people here, but they cannot do you basic research and design for you. You need to do that first.

As far as being a complete beginner, only you can remedy that and I would begin with one of the Arduino kits that are available.

Are you also a beginner on electrical and wiring and weather proofing?

Paul

Get ready, somebody is gonna jump in and say that you can't just start off with a major project, you have to 'start the beginning and learn the basics' (actually, you can, but you will be very unlikely to succeed). then others wil jump in and say the same thing, and ask what is your level of experience in electronics. Then some goof is gonna ask for the spec.s on everything, links to datasheets, blah, blah, blah... Then somebody will ask how you plan for the arduino to communicate with you, do you have cell service. is it within range of a wifi repeater? all kinds of stuff like that. Problem is they really can't help ya without knowing some/most of that.

Handling the voltage and water level measurements is well within the capabilities of most arduinos, given appropriate sensors. if you are within range of wifi or cell service, there aduinos, or shields (pack-on modules), which can easily handle the communications. there are a number of ways to wire the pump control. I would suggest a solid state relay (SSR, sounds like you'll need a DC one).

now for the bad news: nobody here is gonna write the code for you without getting paid. You WILL have to learn how to write some code. Then ask questions here about parts giving you trouble. You'll get lots of helpful suggestions, well most of the will be helpful.

Have fun, be patient, and learn a lot. Meanwhile, check on the stock every once and a while.

splat.

yeah, what Paul says. knows his stuff.

Are you also a beginner on electrical and wiring and weather proofing?

I'm thinking you are not familiar with farms & farmers

I would like to use an arduino as a 'tattletale' to send me two different texts. One for low water level and one for low battery voltage.

float, switch, digital pin. or, float, potentiometer, analog pin

I would also like to have it shut down the pump if the voltage drops too low (11.9V). Is this feasible?

voltage divider, analog pin. 15 volts in divided by 3 to 5 volts to the Arduino, ( 11.9/3 = 3.967 ) as the cutoff point...

And which components would I need to have it send me texts? I am a complete beginner as far as programming and arduino are concerned.

An Arduino at each end, and 2 transceivers, talking to each other through as serial port

Investigate the ranges claimed for HC-12 & LoRa radios. remote means different things in Massachusetts and Texas

what you get here is pointers and logjam kicking. help is provided to those who are seen helping themselves. just enough to get you moving again.

Monitoring water level is as easy as blinking a led if using a float switch. However you need to get in to blinking a led first.

A bit harder will be the part of sending that message to you back where you are.

I have managed to monitor the water level of a tank and send a message back home when the water level gets low. This is however over a distance of 50 meters which cheap 433 mhz transmitter and receiver.

This was all with reading online, copy pasting code, editing and trying out what works. Matter of fact this is all easy to accomplish on the bench at home with a nice power supply. Out in the field it's a bit harder.

All in all i have for monitoring, a arduino nano, two float switches a 433mhz transmitter, a solar panel, a charging controler charging a 18650 battery and a module to convert battery voltage to 5v and cutoff at to low voltage.

Back home i have a arduino nano, 433mhz receiver and two LEDs. A green one telling me when the level is ok, red when to low and both on when the is no message received this something wrong up at th tank.

meanwhile, over at project hub:

rainwater tank project

You should be inspired by this solar powered water tank monitor, with a radio link.

Hi,
What is the range you need metres, kilometers?
Is the distance line of sight or are there obstacles in the way?

Thanks.. Tom... :slight_smile:

If you need water to be of potable quality then you could go for non contact measurements like ultrasonic distance sensors which would give you exact % of water left in the tank. But opt for waterproof ones like this (Sealed Waterproof ultrasonic/distance small blind sensor arduino Fully Genuine | eBay) as they last longer. You could go for WiFi initially and send updates and alarms directly to your mobile. ESP boards (Esp8266 Esp-12e Ch340g WiFi Lua Wireless Development Board Module NodeMCU Lua V3 for sale online | eBay) are much cheaper as compared to arduino WiFi shields and SSR (Solid State Relay) could be used for switching pump on/off (https://www.ebay.com/itm/254172070146).

Yes I am competent with electrical and waterproofing. I work as a heavy equipment mechanic on oil field equipment so a lot of the equipment is proprietary and needs to be extremely weatherproof. Range would be about 100km so I would need to send it over cellular network. I think a gsm shield is the correct add-on for this? I would be using a float switch to monitor the ‘low’ level. I’ve ordered an arduino starter kit as well as a “C++ for dummies” book so hopefully I can figure this out. If not it will be some good experience!! Thanks for all your replies!!

Welcome to the Forum !
your project seems simple and a great first project.
the high low sensing should be a simple start.

the actual water level is a bit tricky.
you can get a waterproof ultrasonic sensor to detect level. newping.h library does the heavy lifting for you.
it is able to measure to about 3/8 inch resolution. (10 mm) so you would get readings of 60mm 70mm 80 mm....

if you wanted higher accuracy, you could spend a bit more money and get a submerged tank sensor. this would be able to give you readings in the sub mm sensitivity range.

the high low switches are very simple, you might even go with 6 of those to get steps of level.

I would suggest you put one together for something in your backyard, a water trough or a rain water tank for example.
then you would have some feedback and be able to test as well as experiment.

once you have the hang of it, the cellular bit should be easier to tackle.

As was posted, there should be quite a few tutorials on exactly what you want. I know that it comes up each year.

as a note, if you google arduino water level or arduino ultrasonic or adruino hat... your searches have better results.

ultrasonic sensors

some like to suggest using a compressor and an air pressure sensor. you use a tube, pump in air until it bubbles out the bottom.the, when you shut off the compressor, the water pressure will compress the air in the tube and you can measure air pressure. I don't like using things like compressors, even the tiny battery powered fishing bait compressors. personal preference.

Beware with the waterproof ultrasonic sensors model sr04t. I counted not get my modules to read reliable with the newping library. I had two modules from two diffrent vendors.

Went with the simple float switches works like a charm.

Bringamosa:
Beware with the waterproof ultrasonic sensors model sr04t. I counted not get my modules to read reliable with the newping library. I had two modules from two diffrent vendors.

Went with the simple float switches works like a charm.

Change the delay to 30m
The version 2 was programmed a bit different in the PIC chip that runs the board.

dave-in-nj:
Change the delay to 30m
The version 2 was programmed a bit different in the PIC chip that runs the board.

I know of that change. I tried diffrent delays. For me once in the so many readings it would give me a reading way lower or higher.

I know you could leave those readings out with coding but that was a bit above my skill level :stuck_out_tongue:

ABfarmer:
Yes I am competent with electrical and waterproofing. I work as a heavy equipment mechanic on oil field equipment so a lot of the equipment is proprietary and needs to be extremely weatherproof. Range would be about 100km so I would need to send it over cellular network. I think a gsm shield is the correct add-on for this? I would be using a float switch to monitor the ‘low’ level. I’ve ordered an arduino starter kit as well as a “C++ for dummies” book so hopefully I can figure this out. If not it will be some good experience!! Thanks for all your replies!!

Keep in mind that arduino code is based on c++ and not exactly the same. However, what i understood, if you mastered c++ arduino should be easy enough.

For the float switches i used this type

I did not attach them to the tank but to a pvc pipe that goes into the tank. I am not sure who it was but one forum member had some nice pictures of his setup and was kind enough to share his sketch. Based on that i was able to get mine sending signals down to the house.

I have square PVC tubing from fence pickets. with one of the step drills you can get a hole so it will fit.
since the float switches are so cheap, you can 5 or 10 to get low/med/high readings and a very good, simple way to go.

I like the analog ultra sonic because it offers more steps, but it is not precise as one might want. I get step readings. easily resolve one inch and I am confident on readings withing a 1/2 inch. get some with higher resolution but for the fuel oil tank I really use it to make sure I never go below a half tank.

for the rain barrel, it is a way to watch when things get near the top.

as for the me, I get a random spurious value, not very frequent.
take 10 readings, if one is more than 1 inch out, it is ignored. but that was just to clean up readings over a day, it was not important.

As to the OP and this project, I would highly recomend getting a bunch of float switches. simple to use, cheap and you can put a lot on one Arduino.

the actual water level part is simple. the only part that might be difficult is the cellular.
here in the states we have some friends and family cell plans and you can add a phone (SIMM CARD) for cheap.
some of the pre-paid offer cheap use for text only so are also a low cost option.

it would seem that if there was some civilization around, one could LoRa to a WiFi, but out in the back country, even cell service might be hard to get.