Water Level SensorRoboticsCreativeTech.pdf
- 2. • If you’ve ever had a water heater explode or attempted to build submersible electronics, you know how important it is to detect the presence of water. • That is exactly what this Water Level Sensor allows you to do! It can measure the water level, monitor a sump pit, detect rainfall, and detect leaks.
- 3. HARDWARE OVERVIEW • The sensor has ten exposed copper traces, five of which are power traces and the remaining five are sense traces. These traces are interlaced so that there is one sense trace between every two power traces. • Normally, power and sense traces are not connected, but when immersed in water, they are bridged. There is a Power LED on the board, which will light up when the board is powered.
- 4. HOW DOES A WATER LEVEL SENSOR WORK? • The operation of the water level sensor is fairly simple. • The power and sense traces form a variable resistor (much like a potentiometer) whose resistance varies based on how much they are exposed to water.
- 5. This resistance varies inversely with the depth of immersion of the sensor in water: • The more water the sensor is immersed in, the better the conductivity and the lower the resistance. • The less water the sensor is immersed in, the poorer the conductivity and the higher the resistance. • The sensor generates an output voltage proportional to the resistance; by measuring this voltage, the water level can be determined.
- 6. WATER LEVEL SENSOR PINOUT The water level sensor is extremely simple to use and only requires three pins to connect.
- 8. WIRING A WATER LEVEL SENSOR TO AN ARDUINO Let’s hook up the water level sensor to the Arduino. To begin, connect the + (VCC) pin on the module to 5V on the Arduino and the – (GND) pin to ground. One well-known issue with these sensors is that they have a shorter lifespan because they are constantly exposed to moisture. Moreover, constantly applying power to the sensor while immersed in water significantly accelerates the rate of corrosion. To avoid this, it is recommended that the sensor be turned on only when taking readings. One easy way to do this is to connect the sensor’s power pin to a digital pin on an Arduino and set it to HIGH or LOW as needed. So, we’ll connect the + (VCC) pin to the Arduino’s digital pin #7. Finally, connect the S (Signal) pin to the Arduino’s A0 ADC pin.
- 10. WATER LEVEL MONITORING Hardware Required: • LCD 1602 • Water Level Sensor • 220/330Ω Resistor • 10KΩ Potentiometer • USB Cable • Arduino Uno R3 • Breadboard • Jumper wires
- 11. ARDUINO CODE
- 12. After uploading the sketch, open the Serial Monitor window to view the output. When the sensor is dry, it will output a value of 0; however, as the sensor is immersed in water, the output will gradually increase.