Water Level Sensor calibration.

[Sacohen]

I may have a situation where I need to glue the Water Level sensor pipe into place.
That would make it impossible to calibrate the 0 setting out of the water like it says to do in the directions.

Can the RA calibrate the 0 setting with water in the pipe at the lowest possible level it would ever be at?

[cosmith71]

I don't see why not.

If it's not a super long run of tubing then you could also just disconnect it at the sensor and use that for 0.

--Colin

[Sacohen]

It's going to be about a 22" pipe.

[cosmith71]

Before you glue it into place, check the 0 calibration values with it attached and with it off. That should give you some idea. The problem with just using the method you described as 0 is if you ever need to re-calibrate you'll have to empty your container.

[Sacohen]

Yeah I'm aware of that.
It's something I'm considering when doing my planning and making my decision.

What I wanted to do is the following, but I can't find anything to glue the PVC reducer bushing to the bottom on the Brute trash can (polyethylene) so I'm considering going outside and would think the bottom of the pipe needs to be glued so it doesn't leak when the can is full.

[ucez]

Tagging along to see if you got this to work. I'm thinking about the same type of set-up.

[Sacohen]

I wound up going out of the bottom on the trash can and then running a pipe up.
I used a Uniseal in the bottom of the can and it holds water fine.

I have not calibrated it and used it yet, but I don't see an issue with it.
On one of my 2 trash cans that I've set up this way I did not glue the bottom 90° on the outside and it is holding water fine.



The only issue I can see is calibrating or re-calibrating will not be the easiest.

I've thought about butting a shut off valve right above the outside elbow so I can shut it off, pull the pipe to get a 0 reading and then putting the pipe back in and opening it up to get the 100% reading.

[ucez]

Makes sense. I'm not quite as confident that the pipe will hold without glue so will need a way to take it apart. Thinking I'll go with the shut off valve, plus union.

I read in another thread that there was an issue with the calibration range on the water level sensor. It sounded like the library for the water level might get updated, but wasn't sure. Do you know if that's been done or will I need to modify the code?

[Sacohen]

Yeah. If you do that though you will need to have a piece of pipe that is the length of the shut off valve attached to another union bottom that you can attach to the WL pipe that will bring the total length of the WL pipe to the same as when it is attached to the trash can or your 0% level will be incorrect.

[ucez]

Is there any reason why mounting to the side wouldn't work? To calibrate the 0, you would have to empty the bucket below the WL line and there would be residual water in the bucket at the 0, but is there any issue with the WL sensor?

[Sacohen]

No.
Either way you are going to have to empty the bucket below the WL line and there would be residual water in the bucket at the 0.
I just wanted my 0 to be lower than if it was coming out of the side.

[Sacohen]

Actually mounting out of the side there may be a problem when the water gets to the horizontal part of the WL pipe.

I'm not sure how it will react to that amount of air that is in the horizontal portion of the pipe.