This is almost exactly what I did with mine. The difference is I use a reed switch and a magnet to detect if I have a sump pump failure. Basically, I have the reed switch at the top of a plastic tube and a magnet that floats on some foam. If the sump pump fails, and the water level is greater than 1" past the pump's "on" point, the magnet closes the reed switch and I get a push notification of "sump pump failure". Works extremely well!
This trigboard is definitively a great project. Keep going. Will have one in the bathroom and if I get notified I'll know that my kid is messing around with water haha
This is exactly what I've been looking for. I've got a couple of basement windows that let water into my basement if it rains heavily enough. Right now I only have a couple of WiFi cameras that I have to check again and again. Having a solution like this would be perfect.
You literally just supplied the perfect solution to partners fishtanks overflowing when the filter fluff isn't put in correctly! No need to buy new tanks to replace the "broken" ones now
I suffered a kitchen flood last week. No damage thankfully, everything dried out. It was a burst pipe caused by stupid me failing to isolate an outside tap during a hard frost. Stupid me! I reckon the pipe was burst for just 2-4 minutes and in that time half my kitchen and entire utility room + cupboards were flooded in 2cm of water. Believe me when I say a burst pipe really gushes! You can’t response fast enough with a push notification. However I already have a raspberry pi that’s hardwired into my house carrying out some automation work in my bathroom. It measures hot water temperatures via a 1-wire bus and activates 240V lights and fans via opto-isolated relays. So out of adversity comes opportunity. I’m thinking “why not wire some water sensors like this via my existing 1-wire bus?” . In addition to push notifications, I’m thinking of installing a motorised (normally open) 240V valve on the main water inlet (the same type used in central heating systems), which I can close using a spare relay on my relay board. That should reduce the time to isolation for any leak detected, especially in the middle of the night as had happened to me.
Hi most interesting but for the rain sensor project when the sensor is always outside I think you will find it will corrode across the copper tape and acrylic and go green especially in a town area where there is a lot of acid in the air this is due to the dc potential and is present with all Chinese rain sensors as I am sure you are aware I do love your trig board and I think its potential is almost endless and have watched it grow from the first one you made. Thanks, Bob in the UK
Trigboard seems overkill for the purpose from the cost perspective (of anyone else than you). I really enjoyed the creative use of copper tape though. Great idea, thanks! Finally I have some use for the roll of copper tape I randomly bought half a year ago...
Hi Kevin, thanks for the project idea, as we've had a few leaks in our plumbing over the years. It might even make sense for our house to shut off the water pump when one is detected. In all of your trigboard projects have you ever done something where it can signal if the battery is getting low? These are the kinds of things I'd put in closets and then totally forget about, so maybe a once a month "health ping"?
Ah, found this on the wiki "The board will wake itself up once an hour to check the battery voltage - if running low, a push notification is sent to warn the user."
Hey kevin I your videos are incredibly helpful, I even base some of my projects in your schematics. However doing my research I found that LiPos are not ideal and might be undermining your efforts for long lasting battery life. They self discharge almost completely in about 2 years without consuming any power. Switching to primary alkalines or lithium batteries reduces self discharge dramatically. What are your opinions on this?
thought about that, but based on what I've got running now, I haven't had any issues. I've got a board sitting outside in the mailbox for over a year and still measures 4.1V
This is no joke: remember that a rain sensor that responds instantly to just one drop of water can be quite misleading. IF you live in an area with lots of pigeons, wood pigeons, SEAGULLS, corvids and any other large birds and you position your sensor plate incorrectly both bird crap and pee CAN and WILL set it off! It's better to check the rate of triggering within a short period or use more than one sensor to avoid false triggers. Seriously, this used to happen with my sensor in my old house. I couldn't figure out why my alarm kept going off when I was sat looking out at a very sunny garden with barely a cloud in the sky! Turned out it was right in the landing path of wood pigeons intent on perching on our TV antenna and the last thing they did just prior to landing was empty the waste tanks!! Bastards!
How does it push notify a phone? (I'm clueless on internet programming). Does a server in a cloud monitor it somehow, and send a text, or does it only work if you are at home connected to your wifi with your phone?
Pushbullet has a server to which a client (in this case the Trigboard) can connect to and send a message. Pushbullet will then send a push notification to your phone or other device running the Pushbullet app or a browser extension. Both the message sender and receiver need an internet connection but do not need to be on the same local network.
@@Kevindarrah I recommend checking Pushover also. It can send notifications also to groups (to which you can optionally subscribe to) and has notification prioritizing. For example a message with an emergency priority can override the phone volume setting, repeat the notification with a given interval and/or require one of the recipients to acknowledge it. The pricing model is a onetime purchase per user. It's also turned out to be super reliable. I haven't heard of Push Safer though, I'll check it out!
I think i get the hardware part of this great. However, I'm having trouble on how to do the code part of this. I was looking to do this using MQTT. However, the links for that and also for the push you did just show how to get the service, can't figure out how to setup the code for any of it. I'm pretty much an idiot when i comes to the code part of this. Anything you can recommend? Just an example of the push way you did it would be good.
Haha I was just thinking..what practical thing can I actually make with this esp8266 thing I haven't used for years!! I would also like to monitor my well pump to make sure it doesn't run too long if we have a leak.
When you think about it, in simple bjt model, emitter and collector are interchangeable. In real transistor dopant concentration in emitter is greater than in collector so most of charge carriers from emitter do not recombine in the base and flow to the collector what gives you the amplification. In reverse polarization, you can still get some carriers from collector to pass to the emitter, so you still have a working, be it shitty transistor.
Looking at your circuit diagram you DO have the collector and emiiter shown incorrectly. The EMITTER should be connected to VCC NOT ground as shown and the collector should be connected to the Arduino, preferably with an external load resistor not using an internal Arduino pull down (although it should work just fine). In your diagram there would be a LOW level on the base which should turn the PNP transistor on. If it really is working as shown it's a fluke of using a transistor in reverse. You should triple check the exact pinout for your transistor as different packages typically have different pinouts
@@Kevindarrah well in 45 years as a graduate electronic engineer I've NEVER seen a PNP transistor be able to work correctly, if at all when connected like that. It needs a detailed investigation all on its own.
@@Kevindarrah looking at TO92 packaging on Google, as I expected, you can find pinout diagrams that are completely flipped, ie with the transistor flat face up and the leads pointing toward you the EMITTER might be expected on the left. BUT there are also TO92 packages that are the exact opposite with the COLLECTOR on the left. If the circuit is working properly, it is entirely possible that you may have an equivalent S9012 for example from China that has been marked as 2N3906. They both have TO92 cases but the latter has reversed pinning to the former. With TO92 cases I learnt MANY, MANY years ago to check very carefully. These days, the only sure way to tell (because of Chinese cloning) is to use a component tester to check or a transistor tester to verify which way round you get the expected level of hfe.
yea, well these are from Digikey, but who knows... I'll build a fresh board up and test again. Those two in the video are already in their permanent homes ;)
KD is so great his dunks are so .... whooops i mean the projects are brilliant
This is almost exactly what I did with mine. The difference is I use a reed switch and a magnet to detect if I have a sump pump failure. Basically, I have the reed switch at the top of a plastic tube and a magnet that floats on some foam. If the sump pump fails, and the water level is greater than 1" past the pump's "on" point, the magnet closes the reed switch and I get a push notification of "sump pump failure". Works extremely well!
Another cool use for the Trig board. Thanks for sharing.
This trigboard is definitively a great project. Keep going. Will have one in the bathroom and if I get notified I'll know that my kid is messing around with water haha
very nice! With the Trig Board, would there be an easy way to trigger an alarm of some sorts in parallel to the push notification?
This is exactly what I've been looking for. I've got a couple of basement windows that let water into my basement if it rains heavily enough. Right now I only have a couple of WiFi cameras that I have to check again and again. Having a solution like this would be perfect.
You literally just supplied the perfect solution to partners fishtanks overflowing when the filter fluff isn't put in correctly!
No need to buy new tanks to replace the "broken" ones now
you just gave me an idea - when I fill my hot-tub up... I go out and check the level like every 20minutes. Next time I'll just use this!
I suffered a kitchen flood last week. No damage thankfully, everything dried out. It was a burst pipe caused by stupid me failing to isolate an outside tap during a hard frost. Stupid me!
I reckon the pipe was burst for just 2-4 minutes and in that time half my kitchen and entire utility room + cupboards were flooded in 2cm of water. Believe me when I say a burst pipe really gushes! You can’t response fast enough with a push notification.
However I already have a raspberry pi that’s hardwired into my house carrying out some automation work in my bathroom. It measures hot water temperatures via a 1-wire bus and activates 240V lights and fans via opto-isolated relays.
So out of adversity comes opportunity. I’m thinking “why not wire some water sensors like this via my existing 1-wire bus?” . In addition to push notifications, I’m thinking of installing a motorised (normally open) 240V valve on the main water inlet (the same type used in central heating systems), which I can close using a spare relay on my relay board. That should reduce the time to isolation for any leak detected, especially in the middle of the night as had happened to me.
Hi most interesting but for the rain sensor project when the sensor is always outside I think you will find it will corrode across the copper tape and acrylic and go green especially in a town area where there is a lot of acid in the air this is due to the dc potential and is present with all Chinese rain sensors as I am sure you are aware
I do love your trig board and I think its potential is almost endless and have watched it grow from the first one you made. Thanks, Bob in the UK
thanks, yea I was thinking the same thing. It'll be a fun experiment though - I'll make a followup video on it in a few months
Trigboard seems overkill for the purpose from the cost perspective (of anyone else than you). I really enjoyed the creative use of copper tape though. Great idea, thanks! Finally I have some use for the roll of copper tape I randomly bought half a year ago...
Please come out with an esp32 version of the trigboard for more secure applications.
Hi Kevin, thanks for the project idea, as we've had a few leaks in our plumbing over the years. It might even make sense for our house to shut off the water pump when one is detected. In all of your trigboard projects have you ever done something where it can signal if the battery is getting low? These are the kinds of things I'd put in closets and then totally forget about, so maybe a once a month "health ping"?
Ah, found this on the wiki "The board will wake itself up once an hour to check the battery voltage - if running low, a push notification is sent to warn the user."
Hey kevin I your videos are incredibly helpful, I even base some of my projects in your schematics. However doing my research I found that LiPos are not ideal and might be undermining your efforts for long lasting battery life. They self discharge almost completely in about 2 years without consuming any power. Switching to primary alkalines or lithium batteries reduces self discharge dramatically. What are your opinions on this?
thought about that, but based on what I've got running now, I haven't had any issues. I've got a board sitting outside in the mailbox for over a year and still measures 4.1V
This is no joke: remember that a rain sensor that responds instantly to just one drop of water can be quite misleading. IF you live in an area with lots of pigeons, wood pigeons, SEAGULLS, corvids and any other large birds and you position your sensor plate incorrectly both bird crap and pee CAN and WILL set it off! It's better to check the rate of triggering within a short period or use more than one sensor to avoid false triggers. Seriously, this used to happen with my sensor in my old house. I couldn't figure out why my alarm kept going off when I was sat looking out at a very sunny garden with barely a cloud in the sky! Turned out it was right in the landing path of wood pigeons intent on perching on our TV antenna and the last thing they did just prior to landing was empty the waste tanks!! Bastards!
OMG, that's hilarious! I wasn't even thinking about that, thanks for the tip
How does it push notify a phone? (I'm clueless on internet programming). Does a server in a cloud monitor it somehow, and send a text, or does it only work if you are at home connected to your wifi with your phone?
Pushbullet has a server to which a client (in this case the Trigboard) can connect to and send a message. Pushbullet will then send a push notification to your phone or other device running the Pushbullet app or a browser extension. Both the message sender and receiver need an internet connection but do not need to be on the same local network.
thanks! I actually switched the default code to use Push Safer now - similar to Push Bullet, but with more options and a better pricing model
@@Kevindarrah I recommend checking Pushover also. It can send notifications also to groups (to which you can optionally subscribe to) and has notification prioritizing. For example a message with an emergency priority can override the phone volume setting, repeat the notification with a given interval and/or require one of the recipients to acknowledge it. The pricing model is a onetime purchase per user. It's also turned out to be super reliable.
I haven't heard of Push Safer though, I'll check it out!
A while ago, I experimented with Google app engine. Is there any free service like that that could be used?
I think i get the hardware part of this great. However, I'm having trouble on how to do the code part of this. I was looking to do this using MQTT. However, the links for that and also for the push you did just show how to get the service, can't figure out how to setup the code for any of it. I'm pretty much an idiot when i comes to the code part of this. Anything you can recommend? Just an example of the push way you did it would be good.
Haha I was just thinking..what practical thing can I actually make with this esp8266 thing I haven't used for years!! I would also like to monitor my well pump to make sure it doesn't run too long if we have a leak.
This is helpful. Thank you
Can you replace that sensor you made with sa Water sensor?
When you think about it, in simple bjt model, emitter and collector are interchangeable. In real transistor dopant concentration in emitter is greater than in collector so most of charge carriers from emitter do not recombine in the base and flow to the collector what gives you the amplification. In reverse polarization, you can still get some carriers from collector to pass to the emitter, so you still have a working, be it shitty transistor.
yea, I that just caught me off guard... and you sorta saw my reaction in real time there (I edited out the moment that I noticed it)
Any idea where I could get one in the uk?
Great project. nice little trig board. Hey Kevin, what do you think of 5G and the potential health effects?
Dude. Stop the 5G conspiracy madness. Just stop. Thank you.
@@pamelatragas7638 I can't, i'm not involved. Write to one of the top secret society’s with your complaint.
using WIFI connection, battery drain soon?
Looking at your circuit diagram you DO have the collector and emiiter shown incorrectly. The EMITTER should be connected to VCC NOT ground as shown and the collector should be connected to the Arduino, preferably with an external load resistor not using an internal Arduino pull down (although it should work just fine). In your diagram there would be a LOW level on the base which should turn the PNP transistor on. If it really is working as shown it's a fluke of using a transistor in reverse. You should triple check the exact pinout for your transistor as different packages typically have different pinouts
nope, that's the way it is. Exact part is: 2N3906-AP and you can zoom in on the picture up on the wiki to see it hooked up this way.
@@Kevindarrah well in 45 years as a graduate electronic engineer I've NEVER seen a PNP transistor be able to work correctly, if at all when connected like that. It needs a detailed investigation all on its own.
haha, I know!
@@Kevindarrah looking at TO92 packaging on Google, as I expected, you can find pinout diagrams that are completely flipped, ie with the transistor flat face up and the leads pointing toward you the EMITTER might be expected on the left. BUT there are also TO92 packages that are the exact opposite with the COLLECTOR on the left. If the circuit is working properly, it is entirely possible that you may have an equivalent S9012 for example from China that has been marked as 2N3906. They both have TO92 cases but the latter has reversed pinning to the former. With TO92 cases I learnt MANY, MANY years ago to check very carefully. These days, the only sure way to tell (because of Chinese cloning) is to use a component tester to check or a transistor tester to verify which way round you get the expected level of hfe.
yea, well these are from Digikey, but who knows... I'll build a fresh board up and test again. Those two in the video are already in their permanent homes ;)
It will work with the different networks?
yea, check my channel for the v8 version - supports much more
how can i order trigboard to india
check the Tindie store - I ship there
trigBoard
LoT