Using a water flow sensor with DomBus modules
Water flow sensors are useful to measure the cold and hot water consumption. Some water flux sensors are based on a hall sensor to measure the internal rotor spin, generating pulses up to 100-200 Hz.
Hall water flow sensors are not sensitive sensors, expecially if iron made like the one shown in the picture, so we suggest to choose meters with the best sensitivity, for example 1-30 l/min, using brass material: be careful that if flow rate is lower than 1 liter per minute, sensor will output 0 pulses!
DomBus modules are able to work with high speed sensors, generating up to 500 pulses/seconds, are optimized for very low power consumption and usually have many versatile ports that can be configured as inputs, outputs, counters, sensors, ...
The cheaper DomBus module that can be used with the flow meter is DomBus12, which is able to manage up to 9 GPIO (9 sensors, buttons, switches, ....)
The picture below shows how DomBus37 has been connected to some temperature sensors, alarm sensors, water flow sensor and power/energy meters.
Using the water flow meter, temperature sensors, energy meters with DomBus37 and Domoticz
When DomBus modules are used with Domoticz, (in this case, DomBus37 module programmed with DomBus protocol), you have to configure:
- NTC temperature sensors (10k at 25°C, B=3950) as IN_ANALOG,FUNCTION=3950;
- water flow meter is configured as IN_COUNTER,A=0.0025 (400 pulses per liter) with divider parameter=1000 to convert from litre to m³;
- power/energy meters (DDS238-2) as IN_COUNTER,TYPENAME=kWh,DIVIDER=2000