water-counter

Monitor a water meter with Arduino and infrared light sensor to capture counter value and consumption of water.

The software consists of two parts:

• Data acquisition part running on an Arduino Pro Mini. It controls the infrared light barrier, detects trigger levels and communicates with the Raspberry Pi over serial connection.
• Data recording part running on a the Raspberry Pi. It retrieves the data from the Arduino over serial port and stores counter and consumption values into a round robin database.

There is a blog in german language that explains use case and function: Infrarot Lichtschranke mit Arduino und Raspberry Pi zum Auslesen des Wasserzählers.

Commands from host (RasPi) to Arduino

• D - retrieve and print raw data
• T - enter trigger mode and print trigger data (0/1)
• S low high - Set trigger levels (e.g. 85 90)
• C - Cancel data acquisition and enter command mode

Arduino is in trigger mode upon start - Send C to enter command mode

Schematics

Construction