Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42 | Household Water Usage Monitoring System |
Advait Renduchintala Daniel Baker Jack Walberer |
Pusong Li | design_document1.pdf design_document2.pdf proposal1.pdf proposal2.pdf |
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| Team Members: - Daniel Baker (drbaker5) - Jack Walberer (johnaw4) - Advait Renduchintala (advaitr3) # Problem In our apartment, we pay an additional water fee if we go over a certain threshold. When we do, we have no specific information about where we can reduce our water usage. For example, we would like to know if one specific shower is using more water than other showers so that we can tell that roommate to reduce their shower duration. In addition this product can encourage a reduction in water usage in general, which is good for the environment. # Solution We plan to make an IoT Water Usage Monitors that individually record the usage of an individual water source. These monitors will attach to the water source (shower pipe, faucet, etc) and measure the water usage over the selected period of time. The client will have a dashboard listing their water usage monitors in their household, where they can name each device for easier identification. This dashboard will also show each device’s water usage so they can quickly identify the high water usage sources. Each device will have an onboard information display with the client’s name of the device and its respective usage. Describe your design at a high-level, how it solves the problem, and introduce the subsystems of your project. # Solution Components Ultrasonic Sensor Explain what the subsystem does. Explicitly list what sensors/components you will use in this subsystem. Include part numbers. ## Subsystem 1 - Water Source Attachment Subsystem (Hardware) Each device will attach to the water source via a clamping mechanism. The clamping mechanism allows for easy attachment to various pipe sizes. ## Subsystem 2 - Water Flow Rate Measurement Subsystem (Hardware & Software) Each device will have a mounting brace and two Ultrasonic Sensor integrated with the clamping mechanism to measure the flow rate through the pipe. When we design the mounting braces for our bathroom faucets we will measure the diameter of the outer pipe. This will be used to get the cross sectional area of the inner pipe, while the ultrasonic sensors will measure the difference in time between sending and receiving signals to each other. Using this difference in time, we can use the following equation to calculate the velocity of the water in the pipe: v = [c2 * (T2 - T1)] / [2 * L* cos(theta)]. Where v is the flow velocity of the fluid. Where L is the length of the ultrasonic path between the transducers. Where c is the speed of sound in the fluid. Where theta is the angle between the ultrasonic path and the direction of flow. Where T2 - T1 is the transit time difference between the ultrasonic sensors/transducers. Ttotal The overall time for the ultrasonic pulse to travel from the transmitting transducer to the receiving transducer. Twalls The time taken for the pulse to traverse both pipe walls. Tfluid The time taken for the pulse to travel across the fluid inside the pipe. Ttotal = Twalls + Tfluid Twalls = 2 * (dwall / cwall) Tfluid = Ttotal - Twalls Dinner = cfluid * Tfluid Dwall is pipe thickness that will be measured manually before we mount the monitoring system. To get this we need to manually measure Dwall to use the equation as well as mount our monitoring system. Our unknown/what we’re trying to figure out is the Dinner which will be used for figuring out the flow rate. Combining this velocity and cross sectional area, we can find the flow rate: Q = vA. All these computations will be done via the onboard microcontroller ESP32 with wifi. ## Subsystem 3 - Water Usage Dashboard (Software & Hardware) The water usage dashboard will be hosted on a website and will include a table/chart with descriptive information showing water usage statistics. This website will be constructed using React, Node, JavaScript, HTML/CSS. We will use GitHub pages to host this website so it can be easily accessed locally by the microcontroller and the rest of Subsystem #2. ## Subsystem 4 - Onboard Information Display (Hardware) We plan using a LCD Display that’s relatively small because we want to show the current water usage and the unique ID we assign the specific monitor. This LCD display will be connected to the microcontroller so that the data can be fetched from the webpage where the data will be stored and updated accordingly. # Criterion For Success Describe high-level goals that your project needs to achieve to be effective. These goals need to be clearly testable and not subjective. -Devices accurately measure the amount of water from the sink each time it is turned on, when the sink is shut off, device resets. To test this we will fill ½ gallon of water using the sink, time it and ensure we follow a scientific process to ensure we get accurate and unbiased flow results. We will then use what our monitoring system outputs to compare to the actual amount to ensure that the system works as intended. -Devices connect to each other and successfully send measurements to the website. To ensure this, we will first set up the webpage with code that can be tested independently of the system. We will then also test whether the microcontroller is sending the accurate data to the webpage. This will ensure that the webpage works and also ensure that the microcontroller is sending accurate data. |
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