Alaxa Water meter

[Bwired]

Good News and your site looks great! A litlle slow but nice looking.
Tell us how you connected the pulsecounter to the 1-Wire TAI8586

[Kroonen]

Well, it's slow, because I'm downloading about 4gig...so later on, he should be faster...I'm still working to get more on it..

The watermeter, just simple +5v to water meter, from other side of water meter to J11 of the TAI8586, and - form power on the other pin of the J11.

1-wire on the rj11 the to in the middle, no external power on that one. The schema of aag, says a rj12, put there are nog 6 but 4 contacts.

[Bwired]

Ok keep us posted on the final result

[Kroonen]

Well here we are after a day of water usage, also with washing etc.

Last time I did it withe the counter from hobby-boards
I had 321 on my watermeter, and counter on 341,5


Well here it is the new one, with the aag optouplered

watermeter old: 17370165
watermeter now: 17372787

difference = 2622/10 = 262,2 Liter

Counter tai8586 old: 574
counter tai8586 new: 1086

difference = 512/2 = 256 Liter

So I have a difference of : 262,2 - 256 = 6,2 Liter

So the coclusion is now that the tai counter is less than the watermeter (so the noise is away, so optocouplers are needed)

The deviation (afwijking) is ong 2,5%. I use around 105m3 so it should be around 102m3.

The question now is is the alaxa or the meter from my watercompany the 100% correct one......

[Noel]

You are paying for the water used showing on the water companies meter, so personally I would think that that's the correct reading.

---
Never start anything you can't fi

[Bwired]

I have the Alaxa running for several years now. I'm don't check the exact figures like you do, I just check if I stay within the same M3, and for years it's doing that. There will always be some deviation. lets run it for some weeks and see again how much it is.

[Jfn]

I managed to get hold of two Alaxa water meters, but I have a few questions on how to install them. Pipe diameter used in my house is 15mm.

- Did you use the supplied adapters with the water-meter, or did you buy your own?

The adapters I got with the watermeters are 0,5 inch:



At least, that is what the package says:



I measured the inside diameter of the supplied adapter and found it to be 14mm ...

- Are there adapters available that connect the 15mm piping directly to the watermeter (without the need to use 2 adapter on each side: Watermeter --> 0,5inch and 0,5inch --> 15mm)

The local hardware store sells 15mm-0,5 adapters, so mounting the meter with the supplied adapters (should a direct connection not be possible) is also an option.

- The adapters from the hardware store need to be soldered to the piping. How do you do this when the place where I need to fit the meter is a piece of piping that runs almost vertically (red line). It is an angle of about 60 degrees:



Soldering the adapter that goes on top is not a problem. Heat it up and capillairity will make sure the solder flows where it needs to go.

- The adapter that goes at the bottom however, needs to be fitted on a piece of piping I rather not remove. The solder therefore will need to flow 'upwards'. Does capillairity take care of this, or does gravity do what it always does?

- WIll the 0,5inch adapter provide for an adequate flow of water?

Because of all the 'hassle' I am thinking of letting a plumber do the job. This will set me back about E 100,-, but I will not have to worry about cutting piping too short etc ...


Als het niet gerepareerd kan worden dan is het niet kapot!

[Bwired]

Take the Alaxa watermeter to the local plumber shop (Dutch: Praxis etc) then buy the connectors which will convert to 15 CM. You will need to do some soldering. They have the connectors which are standard. You need to place the Alaxa after the original watermeter otherwise you are in violating. Check out the image in this topic about the Alaxa.
It's fairly simple, i did it myself to!
Regards Pieter

[Digit]

As long as you have a piece of straight pipe long enough to hold the water meter including fiitings, it should be fairly easy. And as Pieter said, take the meter to the local plumber for additional rings you can use to convert to the diameter needed.
Here's my "u-turn" construction that was needed to fit my water meter:
http://www.hekkers.net/albums/Domotica/ ... _4640.html

[Jfn]

@Digit: I already had an extensive look at your photo's but was not sure about the adapters you were using.

@Bwired: I was planning the installation of the water meter on the left side of the current water meter, in the piece of piping I marked with a red stripe.

I checked a DIY shop just around the corner here ('Karwei') but they did not have an adapter that connects the 15mm piping directly to the watermeter (without also using the included adapter).

Afraid of some plumbing I am not, but to be able to solder I need to buy several pieces of equipment: pipe-cutter, gas-burner, S-65 lubricant (S-65 is for pipes holding potable water, S-39 is not), lead-free solder. I did not yet check what this is going to cost me, but I always look at how much it would cost me to do it myself versus letting a professional do it for me (With the additional assurance it is done right).

I did quite some soldering in my life, but that soldering was limited to electronic projects only.

I only fear that I cut the pipes too short and need to do even more soldering.

But you probably know the saying: If in doubt, don't!

So that is why I have an appointment with the local plumber this week (From the same company that also services my central heating system). I will go over there and show them the water-meter, just to make sure that they know what they are up to. Should be a piece of cake for them from what I heard over the phone.


Als het niet gerepareerd kan worden dan is het niet kapot!

[Jfn]

I talked to the plumber today. He convinced me to first try it myself.

Non-solder adapters 15mm --> 3/4" ('Knelkoppelingen') are not available, or at least hard to get.

I paid a visit to a much larger DIY store ('Praxis') as the one just around the corner and found four 15mm --> 3/4" adapters. Bought some solder-paste and led-free solder.

This saturday is installation day. When there are any graphs to show you will find them here.


Als het niet gerepareerd kan worden dan is het niet kapot!

[Bwired]

OK good luck!
If we are out of water then we know what happened

[Jfn]

It took some time, it took some extra soldering I had not anticipated, but it is working: My own watermeter is counting water-usage. The black tape on the piping is because of sharp edges (I cut my finger):



It seems very accurate. When filling a water-heater with 1 liter of water the counter measures 2 pulses (1 pulse per 0,5 liter).

The bucket is still there to check for any possible water-leaks tomorrow.

I did found out that the plumbing (not the part I did) is leaking a very little bit, a drop of water every 3 minutes or so. So this means I am dealing with a very small leak. I will be redoing part of the plumbing this summer to fix this.

Graphics will be available shortly. At the moment only the starting value of the counter is in the database, so nothing to show at the moment.

Als het niet gerepareerd kan worden dan is het niet kapot!

[Digit]

Congratulations, well done!

[Jfn]

I am happy too it is working. The first time I fitted the meter one of the adapters (15mm --> 3/4) was leaking so I had to replace it. This meant inserting a small piece of pipe and a new adapter.

But hey, it is counting and that is what matters now. When I feel like it I will be mounting the meter for the hot-water supply.


Als het niet gerepareerd kan worden dan is het niet kapot!