New "Vitens" water meter

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Mdamen
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New "Vitens" water meter

Post by Mdamen »

My water company (Vitens) is placing a new water meter at my place next week (monday)
Does anybody know what water meters they use nowadays? I am curious if there some way to interface with it.
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Rene
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Re: New "Vitens" water meter

Post by Rene »

What is the reason they are replacing your current meter?
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Mdamen
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Re: New "Vitens" water meter

Post by Mdamen »

Let me quote the letter (in Dutch):

"Vitens heeft bij u een watermeter geplaatst, waarmee uw waterverbruik wordt gemeten. Op basis van de opgenomen meterstand stuurt Vitens u jaarlijks een afrekening.
Het is dus belangrijk dat de watermeter goed functioneert omdat u tenslotte het juiste verbruik wilt betalen. Daarom vervangen wij periodiek de watermeter. Uiteraard zijn hieraan voor u geen kosten verbonden."

Guess I am getting a smart meter?
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Re: New "Vitens" water meter

Post by Digit »

That would be nice.
When do you plan to start plugging in to it? Monday evening, before dinner? 8)
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Re: New "Vitens" water meter

Post by Mdamen »

Hehe, you know me too well :-)
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Re: New "Vitens" water meter

Post by Bwired »

I'm not so sure, could be just a replacement because its old?
Water companies are not that far regarding smart metering...........
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Re: New "Vitens" water meter

Post by sim »

I have had the same letter. They just replace the old one with a newer type. No way I could get them in replacing it with a meter with a sensor option. Not even when I paid for it myself.

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Re: New "Vitens" water meter

Post by erisan500 »

The standard water meters they install in belgium have a sensor option, i just had to remove the plastic cap and insert a Allegro A3214 Hall-Effect sensor (1€) :)
Check your new meter, when installed, if it has a tiny plastic cap somewhere, and if it has, have fun measuring your water consumption.

Edit:

I went to the vitens website and they had an image of the meter i have:
Image

If they install this one, take a look at the left side, you see a small black plastic cap, remove it and insert a hall-effect switch in there.
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Re: New "Vitens" water meter

Post by Mdamen »

So, today they replaced the meter. The new model is a sensus 620. meterwisseling.nl/UserFiles/File/Downlo ... rs/620.pdf
I seem to be lucky! There is a pulse counter available, the HRI pulse module (sensusesaap.com/files/ls_8100_int_hri_0 ... i_0001.pdf)
Now let's see if I can get one of these units.. for a reasonable price..
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Re: New "Vitens" water meter

Post by Bwired »

Thats good News for you, perhaps you dont need the extra device.
Devices like rfxmeter can be connected i guess. perhaps the connector is not standard...
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Re: New "Vitens" water meter

Post by Mdamen »

I did some more digging.. first I thought it might be possible with a hall effect sensor/reed contact. But it seems the HRI unit really reads the counters, from the manual:

The dial of the 620 meter is equipped as standard
with a pointer able to activate the HRI sensor.
The HRI reproduces the mechanical register index
exactly, by detecting the direction of rotation of
the pointer. It provides a reliable pulse- and data
interface for remote and mobile readout. The
HRI can be fitted in the field on already installed
Sentinel water meters or ordered factory fitted to
the meter.

So I think I need the interface, which is 100 euro's including shipping.. hmmm.. Guess I'll double check with a hall effect sensor first..
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Re: New "Vitens" water meter

Post by Mdamen »

To follow up on this, I've created my own sensor for this watermeter.
Right now it's still in a breadboard phase, I will post some pictures later. The idea is to detect the amount of reflection from a CNY70 reflective sensor to determine the color that is passing (silver reflects more light then red)
Total component cost was like €10,- :D Including a Atmega 328 chip.

Anyone else has this watermeter?
Here's some sample output from the software:

Image

I still have to crosscheck how good this method is after a couple of days though...
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Re: New "Vitens" water meter

Post by Bwired »

So you dont need the extra expensive interface :-)
Thats good!
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Re: New "Vitens" water meter

Post by Mdamen »

Indeed, and I had some fun along the way!
The reason I'm wondering if anyone else has this watermeter, is whether it would be interesting to replicate my setup...
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Re: New "Vitens" water meter

Post by Digit »

Nice job! I'd like to see some pics :)
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