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Sensor-based water flow tracking across La Finka's water systems. Related: Smart Home & Environmental Systems Integration.

skills:: #MCU #sensor
lead:: @Niko
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Project - Overview

ToDo:: Write Overview

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Purpose

To establish a comprehensive water flow tracking system across La Finka, aiming to measure and analyze water movement through different zones to enhance water management and conservation practices.

Objectives

Background Info

Expanding on La Finka's existing gravity-fed irrigation infrastructure by incorporating advanced measurement technologies to gain a better understanding of water dynamics on the property.

Project - Details

Scope

Implementation of water flow sensors at key points within the property's irrigation system, including data collection and analysis capabilities.

Milestones

A - Technology Selection

B - System Installation

C - Data Collection and Analysis

Tasks

Recommended Stack & Swale Travel-Time MVP (260713)

Site: 1.7 ac, 4000 Plumas St. Backend in the basement; a wire can run to the attic for an elevated gateway. Home Assistant already running (power monitoring + smart switches); a Z-Wave antenna handles the door locks. Irrigation is gravity-fed.

Radio → LoRa. The far swale checkpoint is only ~250–380 ft from the house, but the right radio for battery field nodes is still LoRa — low-power, long-range, reliable at ground level through wet vegetation. WiFi is marginal at that distance through foliage and burns more power; Z-Wave stays on the door locks (wrong radio for spread battery field sensors). At 1.7 ac range is a non-issue, so use cheap LoRa gear — no LoRaWAN complexity required.

Gateway → attic. Put the LoRa base in the attic (use the basement→attic wire run) with the antenna high. Elevation blankets all 1.7 ac with margin; the base bridges to HA over MQTT.

The travel-time trick. To answer "how long does water take to reach point X," you don't need moisture curves everywhere — you need a timestamped "water arrived HERE." Put a cheap water-presence probe at each swale checkpoint (two stainless rods, or a float, at the swale invert). HA logs the rising edge at each node during a release; travel time = Δ between node timestamps. Add a capacitive soil-moisture probe only where infiltration depth also matters.

Per node (swale checkpoint) — ≈ $35–40

Base / gateway (attic) — ~$20–120: a second LoRa32 as receiver → MQTT bridge to HA (ESPHome or a tiny script); or a Dragino LPS8 if going full LoRaWAN.

3-node MVP (~$130–150): base in attic + 3 checkpoints along one swale in the big field (head / mid / tail). Prove the travel-time readout end-to-end, then fan out.

Power & weather — non-negotiable: capacitive sensors, never resistive (resistive corrodes in weeks buried); IP67 + potted electronics + cable glands; deep-sleep between samples; sample faster once a node first sees water (~30–60 s adaptive cadence) to catch the wetting front sharply.

HA integration: each node publishes presence/moisture over MQTT; HA records timestamps; a template sensor / automation computes front-arrival per node and the Δt between checkpoints — so every release auto-produces a travel-time reading + a dashboard tile. See Smart Home & Environmental Systems Integration.

Alternatives to the DIY LoRa path:

Decision (260713): LoRaWAN backbone — sensors-only, no Meshtastic comms layer. Per-node DIY-vs-buy is still open (buy calibrated sensors, make custom ones) — full sensor landscape + rollout in Research - LoRaWAN Sensors (Smart Homestead).

Project - Resources

Budget

Materials & Tools

Equipment

References / Examples:

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Technologies

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Collaboration and Participation

How to Get Involved

Potential Partnerships

Created: 260713-15:47

Updated: 260713-15:47