A look inside a fluid flow rate sensor.

Ebay is full of industrial control components that used to cost an arm and a leg to buy from local distributors. With the current era of Arduino control systems and online ordering from China, you can buy these control components at a fraction of the cost. So low, that it's worth just buying them to take to bits.
This is a look inside a fluid control monitor that uses a turbine arrangement to detect the flow and speed of liquid, and represent it as a series of pulses that will be faster at higher flow rates.

[@ChrisFredriksson]

Thanks for sharing the teardown! =)

[@Andromedan]

I use these sensors for monitoring monitoring the level in the fresh water tanks on my boat. Very handy knowing when I need to find a water point ;) Funnily enough, as you mention, with an Arduino at the core, driving an LCD. Having now had over 16,000 litres of water passed through them, I can say they're as reliable as any "industrial" version I've ever used. They're also reasonably accurate, in my testing down to +/-50ml.

[@jusb1066]

i used for several years one of those submersible water pumps (whale) from a camping shops, to pump diesel, didnt have any issues with it

[@faizuddinismail4120]

helo sir, how you calibrate your flowmeter.?i already tried so many ways but i got no realistic data :( help me

[@youpattube1]

As you can tell from your videos that I comment about, I have started from the oldest on your list and am working my way to modernity. I enjoy your videos so much, it is like I have found a stash of gold. I heard you mentioned by a youtube creator named Steve Summers, who said that almost everything he knows about electronics he learned from your videos. So I had to take a look. With regard to your discussing how only a short while ago these fluid flow sensors were very expensive. Up until I saw your video, that was the mode I was still caught in. I layed out about $70 a few months ago for a meter that really wasn't what I wanted, but it was the closest I could find, and thought the price was good. I will be buying some more reasonably priced ones soon thanks to you. This is the third really intetesting product that I have got out of your videos I have seen so far. Thanks.

[@engineniel5577]

⁹ppb9lb9bibb9b

[@juliomaruyama]

Thank you I search for video like this

[@PunakiviAddikti]

That's quite nice, the compartment with the little gear thing is completely sealed. The magnet obviously triggers the hall effect sensor through the compartment walls, thus the water never comes into contact with the electronics. Magnets are quite neat fof these applications. They can even be used to apply torque through barries, for an example to drive a propeller that's in water but keeping the motor inside a dry enclosure. Nikko even used magnets in their vintage submarines, to drive the propellers and turning mechanism while keeping the electronics completely sealed. They have quite powerful little magnets.

[@topilinkala1594]

I've only worked on the waste water side of the modern water system. There our flow sensors were inductive. Big coils inside ceramics in a pipe section. Had to take those out regularily and wash them as even those could not give useful information when crud was clinging to the walls. You can imagine that any turbine type detector would be totally unreliable when water with clumps in it goes through.

[@PunakiviAddikti]

@@topilinkala1594 Yeah, pretty much. There might be some solid-state options for that type of application.

[@SeanBZA]

They may be low cost, but they are pretty reliable. I have some in an ink jet printer ( continuous jet type, not the cheap ones you attach to a PC) and they live in MEK based ink and so far after 5 years of use they have no problems. Though those are made from PTFE castings not nylon.They use the same style of fitting, yours should have come with 2 small stainless steel reinforcing inserts for the tubing for use with more than 1 bar of pressure, otherwise the tube will pop out of the ferrule.

[@picobyte]

I really love urban tech these days. Everything is available! Some dudes I know has these sensors to measure their lanparty beerflow :)

[@SaierSensorFactory]

We have a lot of this sensor, welcome you to contact me .www.saiersensor.com ,My alibaba: https//saiersensor.en.alibaba.com

[@tohopes]

But do you sell on aliexpress..

[@jusb1066]

i had imagined this would be more like a reverse of a peristaltic pump

[@zeeshankhan-cn7fk]

i wanted to fix this sensor to my bike to sense the flow of fuel from tank to engine, will it work on that case. please suggest me

[@bookfnature9728]

So this thing gives signal of (start) when in rotates and (stop) signal when it stops rotating right???

[@phisitja01]

thank

[@BoomBoxDeluxe]

Aaaah, that's interesting. I've always wanted to know how a flow detector worked because there's obviously one or more in a combi boiler and it has to detect water flow when a tap is turned on in order to fire the gas burner. The thing is though..... Around our previous house, we had an under-sink instant gas-fired water heater and that had no electrics in it at all. The only thing I can think of, is the flow detector in that relied on mains water pressure to act on a diaphragm of some kind which then forced closed a gas valve. Upon opening a tap, the mains pressure in the diaphragm dropped-off, thus the gas valve opened and the burner fired. But then..... If the mains water supply was lost, that would mean that there would be no pressure on the diaphragm to stop the gas flow, so that would mean that the gas burner would fire up, the whole thing would boil and explode! So maybe it didn't rely on mains water pressure to keep the gas flow turned off? Quite how that non-electrical instant gas-fired water heater worked inside still remains a mystery, and you know, there's probably an extremely simple mechanism in there which only allows the burner to fire when there's a suitable water flow through the heat exchanger. Hmmm...... Thanx for showing, -BoomBoxDeluxe. _11th April 2015, 14.10_

[@ErlendErvik]

More likely something pushed by the water flow when you use water. You think a bit too complex about it. If you compare input & output pressure of the heater, then it will be highly flow dependent, and not actually depend on the absolute water pressure.

[@cpace123]

How would one get this to work? so basically while water is running I would want an led on?

[@stabileseitenlage]

Sounds like you want a small generator. While the water is running it's generating electricity to run the LED.

[@justsayin9192]

Will they work with diesel fuel, i wanr to do indicator with arduino how much my tractor is consuming fuel per hour.?

[@borntoloveish]

Hi what is the female connector called as?

[@CreativeDesk]

Sir, Can i use these sensors for petrol flow measurement ?

[@bigclivedotcom]

+Ajay Nikam If only suggest using properly rated ones for petrochemical measuring.

[@engineerhd5672]

Will this sensor be accurate for smaller scale applications? for instance determine the amount of metal poured from a 1 liter bottle.

[@bigclivedotcom]

+HenneH I don't think it would be that accurate. By metal do you mean mercury?

[@engineerhd5672]

I meant water sorry. Will this sensor be accurate for smaller scale applications? for instance determine the amount of water poured from a 1 liter bottle.

[@bigclivedotcom]

+HenneH No. I don't think it would be terribly accurate for that. It's probably better suited to a steady flow rate where a small amount of error is OK.

[@engineerhd5672]

Thanks a lot

[@jameslawrence8734]

+TRUTH HD a peristaltic pump would be able to pump a measured amount from your 1 liter bottle. unfortunately i have trouble finding one other than www.adafruit.com/product/1150 that i would be willing to trust. I am seeing them half that price on ebay.

[@renton9999]

*stops video* it will be the same type of circuitry use in computer fans used to detect the fan speed *starts video* yup, same type

[@muhammadhaziq1255]

Can we measure airflow with this sensor?

[@bigclivedotcom]

You do get airflow sensors.

[@phils4634]

This is not good - I WANT one of those :-D The casing looks as if it's made from Acetal ("Delrin") so chemical resistance might be good (OK with water-based solutions and most hydrocarbons)

[@klasgroup]

Not very accurate, they have upto 20 % error