Color Sensor-Based Water Quality Tracker: DIY Environmental Monitoring

[@OriginalCircuit]

This is really great Katie, our house is supplied by bore water which has very high quantities of dissolved iron, as soon as this hits our water tank (or more specifically, the atmosphere) the ferrous ions bond with oxygen to make rust particles. I have filters in that tank to remove most of it before it gets to the house's piping but the quantity if rust particles does build up in the tank. Just today I received a new filter housing so I can run a pump to try to clear up the water in the tank periodically - your colour sensor concept would be a great way to detect the tank needs flushing and schedule it at a time it wont wake everyone up!

[@hifromkatie]

I hadn't thought of that at all, but my parents are on a borehole, and occasionally if the filtering needs cleaning then we'll spot it first when the glass of water your about to drink is the wrong colour! I hadn't thought of offering them this sensor, but it might pick up a bit earlier than the water colour being an orange/brown!

[@tonydonnelly]

Turbidity is the measurement of the clarity of water, which along with total dissolved solids and pH are the first basic steps of determining water quality. Your sensor is a really good start in determining inline turbidity. I'm definitely putting that sensor on my to-do list!

[@hifromkatie]

Thanks. The person who gave me the idea for the project, outlined that a sensor that was cheap to put in loads of places would be useful. Then when they've detected there might be a problem they could bring out the specialist (expensive) monitoring equipment to investigate that location.

[@vibheeshvelayudha2706]

Hi Tony, I need help in choosing an INLINE/DYNAMIC sensor or a combination of INLINE/DYNAMIC sensors for detecting Mucus, Semen, Urine, Blood and Detergents in FLOWING water. The list of sensors i have found are 1. Turbidity sensor 2. pH sensor 3. Electrical Conductivity sensor 4. Infrared sensor 5. Total Organic Carbon sensor 6. Adenosine Triphosphate / Tryptophan Sensor 7. Dissolved Oxygen sensor 8. COD/BOD sensor 9. Color Sensor - RGB Sensor - Flow Cytometry 10. FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) sensor 11. ORP/Redox Sensor 12. Ammonia/Nitrogen Ion Sensor 13. Biosensor So which of these would best suit the requirement i am looking for? Also, where can i find sensors that are accurate for prototyping? For ex., these SEN0189 turbidity sensors are not that precise, i am not finding better turbidity sensors for quantitative purpose.

[@tonydonnelly]

@@vibheeshvelayudha2706I would suggest checking with Endress+Hauser. They have a full line of wastewater sensors.

[@What_I_Make]

Nice one Kate, well done. One thing I would do is to try and calibrate the sensor in software. With no water each colour reading could be more precise with a starting value of 255 for each value, then by dipping it in the solution, the opacity would be more accurate. It should be simple math to stretch the clear reading and confirm the light-off reading as well. The resolution of the reading will deteriorate, but the overall accuracy should improve.

[@hifromkatie]

Yes, that would be great, I could easily take the clear reading as a baseline and then I'd get the reading of the difference between the clean and dirty water

[@shanebyars]

I think that’s very similar to how medical g-tube food pumps detect if the line is empty or not. But they only use IR. Using more colors can give a lot more information.

[@hifromkatie]

Thats interesting, I'd never thought of how something like that works, but makes sense that they'd want to detect as soon as the food has finished and stop pumping (or I guess detect if there is a blockage or similar)

[@MAYERMAKES]

I sense an interesting concept! maybe its not quantitatively accurate but it might give at least an indication if particels or big contaminations are in the water..for example to protect pumps from clogging.

[@hifromkatie]

that was the idea, something to detect there has been a change that you could then investigate and check with proper water monitoring kit

[@vibheeshvelayudha2706]

Hi MAYERMAKES, I need help in choosing an INLINE/DYNAMIC sensor or a combination of INLINE/DYNAMIC sensors for detecting Mucus, Semen, Urine, Blood and Detergents in FLOWING water. The list of sensors i have found are 1. Turbidity sensor 2. pH sensor 3. Electrical Conductivity sensor 4. Infrared sensor 5. Total Organic Carbon sensor 6. Adenosine Triphosphate / Tryptophan Sensor 7. Dissolved Oxygen sensor 8. COD/BOD sensor 9. Color Sensor - RGB Sensor - Flow Cytometry 10. FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) sensor 11. ORP/Redox Sensor 12. Ammonia/Nitrogen Ion Sensor 13. Biosensor So which of these would best suit the requirement i am looking for? Also, where can i find sensors that are accurate for prototyping? For ex., these SEN0189 turbidity sensors are not that precise, i am not finding better turbidity sensors for quantitative purpose.

[@vibheeshvelayudha2706]

Hi Katie, I need help in choosing an INLINE/DYNAMIC sensor or a combination of INLINE/DYNAMIC sensors for detecting Mucus, Semen, Urine, Blood and Detergents in FLOWING water. The list of sensors i have found are 1. Turbidity sensor 2. pH sensor 3. Electrical Conductivity sensor 4. Infrared sensor 5. Total Organic Carbon sensor 6. Adenosine Triphosphate / Tryptophan Sensor 7. Dissolved Oxygen sensor 8. COD/BOD sensor 9. Color Sensor - RGB Sensor - Flow Cytometry 10. FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) sensor 11. ORP/Redox Sensor 12. Ammonia/Nitrogen Ion Sensor 13. Biosensor So which of these would best suit the requirement i am looking for? Also, where can i find sensors that are accurate for prototyping? For ex., these SEN0189 turbidity sensors are not that precise, i am not finding better turbidity sensors for quantitative purpose.

[@MiguelRodriguez-wn8mc]

Hi, nice experiment, have you ever tried using only a 10mm LED as a color sensor? These components can be used as sensors because if we polarize them the other way around, they give us a small voltage. You could try it with LEDs of various degrees (30 to 120) or colors or with an RGB, that would also be an entertaining and good experiment measuring the color of a bottle of water and dye and the other lake some light source like a flashlight. If you ever try it, I would like to see it. I had done it many years ago, successes.

[@sotecluxan4221]

Sweet!

[@GeorgeGraves]

Interesting

[@jumoogde]

If your water has already changed colour, it is too late.

[@hifromkatie]

But it might make you aware that it's changed a bit earlier than you might have spotted it otherwise

[@degerdi]

Everyone knows the best way to measure water quality is clams, jk Katie is the best

[@hifromkatie]

Thanks :)