Tank Water Level Sensor Part 2 and Shelly Uni review

[@fredrikeneskjold8970]

Thank you alot Simon. Very usefull video. Excpacially on the home automation config. Thats where i have my headackes. Looking forward for Part3.

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Hi Fredrik thank you for your kind words sir! Yes, I am working on the pump sensor and have been trying the small and big sound sensors in the 37 in one pack. The problem is that they are not very sensitive so I need to find another option, maybe a vibration sensor or power sensor. Also I am trying to fund a way to display the tank in a more appealing way.

[@derrickh95676]

Hi Simon thanks for the video! I'm doing this exact project I was wondering did you use the outputs on the shelly to power the sensor? I can't find how many amps the sensor uses anywhere so im not sure if its under 300mA

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Hi Derrick, yes the shelly uni supplies the power to the sensor. I'm so glad you found it useful!

[@lifewithjohnny9724]

Hi Simon, sorry for the silly question. But do you have a link to the type of power source you’re using? Also do you use a weatherproof enclosure for the Shelly uni so it doesn’t get damaged out in the elements? Thank you

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Hi Johnny, there are no silly questions. Here is a link to a project box you could use: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DDSwtmJ and here is the power supply: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DdxCgwl .Thank you for watching my video!

[@onlyvid1171]

Hi Thanks for the very useful video it's exactly what i was looking for. Is there a way in-home assistant to change from the gage to a tank shape with vesual water level? And is there a way to map the voltage to a percentage of water in the tank? Thank you

[@onlyvid1171]

If you google “tank water level png” you will understand what I mean by a visual representation of water level in the tank, is there a way to do the same in home assistant? Thank you

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Hi Only Vid, that is a great idea! I will do some research and let you know.

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

I can't seem to find a way to create a tank icon, can anyone else help?

[@peakerone4037]

Hi Simon, a very helpful video! Meanwhile I managed to reproduce your setup, it works very well. But I have one problem: The voltage signal from my shelly uni sometimes changes very often, about one time per second. This results in a fast growth of my home assistant database. Did you face this problem and if yes, how did you solve it?

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Hi Elder One, thanks for your kind comments! I have not noticed this on my setup however I do see this happening on the plant moisture sensor that I created. As far as I know the HA database purges all data after 2 weeks so this should not cause a big problem.

[@gustonator]

Hi, I have the same problem. I connected the sensor to Shelly uni, after 2 hours I finally got to update the firmware on the uni to 20230503-102354. I get somehow inconsistent readings. I have the 0-10V sensor, and put it into a bucket of water for dry-run testings. On the woltmeter, I get consistent 0,29V, on the shelly and in the HA i get between 0.09-0.23V jumping. Did you find out what could be the problem? or maybe @simonsayshomeassistant ?

[@gustonator]

I think I got it :) I connected also the green wire from SHelly (GND_SENSOR) to neutral, and now the readings are better. Now my voltmeter shows 0,78V, and the shelly voltage jumps from 0,85 - 0,93V which is OK for me. Also... the voltmeter has bigger resistance, therefore it could meter 0,2 lower voltage.

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Hi, yes this can be a problem with some sensors. I would recommend using an SSD as your storage system so it will not be a problem. HA only stores data for 10 days.

[@unionse7en]

part 3 : use templates or Compensation to scale the voltage to gallons (or some other volume)

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Sounds like a great idea, I will look into this

[@mikewaters6980]

Hi Simon, although you have explained this well, I think I still managed to get it wrong. I bought a pressure sensor but it only has two wires. The wiring diagram you've posted on facebook shows 3 wires. So I take it I bought the wrong sensor and need to buy another one with the 3 wires?

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Hi Mike, thank you for your comments. I think that you have the amp sensor instead of the volt sensor. I have read somewhere that you may be able to use this type of sensor using a resistor but have not tried it yet.

[@CrazyAngelfire]

hi simon, hope to see more videos, as i have a spare shelly uni now. i received two instead of the one i ordered! (good result) i hope you can help with question... i have followed the steps as best as i can, i'm really not great with wiring tbh. the sensor i received is the 10v version but has 3 wires. can you explain a greater detail on exactly how to connect the wires please

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Hi Darren, thanks for your comments :) Yes lots more videos coming :) Here is a diagram to help with the wiring. facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10160496755809744&set=gm.634812614518053

[@chiribogas]

Hello Simon. Great video. I seem to have a problem with my sensor. Unfortunately it came with different color wires. Mine has a white, black and blue. I can not seem to be able to identify +, - and data. Do you happen to know how to identify them?

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Hi Francisco, thanks for your kind comments! The best thing is to ask the supplier to confirm which colour cables are for positive, negative and sensor.

[@directhouses838]

Hello Simon, Frank from France. Just a short question ...... with a short answer i hope ..... i followed your instructions eand everything works! Thanks for that. But now on my Dashbord i see Volts and i wants Litres ....... What do i have to do. Many thanks. Frank

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Hi Frank, yes mine also shows volts, I will do some research for you and see if I can find a solution.

[@directhouses838]

@@simonsayshomeassistant Ok thanks so far. I am looking further .... If i have an answer i come back! Thanks again. Frank

[@ubeaut]

Hi Simon. I have bought a shelly uni and have set it up with mqtt and I am getting readings. The readings are coming in a lot is there a way to limit the voltage readings so they com in every 5 minutes for example? If I flash the shelly uni with tasmota can I still get the water level voltages? At least with tasmota I can set the telemetry settings. It is a water tank and even it I take voltage readings once a day would be fine. Have you done it with tasmota? Can it be done? Thanks

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Hi ubeaut, I have not tried that yet. Are you using MQTT because it is on another network?

[@ubeaut]

@@simonsayshomeassistant No. I use MQTT pretty much for all devices and 99% are running Tasmota. It is very good. I use a mosquito broker. At the moment I have one network. I don't have many devices that broadcast it that is why you are asking. Do you have any Tasmota devices?

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

@@ubeaut I have tried tasmota and yes I do really like it as a platform however I have moved most esp's over to esphome. I have never tried flashing a uni, it may be difficult as i cannot see exposed header pins

[@sylvaish]

I have this pressure sensor G1/4 Pressure Transducer Sensor, Input 5V Output 0.5-4.5V / 0-5V Pressure Transmitter for Water Gas Oil(0-10PSI) attached to the bottom of my tank I managed to connect both devices and add it to Home Assistant .... The Volts keep changing every seconds from 0 - 2 v .... Is there a way to keep this to update static based on the level of water that is in my tank ??

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

That's odd, I haven't tried that type of sensor yet. Did you approach the supplier?

[@paulnel9994]

Hallo Simon. Nice video! I have this same setup on a remote location, using the Uni and Probe to give a level of a dam, I have the UNI conncted to a 3g wirelss modem(pocket modem). I want to integrate this remote device into my Home Assistant. Any advice? I dont think Shelly cloud has the option. (from SA, St Francis Bay)

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Thanks for the feedback Paul, how did you connect the uni to a cellular modem ?

[@paulnel9994]

@@simonsayshomeassistant the modem generates a WIFI signal which the UNI is connected to

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

@@paulnel9994 oh great easy as that

[@gabeo5799]

Hey Simon, love the videos! Do you happen to know how to decrease the granularity as shown in HA? On my Shelly app, it shows the sensor as having two decimal places, but on HA there are no decimal places. I have a 0-10v sensor, but the range I need is 4-7

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Hi Gabeo, thanks for your comments :) My voltage is showing on my HA dashboard with the 2 decimal places when I diplay it as a guage

[@gabeo5799]

@@simonsayshomeassistant interesting, mine shows none. You didn't have to modify any settings for that?

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

@@gabeo5799 No mine just displays it like that ADC 0.88 V

[@sachinfilinto]

very usefull video. is there a way to access the shelly uni over the internet ? my HA is at a different location and there is no direct connectivity with the sensor. both locations have internet connection.

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Thank you, yes you can access the shelly uni by using the shelly web interface. this is accessed via the url on the shelly if you are on the same network

[@sachinfilinto]

@@simonsayshomeassistant thanks. i would have to expose the uni to the internet by publishing the url which i would not be confortable with besides the ddns configuration as the IP dynamic. The approach i was thinking (if possible) was for the HA server to talk to the shelly cloud. i dont know if shelly exposes APIs for this.

[@Muscleduck]

Can the voltages be translated to liters in HA? Say I drain my entire tank, then fill it with 1000 liters, 2000, ... until it's full. Or just fill to the brim and then tell HA how much liter that is.

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Yes it is possible, I will look into it

[@CoenCritcho]

Hey Simon What would i need to do in order to output from HA to an Irrigation Controller (OpenSprinkler) using physical wires? Any advice would be appreciated

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Hi Coen I would use an ESP 32 running ESPHome with a relay. The other option is to use a Shelly 1

[@darryldeklerk3435]

Thanks for this Simon , can you share how you convert the reading to Liters ?

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Hi Darryl, I have not converted my one to liters yet I just use a gauge to see how full it is.

[@glen.m]

I realise this is an old question, but in case anyone else has a similar desire to convert the voltage to liters in home assistant. Using a template sensor worked for me. At one location I have 4 25k L water tanks connected and my sensor is the 10v model. Lowering the sensor to the bottom of a full tank gave me a max reading of 8.07v, out of interest if I raised it to the surface the reading was 0.8v (has no relevance to this exercise. Just thought i'd get the reading while I had a full tank...) Anyway, knowing the max volume of my four tanks was 100,000 L and knowing that the sensor reads 8.07v when the tank is full then we can work out that 8.07 x 12391.57 = 100,000. The template sensor can then be created (if you copy and paste, beware the spacing!): # Shed water tanks - platform: template sensors: tank_litres: value_template: > {% set voltage = states('sensor.shellyuni_98cdac251207_adc') | float(0) %} {{ ((voltage) * 12391.57) | round(0) }} unit_of_measurement: l friendly_name: Shed Volume You can use the same principal to show as a percentage. The 'friendly name' will then be available in home assistant. This may not be the best way to do this, i'm far from an expert but it seems to be working for me so far!

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

I found this video which explains how to convert the voltage to liters : kzbin.info/www/bejne/op2oqXyFeZWaps0

[@markfullerton663]

Hi Simon, I am setting up the same water tank sensor and are at the same spot. I would love to be able to change the voltage to liters. I have seen other people do it but not sure how.

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Hi Mark, here is a link to explain how others have achieved this. I will see what I can get working: community.home-assistant.io/t/convert-voltage-to-litres/543737

[@markfullerton663]

@@simonsayshomeassistant Thanks for that. Just very new to HA, like this week. Still not sure about the YAML setup and exactly where and how to enter it. Can I just copy and past the posted YAML code and change the names to suit my setup?

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Yes, you can just copy and paste it in basically anywhere in your config.yaml file and change your entity names to match. HA will tell you if there is an issue when you try to restart.@@markfullerton663

[@ubeaut]

Third time lucky in adding a comment....agghh I have similar hardware as but I flashed Tasmota onto the shelly UNI over the air. Why? Because I am familiar with it and I could slow down the number of times the data was being sent as the shelly didn't do that. Anyway the Tasmota does the calculation for the litres on the device and I send that via MQTT. Seems to work. Look for a video ubeaut productions as I cannot add any links to the comments...agghh

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Oh wow I didn't realise that you could flash the uni over the air. Yes I am a fan of Tasmota too. I will definately check out your video!

[@ubeaut]

Yes it is called mongoose to tasmota. It worked first go. Digiblur has a video of it as well. Super easy. If you want to swap back maybe no so easy.

[@ubeaut]

​@@simonsayshomeassistant hey let me know if you try this out... Thanks

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Thank you I will let you know if I get it working, digiblur is great! How did you calculate the litres? @@ubeaut

[@ubeaut]

@@simonsayshomeassistant it's in the video I did. I had the sensor out that was zero/empty then put it in the full tank. That is the high and low voltage readings and the adcparam command does it all . adcparam 6,12,262,0,50000. Which means 6 is the moisture setting, 12 is low voltage, 262 is high voltage, 0 is the low scale and 50000 is the high scale. At the end of the video I pull the sensor out and you can see the lidtres change. I had the tele period set at 10 seconds so you could see it change. I set it to 5 minutes but can be whatever you want.

[@AgeOfDawn]

Can you update the cheaper sensor link please? It's broken

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Sure thing just updated it. Bear in mind that you need to setup another type of micro controller for this sensor running on ESP Home

[@MohammadAlshahrani]

thanks, who do it on arduino

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Sorry I am not much good with Arduino sketches but it must be quite easy