LOL... feel free to 3x it - then farm some it off to me and cut me in for a 1/3 of it!

Here's an idea for a flow sensor:

http://www.paddedwall.org/watercool/flow_sensor.jpg

Granted, it won't tell you how fast the water is moving, but I think it will tell you whether you have flow or not.

Thats a cool idea, not a flow meter, but still a good back up.

I have flow meter working well now, going to try different style paddle wheels to see changes in flow.

I am using a 1/2" passage, and seems very accurate from 2-10 l/m so far.

Dave

If the meter has a 1/2" ID passage, would it still read true if it was fitted to smaller ID tubing? I'm just concerned that it would read fine for say 7mm or 9mm ID

I think a flow meter would be better because it's not as dependant orn physical orientation as the lever-operated sensor

As far as your flow meter goes, if you're going to have a circuit board on it (or somehow attached to it via wires), it would sure be nice if we could plug a bi-polar LED to it so we can see from the front panel if anything goes wrong. without having the case open (I know, it's a shock to know that some folks don't have their case peppered with windows and sitting on their desk, but that's me - grin).

The only the internal passage is 1/2, so 1/2 tubing and below will give good reading.

Will see about LED, but still some time away JS

Sounds like a good idea...
but then how low a flow before there is a problem...
now we are going to need something to enable setting the set point as to when it is a good flow...
and to add to the LED idea it would be nice if it was either a 2 color LED, Green for good and red for bad..
or even 3 color led(do they make those?) so that we could have a warning color in
between?
if we want to go realy exotic.. perhaps a bar led to show a range, usefull with people that are cooling more then one machine with a radbox. :D

How about hooking it up to an airhorn, or maybe have it dial your cel phone. :)

But seriously, a bi-polar LED is one that turns green or red depending on direction of current. They also make the tri-color LED's (they have three pins instead of just 2), and they're not that much more difficult to connect, but in either case, the set-point functionality would probably be a requirement for a bi-polar or tri-color LED to work. I have two separate loops. LED hookups would be fine for me. :)

The key thing for a flow meter is getting a tach signal bach to the motherboard. It you're looking for binary LED output then really a flow switch is the way to go.

What about interfacing with MBM??? As mbm has full plugin support, and LCDC (and many others) support reading MBM sensor readings...

Just a thought!

Cya,
Sam C

Perhaps have a addon modual?
A seperate device that could plug into the the output of the flow meter that could determin a setpoint in rpm?
this could easily be made by someone with electronics experience...

if it plugs into a MB header then all that would be needed would be a devisor.
MB monitor could read that easily enough.
if a USB solution is to be used...
I have done some interface programming with FTDI chips linky
and is quite simple to implement.. don't know about the electronics side...

any news?
10char

I have a Swissflow SF800. It's 50 euros, and hooks more or less straight to a fan header on your motherboard. It is reliable, extremely long lasting, has very low flow resistance and get this: it is very accurate. It emits 100 pulses per second per litre flow and its range is from 0.3 to 20 litres per minute.

I hooked one up to a fan header, told MBM to divide the signal by six, and presto: flow in millilitres right there on my desktop. If I feed the data into Samurize it will display a pretty graph of my choice on the desktop, and litres per minute to the third decimal if I want it. No fuss.

It's tiny and comes with 3/8" BSP thread on either end so you just screw it into your existing setup (well, I did anyway). It's the black thing on the Aquatube with the cable coming out:

http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL932...0/68986920.jpg

If you want a flow switch, Gentech does one with 3/8" BSP connections that operates with a (weak) spring-loaded valve:

http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL932...4/26377841.jpg

As such it can be mounted in any position. But if you don't want any moving parts at all, Gentech does this little black oblong box, again with 3/8" BSP connections, which measures flow through ultrasound. :)

News... yes, I can not get time on any of our CNC machines, both at C-Systems and AVT :(

Sorry both companies are very busy right now.

how does your product you are making compare to the Swissflow SF800?
cheeper? less resistance? bling?

Had an idea while reading this...
Typed Bicycle speedometer into Google and the first site I found was:

THIS!

Which leaves me with nothing more to say! :mad: :D
Except maybe put a small one in a cowling; For the really un-imaginative. :)

What you-all think?

I have been trying to get more info on the SwiddFlow800 for months now. They never answer e-mails. Can't find a USA distributor either.

a friend of mine is working on this:

http://www.wizdforums.co.uk/showthre...ight=flowmeter

The paddle design is available in 1/2" and 1/4" barbed units. He's working on the support electronics (nothing complex) and a board to handle 4 meters at a time. while it doesn't have the fancy-fancy calibration of the swissflow (which if it was 20 euros each I'd be all over it - I need 4 or 5 of them and can't justify 250 euro for it!)

Anyway , check out the specs on the swissflow SF800: http://www.swissflow.com/html/800_5.htm

so no paddle or moving parts - all done optically. I wish I knew how the hell they did it.

http://www.swissflow.com/html/swissflow_1500_model.htm

SF800 - Normal 0,3 - 20 ltr/min.
flow range* : 0,3 – 20 liter/min
accuracy : ± 1.00 %
output : 100 to 2000 Hz;
square wave on – off
sensitivity K : aprox. 6000 pulses
temperature range : -20°C to 90°C
operating pressure : 16 bar
max. pressure : 40 bar at 20°C
excitation : 5 to 24 VDC, 12 to 24 mA
power consumption : 12 – 36 mA
liquid type*** : clear or translucent liquids capable of transmitting IR light
liquids : water, chemicals, oil (up to 1000 Cst) etc.
process connections : 3/8” hose barb; 3/8”BSP Male
electrical termination’s : 3-wire flat cable sealed in housing, 15 cm
wetted parts : PVDF, Vectra and Viton or EPDM


http://www.swissflow.com/images/Perf...ion_2_0001.JPG ----- http://www.swissflow.com/images/print.jpg

I think some experimentation with optical mice is in order.

As Arrivaldo states, it does have one moving part --a simple impellor-- which interrupts the IR light beam when spinning. The impellor is suspended in the chamber in such a manner that, when there is flow, it floats in the liquid and spins in place. The inside of the chamber has channeling fins causing a small vortex in the liquid, that keeps the impellor centred right in the middle of the chamber. As such while spinning there is no physical contact between the impellor and the chamber, so no friction and no wear or tear.

This info was good as of October 2004:

SwissFlow UK Rep:

Dave Pleasants
david@dap-uk.freeserve.co.uk
Tel:+44 115 9413 878
Fax:+44 115 8457525

:shrug: I gave up on it. If there is no US distributors then I am not going to bother anyway.

The UK distributor was useless. I just spoke straight to the company in Holland.

BTW as it simply connects to a mobo fan connector, it returns a value to MBM, and hence, to Samurize (see top left crescent: three temps, and the white needle is flow: 1.7 l/min):

http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL932...0/99915716.jpg

Nice, huh?

^ Sweet, where did you get this app?

It is just what I am looking for !

Dave

this is Samurize
it itself doesn't do HW monitoring but useing values from programs such as motherboad monitor

Samurize is just a nice GUI skin to show stats of your system

Yes, but it seems adaptable so we can do an RPM to Flow conversion.

I will email them about some kind of license, link or something.

the values are being pulled out of Motherboard Monitor(MBM)
that is where the actual data processing is done...
unfortunatly MBM is no longer being supported

I can't see why a pressure sensor with a Y-piece wouldn't work.

I think it would be hard to calibrate from system to system..