Electronic Water Level Gauge

Marco · 03-17-2002, 02:20 AM

Hey all! This is [H]ard|Core from hardforums. It was brad's idea to get my posting over here, so if anything goes awry, blame him

This is my first post here, so go easy on me...

Just wanted to share with you guys (seems there are many familiar faces here!) my latest project, an electronic water level gauge. Yes, the pictures are the same as the ones I posted on H, but the accompanying explanation is all-new! (What? Nothing to do on a sunday afternoon? Bullshit!)

The device^^. Consists of a probe and a 6-LED visual output thingy. I'm using it to monitor water levels in my bong. For the uninitiated, by "bong" I don't mean the smokable variety. In a nutshell, the watercooling bong is simply a device that cools the cooling medium (water) by allowing a small part of it to evaporate (a process I once saw referred to in documentation for an industrial evaporative cooling tower as "sacrificial cooling"). This allows the bong water to acheive temperatures up to several degrees lower than the surrounding ambient air. How much cooler this will keep your CPU is naturally a function of your CPU heat output and the quality of your waterblock.

The above shows the inside of the display component. The gauge was assembled from two cheap hobbyist "Water Level Gauge" kits. Works by activating a transistor when water bridges two electrodes.

The box is a generic hobbyist electronic project box, drilled as needed by me on a small (and antique!) drill press I have at home.

The whole setup runs off a 12v line run out of my box to power the bong fans.

Here you see a detail of the probe component. The probe was built out of seven parallel skinny wires housed in half an IC packaging tube. Works fantastically, and the tube provides some shielding against splashing, as well as giving the probe rigidity. You might notice that there are only 6 LEDS, this is because the lowest wire is a reference wire, it is located right at the bottom of the tank. Each of the other wires is spaced 4cm above the previous. That gives a range of about 24cm, adequate to cover my ~30cm tank.

Here you have the gauge installed on the bong and actively monitoring the water levels.

Thanks all for your attention, comments/ideas are welcome.

Jason-Pro · 03-17-2002, 02:24 AM

looks cool

/me tries to unbrainwash you from being on the [H] Forums.

hows the lil immature kiddies there ? :P

Brad · 03-17-2002, 02:26 AM

thats a surprisingly intelligent post from someone who has 3500 posts on the hardcop forums, and who has been using a bong since may 2001 (I think)

I think it is a really cool idea though, having it spaced at regular intervals and all. Do you think you could post some evolution pics of your bong, as it is now 3rd or 4th generation, and definately the longest time any bong has been in constant service.

OcPunK · 03-17-2002, 11:27 AM

wow people are still using bongs?

Jason-Pro · 03-17-2002, 12:21 PM

OCP alot of people still use bongs mainly around the 4:20 time tho. you should know !!

OcPunK · 03-17-2002, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jason-Pro
OCP alot of people still use bongs mainly around the 4:20 time tho. you should know !!

yeah I know the use of those kinda of bongs is up but bongs for cooling was like a fad everyone made one and then found out it sucked bc u had to add water every 5 hours.

Marco · 03-18-2002, 07:04 AM

Whoa, the anti-OCP sentiment is strong here!
Well, I agree that alot of silly and irrelevant things are often posted there, but there is nonetheless still some solid content from old regular contributors.

Anyways, aside from that, I know of only very few bongs still running. Eyecannon and I probably have the oldest running two. Bongs are more difficult than a radiator but they're more fascinating to work with. Parts availability is also higher.

As for the adding water every five hours, that's entirely dependent on the individual bong's tank size and evaporation rate. I can get a few days out of my present 4.5l tank, with my expanded tank project I can probably get a week or two without any need to refill. Some people are upset by the noise of falling water, but it is substantially quieter than a high-volume fan. More soothing too

Bottom line is that a bong is and always will be a viable cooling alternative, if you have the interest and will to maintain it. Kinda like a pet maybe

OcPunK · 03-18-2002, 09:01 AM

The thing is with the bong you cant have any stuff in the water to keep it from growing little monsters that will start to eat away at the copper block, those fish tank things everyone was using didnt do much. With air from the fan blowing thought the water dust and other stuff falls into the bong and mixes with the water and we know that aint good. Anyway those r some other reasons my bong is laynig on the floor in my closet.

Marco · 03-19-2002, 12:52 AM

I have never inspected the inside of my waterblock but i have been running growth-free for almost a year on nothing but tap water so far.

Brad · 03-19-2002, 03:54 PM

yeah, without doubt a radiator is an easy plug and play solution, while a bong requires development, and over time will surely give much better performance

03-17-2002, 02:20 AM	#1
Marco Cooling Neophyte Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 79	Electronic Water Level Gauge Hey all! This is [H]ard\|Core from hardforums. It was brad's idea to get my posting over here, so if anything goes awry, blame him This is my first post here, so go easy on me... Just wanted to share with you guys (seems there are many familiar faces here!) my latest project, an electronic water level gauge. Yes, the pictures are the same as the ones I posted on H, but the accompanying explanation is all-new! (What? Nothing to do on a sunday afternoon? Bullshit!) The device^^. Consists of a probe and a 6-LED visual output thingy. I'm using it to monitor water levels in my bong. For the uninitiated, by "bong" I don't mean the smokable variety. In a nutshell, the watercooling bong is simply a device that cools the cooling medium (water) by allowing a small part of it to evaporate (a process I once saw referred to in documentation for an industrial evaporative cooling tower as "sacrificial cooling"). This allows the bong water to acheive temperatures up to several degrees lower than the surrounding ambient air. How much cooler this will keep your CPU is naturally a function of your CPU heat output and the quality of your waterblock. The above shows the inside of the display component. The gauge was assembled from two cheap hobbyist "Water Level Gauge" kits. Works by activating a transistor when water bridges two electrodes. The box is a generic hobbyist electronic project box, drilled as needed by me on a small (and antique!) drill press I have at home. The whole setup runs off a 12v line run out of my box to power the bong fans. Here you see a detail of the probe component. The probe was built out of seven parallel skinny wires housed in half an IC packaging tube. Works fantastically, and the tube provides some shielding against splashing, as well as giving the probe rigidity. You might notice that there are only 6 LEDS, this is because the lowest wire is a reference wire, it is located right at the bottom of the tank. Each of the other wires is spaced 4cm above the previous. That gives a range of about 24cm, adequate to cover my ~30cm tank. Here you have the gauge installed on the bong and actively monitoring the water levels. Thanks all for your attention, comments/ideas are welcome.

03-17-2002, 02:26 AM	#3
Brad Thermophile Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Nuu Zeeelin Posts: 3,175	thats a surprisingly intelligent post from someone who has 3500 posts on the hardcop forums, and who has been using a bong since may 2001 (I think) I think it is a really cool idea though, having it spaced at regular intervals and all. Do you think you could post some evolution pics of your bong, as it is now 3rd or 4th generation, and definately the longest time any bong has been in constant service. __________________ 2x P3 1100's at 1400, Abit VP6, 2x Corsair 256mb PC150 sticks, 20gb 'cuda ATA-III, 2x 40gb 'cuda ATA-IV in raid 0. 20" Trinitron. No fans 2x 2400+ at 2288mhz (16.0 x 143), Iwill MPX2, 2x Kingmax PC-3200 256mb sticks, 4x 20gb 60gxp in Raid 5 on a Promise SX6000. Asus Ti4200 320/630. Cooled by Water

03-17-2002, 11:27 AM	#4
OcPunK Cooling Savant Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Under ground cave in PA to keep PCs cool! Posts: 125	wow people are still using bongs? __________________ www.1337info.com

03-18-2002, 09:01 AM	#8
OcPunK Cooling Savant Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Under ground cave in PA to keep PCs cool! Posts: 125	The thing is with the bong you cant have any stuff in the water to keep it from growing little monsters that will start to eat away at the copper block, those fish tank things everyone was using didnt do much. With air from the fan blowing thought the water dust and other stuff falls into the bong and mixes with the water and we know that aint good. Anyway those r some other reasons my bong is laynig on the floor in my closet. __________________ www.1337info.com

03-19-2002, 03:54 PM	#10
Brad Thermophile Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Nuu Zeeelin Posts: 3,175	yeah, without doubt a radiator is an easy plug and play solution, while a bong requires development, and over time will surely give much better performance __________________ 2x P3 1100's at 1400, Abit VP6, 2x Corsair 256mb PC150 sticks, 20gb 'cuda ATA-III, 2x 40gb 'cuda ATA-IV in raid 0. 20" Trinitron. No fans 2x 2400+ at 2288mhz (16.0 x 143), Iwill MPX2, 2x Kingmax PC-3200 256mb sticks, 4x 20gb 60gxp in Raid 5 on a Promise SX6000. Asus Ti4200 320/630. Cooled by Water

03-17-2002, 02:24 AM	#2
Jason-Pro Cooling Savant Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Manitowoc, Wisconsin Posts: 217	looks cool /me tries to unbrainwash you from being on the [H] Forums. hows the lil immature kiddies there ? :P

03-17-2002, 12:21 PM	#5
Jason-Pro Cooling Savant Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Manitowoc, Wisconsin Posts: 217	OCP alot of people still use bongs mainly around the 4:20 time tho. you should know !!

03-18-2002, 07:04 AM	#7
Marco Cooling Neophyte Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 79	Whoa, the anti-OCP sentiment is strong here! Well, I agree that alot of silly and irrelevant things are often posted there, but there is nonetheless still some solid content from old regular contributors. Anyways, aside from that, I know of only very few bongs still running. Eyecannon and I probably have the oldest running two. Bongs are more difficult than a radiator but they're more fascinating to work with. Parts availability is also higher. As for the adding water every five hours, that's entirely dependent on the individual bong's tank size and evaporation rate. I can get a few days out of my present 4.5l tank, with my expanded tank project I can probably get a week or two without any need to refill. Some people are upset by the noise of falling water, but it is substantially quieter than a high-volume fan. More soothing too Bottom line is that a bong is and always will be a viable cooling alternative, if you have the interest and will to maintain it. Kinda like a pet maybe

03-19-2002, 12:52 AM	#9
Marco Cooling Neophyte Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 79	I have never inspected the inside of my waterblock but i have been running growth-free for almost a year on nothing but tap water so far.

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