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TANK BUDDY - An intelligent water level controller
Tank Buddy is a microcontroller based, fully automatic water level controller. It can help you save water and electricity by preventing wastage of water through tank overflows. It also saves you the hassle of personally monitoring the overhead tank to switch ON/OFF the pump. Tank Buddy uses an ultrasonic sensor to sense the water level in the tank. We can program it to turn ON/OFF the pump at specific water levels. The embedded code has a safety feature built into it to prevent dry running of the pump. This ensures the safety of the pump.
Currently, water level controllers available in the market are plagued with problems and it faces reliability issues due to corrosion since the parts are immersed into the water. This ultrasonic sensor based controller eliminates these issues as it does not come in contact with water.
Salient features of TANK BUDDY are:
- It can be installed on any tanks of different sizes easily. The sensor can sense water depths upto 3 meters.
- Upto 200 meters distance between sensor module and controller module.
- LCD display to display water level in percentage.
- Safety feature to prevent damage of pump by dry running.
- Up to 3HP pump can be controlled directly from Tank Buddy. Three phase motors of higher capacity can be controlled by using a contactor.
- Suitable for individual homes, apartments, public water supply tanks and also for industrial use.
- 2 years warranty on the Tank Buddy
TANK BUDDY is currently in prototype stage. It has been proven to work remarkably well even in hot and humid conditions.
I have sourced most of the components like LCD displays, electronics components, PCBs etc for production of Tank Buddys. But i am already short of funds. I require about INR 400000 more to bring it into the market as a commercial product. Your contributions will be very helpful to bring this product to life.
Tank Buddy is expected to be launched into the market with a price tag of Rupees 2500. You can also help me by contributing Rs.2500 to this fundraiser. It will be accepted as an advance order for Tank buddy. You will receive a Tank Buddy when it is in production :)
I hope that this fundraiser reaches its goal so that Tank Buddy will be in the market in two months time.
REWARDS:
- For contributions of Rs.2500+shipping cost, you will get a Tank Buddy shipped to your address.
- Contributions less than Rs.2500 are also accepted and highly appreciated. Your contributions will go a long way to make this campaign a success.
About Me & Tank Buddy-The story behind it:
I am a mechanical engineering graduate and i am the founder of SilverBoat Technologies Pvt. Ltd we manufacture pico and micro hydro turbines. Alternative energy, power generation, water conservation are the things which interests me. I always look to solve some common problems using my technical skills and knowledge. Currently i am living in Chennai, India. Here, i noticed that most of the individual house and buildings have an overhead tank to supply water for consumption within that block. Electrical pumps are used to pump water from tubewells to be stored inside the tanks. Now, the problem is that the pump has to be manually switched ON/OFF by personally monitoring the water levels in the tank. Most of the time, the tank overflows and a lot of water and electricity are wasted. Sometimes the tank gets empty during a bath ;) and pipes get airlocked. This happens always in my own house and i have seen that this happens in other homes too! Well! we have a problem in hand. I setted out to find a solution to this issue - Starting from my own house.
I tried looking for a ready made solution in the market. Float switch and some controllers based on water immersed probes. But they were so unreliable that not many people use them.Finally i came up with an idea for Tank Buddy which uses an ultrasonic sensor to monitor water level in the tank. It does not come in contact with water so corrosion related issues are eliminated. I built a prototype of Tank Buddy and installed in my house. Since then, i am at peace. No more overflowing tanks! Tank Buddy is working well since the past six months already. You can see the video of that prototype here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh1b8eDRSxQ
I know it is quite ugly right now. It is only a prototype. Proper aesthetic packaging will be done when it goes in production.
The neighbour living next to my house came and asked" Hey Ramesh what happened to your tank? The water no longer overflows and splashes on my house." , I showed him my Tank Buddy. He was really impressed by it and wanted one for his house too. I told him that Tank Buddy is not yet ready. But he insisted. so i installed my hand fabricated Tank Buddy in his house too with the promise that i will give him the final product when it is launched in the market. I have installed few more Tank Buddys in my locality. The feedbacks i received from them have been very positive and encouraging.
To know more about my work, you can visit our facebook and youtube page:
- https://www.facebook.com/SilverBoatTechnologies
- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCABKuBnqZp-wDBcnFYAkPGw
