July 2017
I have a water softener that needs pellet salt added to a brine tank. I’m trying to figure out a circuit to detect when I need to add salt as the tank is opaque and salt usage varies depending on use. The simpler the circuit, the better!
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You’re in my neck of the woods, and I’ve just solved the very same problem. I just used a simple LED source and phototransistor target to shine a beam across the salt tank at the height where I need to refill the salt.
The transistor’s output is fed into an ESP8266 microcontroller board (the “Espee”) that has built-in WIFI and can be programmed via the Arduino IDE (refer to some Nuts & Volts articles on the ESP8266).
This way, you display an alarm on a webpage generated on the Espee, or even have it send a SMS message to your phone or messaging application. The low-cost (~ $7) ESP8266 (and its more powerful cousin, the ESP2 with bluetooth) has become the basis of many IoT (Internet of Things) circuits and smart-home setups.
If you are having trouble finding the Nuts & Volts articles on programming this wonderful device, here is one on loading the Arduino IDE for the ESP8266: www.whatimade.today/esp8266-easiest-way-to-program-so-far
No circuit needed. Just put a recurring “meeting” on your Google or other calendar to pop up a message on the first of each month that notes: “Check Salt.” Or check it more often if you choose. I check on the first and 15th of each month.
