NJ Roadmap
New Member
I'm doing a design study on flow meters for water utility use (i.e. to be installed in households), and have some questions that I hope someone can answer:
1.what is the diameter of the pipe that comes into a household (I'm guessing 1 1/4 inch?)
2. what are typical max flow rates in households? and typical maximum water pressures?
3. does anyone know much about what technology is most common in utility flow meters: mechanical (turbine, oscillating piston, nutating disk etc.) or electromagnetic? (I know that ultrasonic is out of the question because of costs and the fact that it's too accurate for this application)
I'm proposing a meter which will make rate measurements (supporting electronics will be decided based on the measurement technique), convert it into volume and subsequently into quantity in litres. I propose that a PIC be used for the purpose.
I also need to implement AMR (Automatic Meter Reading), but am not sure of which technology would be best for data transfer (it doesnt have to be always-on or fast) so it could be PSTN (landline), RF, power-line or a GSM-based network. What would you choose?
Personally I'd go with PSTN, just because it's cheap and the infrastructure is already in place. GSM would require expensive GSM modules (I dont think it's feasible when 27 million such meters are needed). RF and power-line (as much as they enable easy installation) need to network infrastructure which is not in place. Any thoughts?
Happy New Year!
p.s. I'm not very good with my mechanical engineering as I'm an electronic engineer, so ANY help with the first 3 questions would be very beneficial!
1.what is the diameter of the pipe that comes into a household (I'm guessing 1 1/4 inch?)
2. what are typical max flow rates in households? and typical maximum water pressures?
3. does anyone know much about what technology is most common in utility flow meters: mechanical (turbine, oscillating piston, nutating disk etc.) or electromagnetic? (I know that ultrasonic is out of the question because of costs and the fact that it's too accurate for this application)
I'm proposing a meter which will make rate measurements (supporting electronics will be decided based on the measurement technique), convert it into volume and subsequently into quantity in litres. I propose that a PIC be used for the purpose.
I also need to implement AMR (Automatic Meter Reading), but am not sure of which technology would be best for data transfer (it doesnt have to be always-on or fast) so it could be PSTN (landline), RF, power-line or a GSM-based network. What would you choose?
Personally I'd go with PSTN, just because it's cheap and the infrastructure is already in place. GSM would require expensive GSM modules (I dont think it's feasible when 27 million such meters are needed). RF and power-line (as much as they enable easy installation) need to network infrastructure which is not in place. Any thoughts?
Happy New Year!
p.s. I'm not very good with my mechanical engineering as I'm an electronic engineer, so ANY help with the first 3 questions would be very beneficial!