Valarm NPNRD Water Flow Monitor Deployment Aquaculture Fish Farm Nebraska Real-Time Sensor 1

How do you monitor the amount of water that you or your customers are using?

This month Lorenzo and Edward went to Scottsbluff, Nebraska, to deploy real-time remote water flow + usage monitors! We thought it’d be a lot colder during December in Nebraska, turns out we got lucky and it ended up being sunny and 65F each day we were there.

 

UPDATE: Have a look at this Web Dashboard for Remotely Monitoring Water Wells.

Tools.Valarm.net gives you Industrial IoT (IIoT) solutions for water monitoring. Your organization will effectively monitor water with a web dashboard where you and your teams can view real-time information on water usage from telemetry sensors like:

 



 

The North Platte Natural Resources District (NPNRD) is responsible for water management in their region of southwestern Nebraska. Being in the midwest of the United States, NPNRD monitors water used for agriculture in addition to aquaculture and other uses. Here’s the kicker – every October they send people driving trucks all over the area to read each one of 1000’s of water flow meters by hand! That’s a lot of time, money, gas, and environmental impact. Now with Valarm remote environmental monitoring units, natural resources districts don’t have to drive so much and know in real-time how much water is flowing at each water pump. Compare these multiple readings per day vs. once per year – that’s a bunch more modeling potential and quite importantly – situational awareness. These deployments for uploading remote water sensor data to Tools.Valarm.net were done cost-effectively using:

We teamed up with an awesome local WISP company, Vistabeam, to provide long-range WiFi access to the sites. The antennas you see in these deployments are up to 20 miles away from the nearest internet tower!

Now with all of this the Natural Resources District can see water flow rates every hour rather than once a year! The water sensor data can then be forwarded in real-time via Valarm’s APIs (e.g., JSON) to endpoints like the Esri GeoEvent Processor and Operations Dashboard, or graphed on Tools.Valarm.net as seen below.

Valarm Tools Cloud Device Manager Graph NPNRD Water Flow Monitor

Valarm Tools Cloud graph showing the constant flow rate from an aquaculture fish farm

 

Here are some more photos from these Industrial IoT field deployments in Nebraska, along with explanations of how the installations were done.

Valarm NPNRD Water Flow Monitor Deployment Aquaculture Fish Farm Agriculture Center Pivot Irrigation Irrigator Nebraska Puck EA618 McCrometer

The gray piece (aka puck) in between the pipe and the meter on top is the McCrometer EA618 water flow sensor that sends a Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) signal to a Valarm device, which uploads the sensor data to Tools.Valarm.net. The EA618 sends a tick or pulse each time the propeller spins. These spins or ticks are counted with the Totalizer function of Tools.Valarm.net in order to calculate water flow over time. Also note that the McCrometer EA618 unit can be installed without having to shut off water flow. It just goes under your existing meter then everything gets screwed down, easy install!

Valarm NPNRD Water Flow Monitor Deployment Aquaculture Fish Farm Agriculture Center Pivot Irrigation Irrigator Nebraska Puck EA618 McCrometer Zo Edward Setting Up Box

Lorenzo and Edward setting up a solar-powered Valarm water flow monitoring box for Industrial IoT. Note the pipe in the back where the EA618 water flow sensor is installed in the photo below.

Valarm NPNRD Water Flow Monitor Deployment Aquaculture Fish Farm Agriculture Center Pivot Irrigation Irrigator Nebraska Puck EA618 McCrometer Open Box

Finishing up a deployment for monitoring water flow levels of a center pivot irrigation system. Here you see a solar panel, WiFi antenna, box with sensor equipment, and the EA618 puck installed on the water pipe.

 

 

 

Valarm NPNRD Water Flow Monitor Deployment Aquaculture Fish Farm Agriculture Center Pivot Irrigation Irrigator Nebraska Inside Shack Install McCrometer Sensor

Setting up another water flow monitor, this time on a fish farm and in a shed! This aquaculture fish farm setup monitors water usage with standard 110V electricity from the wall, easier and more cost-effective than the solar deployments!

Valarm NPNRD Water Flow Monitor Deployment Aquaculture Fish Farm Agriculture Center Pivot Irrigation Irrigator Nebraska Outside Shack

View of a aquaculture fish farm shed from the outside. Note the wireless antenna on the roof that transmits the water flow / Industrial IoT sensor data from inside the building to Valarm Tools Cloud for effective water management.

Valarm NPNRD Water Flow Monitor Deployment Aquaculture Fish Farm Agriculture Center Pivot Irrigation Irrigator Nebraska Lorenzo Edward

Lorenzo and Edward right after finishing one of water flow monitoring deployments in southwestern Nebraska.

Valarm NPNRD Water Flow Monitor Deployment Aquaculture Fish Farm Agriculture Center Pivot Irrigation Irrigator Nebraska Bluffs near Scottsbluff

From the drive back – the beautiful bluffs near Scottsbluff, Nebraska!

Want to learn more?

Here is a follow-up story with an update on these water usage and flow monitoring systems in Nebraska.

Also take a gander at this water flowmeter deployment where Tools.Valarm.net is monitoring water usage in Southern California.

 

Questions?

Does your organization need to monitor water?

We can literally monitor anything, anywhere so please don’t hesitate to contact us at Info@Valarm.net if you’ve got any questions.