Power Arduino and Liquid flow meter with a battery

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jschlotzhauer
 
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Power Arduino and Liquid flow meter with a battery

Post by jschlotzhauer »

I am looking at powering an Arduino ESP8266 and a liquid flow meter with a battery. I am new at IoT and looking to use the Arduino to send flow meter data to an aggregator over WiFi. is it possible to power the liquid flow meter (https://www.adafruit.com/product/828) with a 3.7v 2200mah battery pack or is there a battery robust enough to do the job?

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dastels
 
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Re: Power Arduino and Liquid flow meter with a battery

Post by dastels »

No. It says on the product page that it requires between 5v and 18v.

Which Arduino are you planning to use?

Dave

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jschlotzhauer
 
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Re: Power Arduino and Liquid flow meter with a battery

Post by jschlotzhauer »

I’m looking at using the ESP8266 NodeMCU CP2102 ESP-12E developer board. I am trying to use the liquid flow meter inside of a large commercial refrigerator where there won’t be any power so I thought about using a battery pack to circumvent that issue.

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dastels
 
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Re: Power Arduino and Liquid flow meter with a battery

Post by dastels »

That's not an Arduino. I didn't think Arduino made an 8266 board.

You could use a PowerBoost1000C https://www.adafruit.com/product/2465 or PowerBoost 500C https://www.adafruit.com/product/1944 (depending on how much current you need) to get 5v from a LiPo battery. You would need to connect USB occasionally to charge it the battery.

You could use a LiPo fuel gauge to monitor the battery and let you know when it need to be charged.

Two possible concerns:
- It's going to be in a refrigerator? How will the low temperature effect the circuit, if at all? The powerboosts run fairly hot. Being in a refrigerator will help cool them nicely :) but will that waste heat create a problem?
- Will being inside a refrigerator cause a problem for the wifi signal?

Dave

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jschlotzhauer
 
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Re: Power Arduino and Liquid flow meter with a battery

Post by jschlotzhauer »

This is great info! Thank you! The flow sensors will be inside of a commerical refrigerator monitoring flow to beer taps. Its certainly possible to pentrate to the tap wall to get power but was hoping to avoid having to modify the unit. I I hadn't considered the wifi signal portion. That may be a blocker. I am thinking the waste heat won't be too much of a problem given that its a walk-in refrigeration unit.

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dastels
 
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Re: Power Arduino and Liquid flow meter with a battery

Post by dastels »

A walk-in... I the heat won't be a problem, then. I'd be more concerned about the cold. Although if it's in a bit of an enclosure, probably vented since you don't want heat build up, you should be able to maintain a small warm environment for the circuitry. I might be concern unnecessarily, though. Try and see is always a good approach.

Dave

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