[MOD] DS10A Water Leak Detector

[Puck]

With OnAlert allowing the (inexpensive 4 for $20) DS10A Door/Window Sensors to trigger AHP macros, I started looking at what can occur around the house that I want to know about and/or automate a response to.

The first thing I thought of was (unfortunately from a past experience) coming home to a flooded basement caused by a leak in the water heater.

You can buy independent sensors that shut off the house water automatically, but I was looking for a much less expensive method of immediately bringing this problem to my attention.

If a water leak occurs while I am away from home, I get an email sent to my cellphone, letting me know what happened and that I need to go home now.

If it occurs while I’m home, my bedroom light comes on (in case it’s the middle of the night), chimes happen and X10wavplayer tells me (repeatedly) there is a water leak.

So using one of my spare DS10As and basic electronic parts that I had laying around, here is my Water Leak Detector.


The LED on the front cover is just to let me know the detector has power and all is ok.

The unit is powered by a +9Vdc wall-wart. The Good: never need to worry about the batteries. The Bad: if there is a power blackout then the DS10A becomes unregistered with AHP & OnAlert; it will handle a momentary power dropout.

The water sensor is home-made, and just consists of a PCB with two interweaving traces.

The control circuit for the water detector is built onto a PCB that will fit inside the DS10A where the batteries would normally be housed.

The schematic of the DS10A Water Leak Detector.

Due to geocities free Site closing I attached images below, Dave_x10_L

[KDR]

Great Job Puck ...  Nice detailed pictures and print.

^{----------------KDR}

[Tuicemen]

Awesome Puck!
Nice to see an example of x10WavPlayer at work too!
There are many posible uses for the door window sensors,nice detailed post!
Can't wait to see what you do with the other sensors !

[Brian H]

Nice mod and details. Got a Helpful from me

[Oldtimer]

PUCK:  Much needed idea.  Great documentation.  Sorry I missed it when you first posted it.

[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

PUCK:  Much needed idea.  Great documentation.  Sorry I missed it when you first posted it.

Nice mod and details. Got a Helpful from me

Ditto to both of the above!   

[gil shultz]

Good Afternoon,

Great solution if you are there and wake up in the middle of the night,  but what happens if you are on vacation or gone or

I would also prefer a solenoid valve in the main water line or a shut off on the well pump depending what type of system you have.  I have lost several hot water tanks over the years and they started slow but they kept getting worse.  It is amazing how much water even a slow leak will put on the floor in a few days.

A valve can be designed to keep the water flowing in case of a power failure but still shut off the water when there is a leak.

Have Fun,
Gil Shultz

[Puck]

Great solution if you are there and wake up in the middle of the night,  but what happens if you are on vacation or gone or

I would also prefer a solenoid valve in the main water line or a shut off on the well pump depending what type of system you have.  I have lost several hot water tanks over the years and they started slow but they kept getting worse.  It is amazing how much water even a slow leak will put on the floor in a few days.

A valve can be designed to keep the water flowing in case of a power failure but still shut off the water when there is a leak.

You can buy independent sensors that shut off the house water automatically, but I was looking for a much less expensive method of immediately bringing this problem to my attention.

If a water leak occurs while I am away from home, I get an email sent to my cellphone, letting me know what happened and that I need to go home now.

If it occurs while I’m home, my bedroom light comes on (in case it’s the middle of the night), chimes happen and X10wavplayer tells me (repeatedly) there is a water leak.

The main purpose is to give you immediate notice that a leak occurred. When away on vacation, I have always shut-off my water heater and turn the house supply water off.

Floodstop makes various auto-valves for shutting water off from various appliances as well as the main house supply. Great products, but not in my budget right now.

Even with these type of auto-shutoff valves, a water heater is still going to release a tank (at most) of water onto the floor. With the main house supply turned off, and no pressure behind it, the drain on the floor should keep the water damage to a minimum.


On a side note, this modification can be used for other purposes as well. It can be used to let AHP (OnAlert) know if it's raining. If you have an auto-sprinkler as part of your home automation, and if it doesn't already have a built in sensor, it can be used to prevent your lawn from being watered during the rain. It can trigger macros to verbally announces that it's raining and which windows are currently open.

[RebHawk]

Cool idea!  Is there, perhaps, a commercial sensor that simply has NC contacts, or even NO contacts you could run through a small relay, ala the smoke alarm hack, in order to do this same job?  I've looked around, and haven't found anything obvious yet...

Regards,
--Lee

[KDR]

RebHawk take a look at this one. I purchased one and it works as advertised.

http://www.smarthome.com/71932.html

^{----------------KDR}

[RebHawk]

Yep, saw that one KDR.  Thanks.  Did you mod it with a relay to be able to use it with a DS10a (NC contacts), modify a DS10a with a wired-or cable attached to the test button so you can trigger it with NO contacts, or do you use a powerflash with it?  It's not convenient for me to use it with a powerflash, so a DS10A is the only option... and at that price, it's pretty much a wash between making one of Puck's mods above or the mods necessary to make this work with a DS10A...

Regards,
--Lee

[Knightrider]

Puck,
In my home remodeling experience, about 10% of our projects start out as some water damage repair.  This is not limited to water heaters in the basement either.  My opinion is that everyone needs one of these things under their washing machines and under the dishwasher.  I've also seen many a hardwood floor in the kitchen ruined because of the water supply line to the refrigerator springing a leak.  Installing one of these units at each of these (and other) locations is a small price to pay for the piece of mind afforded by preventing costly repairs that could be prevented.
Good job finding a new use for X10!

[Alan V]

The unit is powered by a +9Vdc wall-wart. The Good: never need to worry about the batteries. The Bad: if there is a power blackout then the DS10A becomes unregistered with AHP & OnAlert; it will handle a momentary power dropout.

Nice Job.

If you add a Schottky diode (1N5711) in series with the battery pack and connect its cathode to the cathode of the second 1N914 (furthest away from the voltage regulator) then you can have battery back-up when there is a blackout.

[KDR]

Yep, saw that one KDR.  Thanks.  Did you mod it with a relay to be able to use it with a DS10a (NC contacts), modify a DS10a with a wired-or cable attached to the test button so you can trigger it with NO contacts, or do you use a powerflash with it?  It's not convenient for me to use it with a powerflash, so a DS10A is the only option... and at that price, it's pretty much a wash between making one of Puck's mods above or the mods necessary to make this work with a DS10A...

Regards,
--Lee

I use a Power Flash unit with mine. I can see where using a DS10A would have some advantages. You could keep the DS10A as a battery operated unit and use OnAlert with AHP. AHP would alert you if the batteries get low.

I will say that when I got the unit the instructions for it say the unit is polarity sensitive and hooking it up wrong to the Power Flasher will damage the unit.

^{----------------KDR}

[RebHawk]

I use a Power Flash unit with mine. I can see where using a DS10A would have some advantages. You could keep the DS10A as a battery operated unit and use OnAlert with AHP. AHP would alert you if the batteries get low.

Yep, in my case there are no 110VAC outlets for a powerflash in my laundry, nor easily convenient to any of my bathrooms or my main pressure tank. 

Cheers,
--Lee