Recent content by Willie...

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    Borehole well water level sensing

    LIFE is keeping me a bit busy, lately, but I will get back to this ASAP and try the code Alan just posted! :) Thank you! :)
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    Borehole well water level sensing

    In an earlier post, I made a crude "flowchart" of what I'm looking to do with the PICAXE. Here, I've updated it: 1) Wait for a button press. When pressed, pause 1 second. 2) "CLICK!" (Send 15 pulses of 630 Hz. This part is working 100%) 3) Pause for 150ms (the MINIMUM echo time of this well...
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    Borehole well water level sensing

    Hmmm... Not sure how I didn't see that, earlier! :( (Looking in the manual about the "settimer" variable, and others associated with it, so I can get a handle on what's actually going on with it.) Ideally, I want to set a timer to zero, then let it count up until the processed echo pulse...
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    Borehole well water level sensing

    No matter what object I tapped on to make the "CLICK", the ECHO is ALWAYS centered at 630Hz. Sure, if I sent a 500Hz tone burst, I'm sure I'd get 500Hz back... but with much less amplitude than I get with 630. That's just some characteristic of the well. The depth of the water doesn't affect the...
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    Borehole well water level sensing

    The noise within 150ms of the pulse, is because of the various things near the top of the well, like the coupler that joins the pump to the house pipe. There's also excess power wire, which is 3 thick wires that run down to the pump, with the slack just kinda bunched up near the top. That's why...
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    Borehole well water level sensing

    Follow-up for Alan - I tried your code, and I had to tweak a few things to get it right on my chip. "Cycles" needs to be 206, and the pause of 62ms had to be 64, *BUT* when run and watched on the o'scope, the number of cycles varied from 19 to 20, sometimes a "half" cycle also appeared. Granted...
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    Borehole well water level sensing

    Hey, Alan! Thanks for the input! The 32ms of the burst is measured on the O'scope, so it is accurate at 16MHz. :) I'll have to try your code, and see how it works. I would imagine that the 08M2 chip should still be more than powerful enough to process this... unless it lacks a timer, but I...
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    Borehole well water level sensing

    UPDATE: I've gotten the following pulse test program written and working 100%. It is extremely simple, because I'm only testing the ability to generate a controlled frequency and number of pulses. According to the FFT analysis in my O'scope, this is 630Hz. :) Twenty cycles. It works beautifully...
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    Borehole well water level sensing

    I'm not going to use the PICAXE to try to measure the frequency. An external circuit is going to amplify, detect, and convert the echo into a single logic pulse. I only need to measure the time from CLICK to first echo. Regardless of the source sound I use at the well head, the ECHO is ALWAYS...
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    Borehole well water level sensing

    Thank you, Alan ("AllyCat") for that detailed reply. :) I do, indeed, plan to use external hardware to detect and convert the analog pulses into a squarewave (logic level) pulse for the PICAXE. I have used a number of different sources for the sound of the "CLICK"... from clapping my hands, to...
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    Borehole well water level sensing

    I probably could build something like a "twin-T" audio filter, tuned for 630Hz, because that is the frequency that returns from the echoes at any depth. It is a CLEANER 630 Hz signal when the well is low, and has more noise & harmonics with the full well. Still, the echo is very definitely clear...
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    Borehole well water level sensing

    Interesting! I noticed also that the return echo gets "dirtier" when my well is full... but it really doesn't matter, because if the echo is less than 160 milliseconds, I have more than enough water. :) My well is nowhere near as good as yours. :( If we use too much water in too short a time...
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    Borehole well water level sensing

    OK, here's a bit more detail. :) The echoes of various depths (only comparing FULL & EMPTY here) are 630 Hz bursts. The CLICK is a tap against the pipe with the wellhead cover. (All metal.) Ideally, I would definitely use a speaker and a microphone. The PICAXE creates the CLICK (just a simple...
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    Universal Test Code for all Parallel Bus Alphanumeric LCD Configurations

    Just a little update... turns out, that beautiful VFD is bad. :'( Oh well. The Code worked perfectly on an LCD I have, so I know that the Code, PICAXE, and wiring were all correct. The only thing left to do with that display is wire up a 5V supply, and put it into a box as a night light. (WHAT...
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    Borehole well water level sensing

    BTW, a follow-up thought on the heated vs unheated sensors... I worked with an AM broadcast transmitter years back, that used a similar concept to ensure that there was sufficient air-flow to keep the transmitter cool. It used a transistor with a small heat sink in the air intake path. If it...
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