Water overflow pail detector

Question

I am looking for a "water overflow pail detector".
It basically will make some sound (e.g. beeping) when the water in a pail was about to overflow.
The detector must also be water-proof otherwise the electrical source to this detector will be short-circuit.

I have a very slow running tap that I used to fill up pail to wash my car.
However, I don't want to sit down there watching that slow tap to fill up the pail and
I also don't want it to overflow if I just went to watch the TV.
Therefore, I need to put that detector on the pail somehow in order to detect if it is about to overflow

I am not looking for a detector to measure the level of the water in the pail or tank or something like in the link - Level of a water tank with a microcontroller

Changed your question to add your extra information. Change again if desired. — Russell McMahon, Oct 03 '11 at 10:31
@RussellMcMahon, Liked the circuit design you provided but I was wondering if there are made-ready device in the market? — Larry Morries, Oct 04 '11 at 01:04
go to the search page that I provided and look at the many images. Hover over images for more details. Some will be selling product. And try ebay, sparkfun, deal extreme, Jameco, ... and other electronic resellers. Which suits depends where you are located. Where are you? — Russell McMahon, Oct 04 '11 at 02:28
If you search on ebay for water level alarm you will find many dozens of products, starting for about $5. — Russell McMahon, Oct 04 '11 at 02:31

Russell McMahon · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-03T10:28:06.173

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LEVEL DETECTOR TO SOUND AN ALARM WHEN A SLOWLY FILLING PAIL OF ATE RIS ALMOST FULL

Google: water level detector circuit
Click on "images"

MANY water level detector circuits each with its own web page.

This should suit your need.

enter image description here

A slightly different way:

N1 can also be 74C14, 74HC14 or any "Schmitt trigger" CMOS gates.

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This circuit and several others here

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Float switches:

Have a look at these images "float switch" .
Each one of these images is hot linked to webpage.

These are probably even more likely to be apposite "float switch" bucket

From the above link:

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Using "float switch" low voltage

This looks about what you want. Discussion here

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All these come, as you will have seen if you looked, by using a simple Google search with some obvious terms and then looking at "images". A very powerful tool. Well worth spending the time required to learn how to use it.

edited Oct 03 '11 at 10:28

answered Oct 03 '11 at 08:15

Russell McMahon

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Nice one. Your answer will be mark as the final answer. – Larry Morries Oct 03 '11 at 08:19
@Larry Morries - Hopefully some of those are useful to you. But, knowing more about what you were trying to achieve may help someone to give an answer that suited your need very specifically. – Russell McMahon Oct 03 '11 at 09:21
Actually I have a very slow running tap that I used to fill up pail to wash my car. However, I don't want to sit down there watching that slow tap to fill up the pail and I also don't want it to overflow if I just went to watch the TV. Therefore, I need to put that detector on the pail somehow in order to detect if it is about to overflow. – Larry Morries Oct 03 '11 at 09:28

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 03 '11 at 07:43

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A float switch in series with a piezo buzzer and a battery will do what you need. Depending on whether it's ok to make permanent modifications to the bucket, you can either use a vertical float switch on a plank across the top of the bucket, or a horizontal float switch in the side of the bucket. Other techniques for detecting water (conductivity, ultrasound, capacitance, heat transfer) can work too, but they tend to be more complex and expensive than a simple float switch.

answered Oct 03 '11 at 07:43

Theran

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Do you have illustration or pictures to show me that float switch? (It looks very interesting to me) – Larry Morries Oct 03 '11 at 07:46
More information will get better answers. – Russell McMahon Oct 03 '11 at 07:47
@RussellMcMahon, Theran answer is quite close to what I want but I need some pictures or illustration to shows me the float switch. – Larry Morries Oct 03 '11 at 07:54
@Larry Morries - That's what search engines are for. Use SE of your choice and then select IMAGES. If the SE of you choice does not have images, select one that has. A very powerful; tool. Well worth learning how to use it. – Russell McMahon Oct 03 '11 at 08:17
@Theran +1 as consolidation prize. – Larry Morries Oct 03 '11 at 08:20

Water overflow pail detector

2 Answers2