instructables

Flow Measurement With Water Flow Meters (Ultrasonic)

by edward_Valarm

Water is a critical resource for our planet.
We humans need water every day. And water is
necessary for a variety of industries and we humans
need it every day.
As water has become more valuable and scarce, the
need for effectively monitoring and managing water
resources has increased recently.
There are many ways to manage and monitor water
resources like water level sensors and flow meters.
In this Instructable we'll go into depth about how to do
flow measurement with Ultrasonic flow meters like
you see in the photos.
So let's go ahead and get started! :)

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Step 1: IoT Items You Need for Water Flow Measurement

In this article, you’ll learn the nitty gritty details of how to monitor TUF-2000 ultrasonic flow meters with sensor
hubs connected to RS-485Modbus sensor adapters.

As with other monitoring deployments, you’ll need to figure out which internet connectivity, power source,
enclosures, and so on will work best for your specific deployment scenarios. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch
with me at Info@Valarm.net if you’d like any advice or have got any questions.

To get started with monitoring these TUF-2000 series flow meters, you’ll need the following:

TUF-2000 series flow meters like the TUF-2000S, or other fix mountable, explosion proof, or the
wall mountable version you see in the the pictures in this story
Flow transducers compatible with TUF-2000 flow meters to monitor flow and/or temperature, like the
clamp on transducers you see in the photos
Sensor Hubs to upload your sensor measurements to the clouds via GSM mobile cell network,
ethernet, WiFi or other internet connectivity
RS-485 sensor adapters to connect and communicate with your flow meters

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Step 2: Connect Your Flow Meters to Your RS-485 Sensors

After you’ve linked your sensor hubs to
Tools.Valarm.net, you’ll connect your RS-485 sensor
adapters to your TUF-2000 series flow meters.
You’ll do this by connecting a wire of your choice
from the + (positive) 485 on your flow meters to the
positive (+) on your RS-485 sensor adapters.
Similarly, use a wire to connect the negative (-)
channels on your flow meters and your RS-485
sensor adapters. You’ll see in the photos that we
found that using red and black cables for this makes it
easy to remember and keep track of.
Remember to configure and follow your flow meter
instructions, following and configuring the required
settings if you haven’t already, things like –
transducer type, liquid type, mounting type, pipe outer
diameter, pipe material, and pipe wall thickness. And
also confirm that you have a strong signal strength
and quality for your water transducer installation to
make sure you have reliable measurements and
readings for your water monitoring systems.

Step 3: Configuring Your Flowmeters With RS-485 Modbus Sensor Adapters

Now after you’re wired up, plug your Yoctopuce RS-485 sensor adapter into your computer. Make sure your flow
meter is also powered up and that your RS-485 is connected up with the positive and negative leads matching up
to your flow meter.

Fire up your virtualhub software and point your browser to http://localhost:4444. Click the menu button ‘configure’
for your RS-485 sensor adapter. Make sure that your RS-485 sensor settings here match what you set on your
TUF-2000 series flow meter.

We recommend you use the following RS-485 Modbus settings:

Modbus RTU
9600 Baud
8 data bits
No parity
1 stop bit
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In short hand that’s RS-485 Modbus RTU with 8N1 at 9600 baud. Next up we’ll create a job file that will program
your RS-485 sensor adapters to automatically query your flow meters as often as you need. Then your flow meter
measurements will be uploaded to Tools.Valarm.net. Click the manage job files button in your RS-485 virtualhub
settings window to make a new job file. Click define a new job to make a new job file.

Then click add step to add a new task to your newly created job file. You can see in the examples that we named
ours flowtuf.job task1.

Next up you’ll edit your 1 and only task. You’ll set the your task to periodic so that your flow meter sensors send
data at pre-defined intervals. Configure your task to use a custom protocol as you see in the screenshots. You’ll
add a step for each variable you want to query from your flow meter. You’ll look at your TUF 2000 series flow
meter documentation to find which Modbus register you need to query based on which measurement you want
from your flow meters.

We’ve included screenshots from a manual we found while searching the web. In these examples we’ll query flow
rate, velocity, and the positive accumulator / total flow usage. Now how do we use each MODBUS query for the
specific flow meter Modbus registers?

For each variable you want to query you’ll find the register number in the flow meter manual, then subtract 1. Then
convert that decimal number to hexadecimal using any converter like those you’ll find by searching the web. Let’s
go through some examples. In our example screenshots you’ll see that we are querying for the register variables:

Flow rate (Register 0001) means we want to convert 1 – 1 to hex. So that’s 0 to hex, which our hex converter tells
us is 0, so that’s an easy one to start with.

Velocity (Register 0005) means we’ll convert 5-4 to hex. 4 in hexadecimal is simply 4.

Total Flow Usage / Positive Accumulator (Register 0115) means we’ll convert 0114 from decimal to hexadecimal.
0114 in hex is 72.

Now let’s set up the tasks to query for those registers. Add a step for each variable you want to query.

For example if we want to query the positive accumulator for total flow usage then you’ll use the writeMODBUS
command with the argument:

010300720002

Note the 72 in the middle of the argument. That’s the key that you’ll need to change for any other variable you want
to query. For example, you’ll see in the screenshots that the other two Modbus commands we’re sending have 04
and 00 in the command argument instead of 72. So replace those 2 digits with whichever register you need to
query. Now after you’ve queried for a register you’ll need a place to store and save the flow meter sensor’s
response to your query. We’ll do this with an expect command.

Add a step for an expect command with the argument: :010304($1:FLOAT32X).*

Important: Note that the $1 is telling the sensor adapter to store this sensor query in generic sensor variable 1,
which we’ll later map and associate with a column / field on Tools.Valarm.net. As you see in the screenshots, if we
want to query multiple registers and store them in different sensor fields then change the expect command to $2
for genericSensor2, $3 for genericSensor3, and so on. You’ll experiment and play with this until you get just what
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you, your teams, and your organization need from your industrial sensors.

Also note that in the flow meter documentation with the registers you see there is the register number and also a
format. If the format is REAL4 in the docs, then you’ll use the FLOAT32X data type you see in the screenshots.
However, if you need to query a different type format, then get in touch with us, since you’ll need the latest RS-485
firmware and will use other data types like DWORDX for Modbus registers that are type LONG.

Once you’ve added all of the steps you want to query for the flow meter variables you need, then set a repeat
interval in your job file. You’ll see in the screenshots that we set ours to query every 5 seconds. Based on how
overwhelmed and inundated with information you want to be, you might query your sensor every 60 seconds, 300
seconds / 5 minutes, or whichever time interval works best for you and your monitoring deployments in the field.

Save your job and click run to start in running. You’ll probably want to set your job file as your startup job using the
dropdown in the main RS-485 menu. You can see that we’ve done this in the screenshots here. After you’ve saved
all of your settings, you can power cycle your RS-485 sensor adapter, or unplug it and plug it back in to make sure
it’s running how you want whenever it gets booted up. By clicking a sensor’s serial number in the virtualhub main
window you can see the conversation that a serial interface is having with a device. You’ll see the commands and
responses live and first hand. This is a nice way to confirm that everyone’s shaking hands, talking, and behaving
how you’d like.

You can also click show device functions in the main virtualhub window to see live results of the latest flow meter
sensor measurements that are being stored into your generic sensor X columns that are being uploaded to
Tools.Valarm.net.

Now your RS-485 Modbus sensor adapters are configured to talk nicely with your flow meters. Let’s go over how
to manage, map, analyze, and view your real-time water monitoring information from any device with a web
browser pointed at Tools.Valarm.net.

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Step 4: Configuring Your Flow Meters for Monitoring in the Cloud

After you’ve followed this video and configured and flow meter with your job file every 900 seconds. One
linked your sensor hub to Tools.Valarm.net, you’ll more convenience we can configure is to use the
remember the sensor map tab under hub custom column re-naming / aliasing features of
configuration. Tools.Valarm.net. Have a look at our docs on how to
do this or follow the screenshot example to nickname
Now under that sensor mapping tab you’ll see your the user columns to more descriptive names like flow
RS-485 sensor adapter under the last reported meter flow rate, velocity, total flow, positive
sensors. You can click add to add each of the generic accumulator, or water usage.
sensors that you stored a flow meter register value in.
In our case with the examples you’ve seen in this Remember to note the units of your variables that
blog story, we saved flow rate, velocity, and total flow you’re querying from your flow meters. For example
usage / positive accumulator in the genericSensor 1, the positive accumulator variable is reported in cubic
2, and 3 variables, respectively. meters / m³. If you’d like to automatically convert this
to gallons, liters, or another unit, have a gander at our
You’ll map your sensor variables to the columns that calculators features like automatically multiplying by a
work best for you, for example the calc columns or constant value. Now you have all of your flow meter
the user columns that we used in the examples for measurements on Tools.Valarm.net so you can
the screenshots you’re looking at. That’s it. Now you’ll remotely monitor and manage your water resources
see your flow meter sensor values are being from anywhere in your world.
uploaded to Tools.Valarm.net. However often you’ve
set your sensor hub to upload is how often you’ll see As a final note, you may prefer to use custom web
new data uploaded. You can tie this in with how often dashboards like you see here, when it comes to
your job file queries your flow meter. effectively monitoring flow meters, water wells, and
water levels.
For example, if you’re uploaded every 15 minutes to
Tools.Valarm.net, then you’ll only need to query your

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Step 5: Finishing Up Your Water Monitoring Systems and Flow Measurement Solutions

That's about it.

Let's go over some lessons learned and things to remember about monitoring ultrasonic flow meters with these
RS-485 sensor adapters and Tools.Valarm.net:

Put some coupling agent or thermal compound between your transducers and your pipes. If you
forget this, then your ultrasonic flow meters won’t receive measurements from the sensors /
transducers. Note that you can experiment with using substances like vaseline, liquid soap, or any
other lubes as coupling agents.
Remember that there are lots of types of flow meters, so choose which brand and model works best
for your scenario. Whether you need to use impeller, propeller, mechanical, magnetic, ultrasonic, or
other flow meter technologies, we’re here and ready to help you so please don’t hesitate to get in
touch.
Take extra special care to make sure there aren’t any dust particles, sand, or anything else other
than coupling agents. You don’t want anything extra left between your pipe’s outer surfaces and
your transducers.

That’s your quick start guide to monitoring your TUF 2000 series ultrasonic flow meters with Tools.Valarm.net.

Have a look here to see how they're deployed by Industrial IoT customers treating and monitoring water in the
USA.

Please don’t hesitate to let me know if I can help you out with anything else for your water and air monitoring
needs.

Feel free to reach out to me at Info@Valarm.net.

Thank you for Instructabling and being part of the Instructables community! :)

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