Water butt level measurement advice?

johnconnett
Fri, 03 Oct 2025 11:38:08 +0000
End Devices (Nodes)

I volunteer at a community orchard where we have recently installed an Ecosure1450 Litre Water Tank. We currently harvest rainwater from the roof of the doctors’ surgery / pharmacy building next door. The initial setup made only minor changes to the existing guttering. We are uncertain how much rainwater is being diverted and how much is going to the other down pipes.

The site is in Cambridge, UK which appears to have good TTN coverage. A modestly priced solution to measure the depth of water in the butt would be really handy!

The butt is roughly 1360mm high, 1250mm diameter. It has a dome top and the position of the access hatch might make fitting a device at the ideal point at the apex difficult.

Any advice or experience with solutions would be gratefully received!

One possibility might be a Dragino DDS75-LB/LS LoRaWAN® Ultrasonic Distance Detection Sensor. The 280mm dead space and 40° measure angle may be less than ideal.

Other possibilities are using a Dragino SN50V3-LB or Dragino RS485-LB paired with a more suitable sensor.

Happy to consider other suppliers or technologies (radar, laser, …) if they offer a better solution.

My background is in software engineering and this would be my first experience with LoRaWAN®. I am keen to avoid spending money on a something that doesn’t work!

17 posts - 9 participants