• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Homemade Circuit Projects

Get free circuit help 24/7

Circuits for Beginners | Basic Circuits | LED Driver | Hobby Circuits | Transistor Circuits

New-Projects | Privacy Policy | About us | Contact | Disclaimer | Copyright

Home » Water Level Controller » Water Flow Valve Timer Controller Circuit

Water Flow Valve Timer Controller Circuit

Last Updated on March 13, 2019 by Swagatam 6 Comments

The article details about an automatic water flow controller timer circuit which switches a valve mechanism ON/OFF as per a set predetermined timing sequence. The idea was requested by Mr. John Clarke.

Technical Specifications

I've seen your site and designs and wondered if you could help with a controller I'm trying to design to control water flow on a shower.

What I'm trying to achieve is the following,

Using a water flow sensor, when water starts to flow a timer is triggered and starts a countdown of circa 2 minutes. After this time a control valve turns off the water supply and remains off for 8 minutes. After that time the control valve is re opened and the system resets to start again.

Ideally the two times would be adjustable.

Many thanks for any help you could give or if you can point me in the direction of where to go.

Kind regards

John

The Design

The proposed water flow controller circuit using a valve timer circuit can be implemented by using a simple two stage programmable timer design, as shown in the above diagram.

We have already discussed this programmable timer circuit in one of my previous posts. The same concept has been employed in this design too.

Referring to the diagram above we can see two identical timer stages using the ICs 4060 which are coupled with each other such that when the upper module finishes counting, the lower gets triggered and the sequence continues infinitely from the upper timer to the lower and back to the upper timer module.

The functioning of the system may be understood as explained below:

How it Works

When power is switched ON, the circuit stays disabled since pin12 of the upper IC has no access to a ground for initiating the counting process.

However the moment water is introduced across the shown "water sensing points" the pin12 of the upper IC experiences a ground potential through these sensing conductors and instantly initiates the counting process.

The initialization begins with a low at pin3 of the upper IC, the red LED now lights up indicating the start of the counting process by the system.

After about 2 minutes which may be set by appropriately adjusting P1, C1, the upper IC finishes its counting reverting its pin3 with a high logic, which instantly triggers the relay through the connected BC547 driver stage. The relay clicks energizing the water valve mechanism into action.

The green LED simultaneously lights up acknowledging the above activation of the relay and the valve.

The high from pin3 of the upper IC also makes sure that the IC latches itself and stops counting for the time being, this is implemented by the diode that's connected across pin3 and pin11 of the upper IC.

The above discussed high from the pin3 of the upper IC simultaneously triggers the lower BC547 into conduction which in turn grounds the pin12 of the lower IC, ensuring a triggering signal to the lower IC.

The lower IC now begins counting until 8 minutes have lapsed, this time period may be appropriately set by adjusting P2/C2 of the module. Once this set period elapses the pin3 of the lower IC goes high, "kicking" a triggering pulse to pin12 of the upper IC, which responds to this and instantly resets the upper IC into its original state so that it begins counting its stipulated 2 minute slot.

The above procedure switches OFF the relay and the valve mechanism providing a free path for the water to flow again, for until 2 minutes have passed and the cycle repeats, but only as long as the water sensing points remain subjected to a water content.

You'll also like:

  • 1.  Ultrasonic Wireless Water Level Indicator – Solar Powered
  • 2.  Make this Touch free Faucet Circuit for Hands-free Tap Control
  • 3.  Electronic Load Controller (ELC) Circuit
  • 4.  Float Switch Controlled Water Level Controller Circuit
  • 5.  Cheap Cellphone Controlled Water Pump for Farmers
  • 6.  Borewell Motor Pump Starter Controller Circuit

About Swagatam

I am an electronic engineer (dipIETE ), hobbyist, inventor, schematic/PCB designer, manufacturer. I am also the founder of the website: https://www.homemade-circuits.com/, where I love sharing my innovative circuit ideas and tutorials.
If you have any circuit related query, you may interact through comments, I'll be most happy to help!

Subscribe2


 

Reader Interactions

Comments

    Your Comments are too Valuable! But please see that they are related to the above article, and are not off-topic! Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  1. Muhamamd Asif says

    Dear Swagatam ,
    I need a battery charger with working convert 226VDC to 12VDC at 20 to 25 AMP.Please help me design this type Battery charger i have 400 Aph Battery. and in your pervious blog i read the 220 volt DC to Ac Inverter does this inverter working with Solar panel of 226 VDC and 1KW solar power plant.

    Reply
    • Swagatam says

      Dear Muhammad,

      you can try the following design, this will perfectly suit your application need:

      https://www.homemade-circuits.com/2014/06/smps-2-x-50v-350w-circuit-for-audio.html

      Reply
  2. Unknown says

    Hello sir,
    I want to make a circuit for water fountain.
    It would work like, the switch is on it will work for30 min and will be off after 30 min and then switches off.
    How would I make it kindly help me.

    Reply
    • Swagatam says

      Hello, for 30 min ON and then OFF, you can use any one shot timer circuit, or a monostable circuit based on IC 4060 or IC 555 and use it for your requirement.

      you can use the first circuit from this page

      https://www.homemade-circuits.com/p/ic-555-calculator.html

      connect a 10k across pin2 and positive, and a 1M across pin2 and ground…and also connect a 4.7uF capacitor parallel with the 1M.

      then calculate the R/C values for the 30 minutes one shot operation.

      pin3 could be configured with a relay

      Reply
  3. arthur collins says

    I found the above article intriguing about a water flow meter timer. This is exactly what I’ve been searching for to use on my shower. It seems you have nailed what I want. However, I am not electrically gifted and would love the opportunity to buy such a device either from you or if you know where I may purchase one that would be ace. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Swagatam says

      I am glad you found this concept useful, however since we no longer manufacture electronic items it may be difficult for us to provide you an assembled product of this project.

      Reply

Primary Sidebar

Categories

  • 3-Phase Power (15)
  • 324 IC Circuits (19)
  • 4017 IC Circuits (53)
  • 4060 IC Circuits (25)
  • 555 IC Circuits (98)
  • 741 IC Circuits (19)
  • Amplifiers (58)
  • Arduino Engineering Projects (82)
  • Audio Projects (94)
  • Battery Chargers (82)
  • Car and Motorcycle (94)
  • Datasheets (46)
  • Decorative Lighting (Diwali, Christmas) (33)
  • DIY LED Projects (89)
  • Electronic Components (97)
  • Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory (35)
  • Electronics Tutorial (109)
  • Fish Aquarium (5)
  • Free Energy (35)
  • Fun Projects (11)
  • GSM Projects (9)
  • Health Related (18)
  • Heater Controllers (28)
  • Home Electrical Circuits (101)
  • How to Articles (20)
  • Incubator Related (6)
  • Industrial Electronics (28)
  • Infrared (IR) (40)
  • Inverter Circuits (98)
  • Laser Projects (12)
  • LM317/LM338 (21)
  • LM3915 IC (25)
  • Meters and Testers (63)
  • Mini Projects (171)
  • Motor Controller (66)
  • MPPT (7)
  • Oscillator Circuits (24)
  • PIR (Passive Infrared) (8)
  • Power Electronics (33)
  • Power Supply Circuits (74)
  • Radio Circuits (9)
  • Remote Control (47)
  • Security and Alarm (61)
  • Sensors and Detectors (116)
  • SG3525 IC (5)
  • Simple Circuits (74)
  • SMPS (29)
  • Solar Controllers (61)
  • Timer and Delay Relay (54)
  • TL494 IC (5)
  • Transformerless Power Supply (8)
  • Transmitter Circuits (40)
  • Ultrasonic Projects (14)
  • Water Level Controller (45)

Circuit Calculators

  • AWG to Millimeter Converter
  • Battery Back up Time Calculator
  • Capacitance Reactance Calculator
  • IC 555 Astable Calculator
  • IC 555 Monostable Calculator
  • Inductance Calculator
  • LC Resonance Calculator
  • LM317, LM338, LM396 Calculator
  • Ohm’s Law Calculator
  • Phase Angle Phase Shift Calculator
  • Power Factor (PF) Calculator
  • Reactance Calculator
  • Small Signal Transistor(BJT) and Diode Quick Datasheet
  • Transistor Astable Calculator
  • Transistor base Resistor Calculator
  • Voltage Divider Calculator
  • Wire Current Calculator
  • Zener Diode Calculator

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
My Facebook-Page
Quora

© 2022 · Swagatam Innovations

We use cookies on our website to give you the best experience.
Cookie settingsAccept All
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Please visit the Privacy Policy Page for more info.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT