How about adding another non-contact water level sensor to those various Home Assistant devices? We've been searching and exploring the possibilities of various sensors for a long time, and after DIYing the Human Sensor 1U, 2A and others, we didn't stop there. One question has been bugging us, how to make them simple, yet quick enough to be simply available and then be able to bring people together to explore the possibilities of these things?
At 2A, we've enjoyed exploring the possibilities of this hardware with everyone. After all, not everyone has exactly the energy to DIY their own hardware and design an enclosure, then source various modules and hardware and do comparative research.
The sensor we're exploring this time is the Y23A, which we've been testing over and over again for almost a month now, and we think it's pretty interesting. It can detect non-metallic water level non-contact, the maximum wall thickness is 15mm, and it is waterproof itself. The principle of detection is capacitance change, and the manufacturer has set up a calibration button that can be used to adapt to different wall thicknesses and capacitance values of different liquids (press the small button on the probe with a relatively sharp object while making sure there is liquid, and a series of calibrations will begin automatically).
The probe is connected using a 30cm cable to the master, which uses a series of very mini ESP32-C3 modules we've been using lately, and one of the features I like about it is that it supports ESP Web Tool swiping (whereas the S2 requires a special tool). We used 3D printing to create a little square box for the main controller, goodbye, bare circuit board. The master controller is small and uses Type-C to connect to the power supply (5V, 1A power supply).
After some testing, we believe that this hardware has its own unique specifics and roles, and we invite you to join us in exploring more of its possibilities.
The sensor is capable of supporting non-metallic containers up to 15mm in size and detecting if the liquid level reaches the position.
Easily integrated into HomeAssistant through the ESPHome firmware, we are now starting to think about what some of the benefits of getting water level information could be.
I think this has been a fun process to explore, so I'm looking forward to all the interesting things that everyone everyone can find out from it and, in the end, make Home Assistant a little bit more powerful.
We named it WS1, we wanted the name to be simple and natural, and they are always ready to be integrated into our Home Assistant.
In WS1, we applied these recent exploratory findings:
- New back product labels, we use Brother's PT-P9700PC and 9mm label paper to print very high definition labels, they are thermal transfers and can be kept for a long time. It's really a great machine! When the labels are punched out, they fly out. In China, it's around $100 used and compatible supplies are around $1 (8m).
- A newly discovered soft silicone Type-C cable which is relatively expensive ($2) but beautiful. We as the earliest WS1 explorers prepared this gift 30 pcs (just choose the data cable parameter when selecting, there are only 30 quantities).
- Very mini C3 module, it was an unexpected discovery, it allowed us to further reduce the size of 1U and still C3, it's ok for the price (about 3-4$).
- Various water level sensors, it's amazing how many water level sensors exist, some of them are used to monitor pipes, some are ultrasonic technology (which can pass through metal), some are used to monitor tiny pipes of the medical kind, some are continuous level detectors, there are also floats, and photocontacts. It's a rich world. We'd like to explore more possibilities when we get the chance.
Again, I'm very grateful to the folks from around the world who gave us advice and support in the earliest days as we announced the beta process.
Work Demo: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/R4ehpJT4xlg
More Docs: https://docs.screek.io/ws1