Is anyone using LoRa Sensor Networks for water supply management?

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We are thinking about using LoRa IoT Networks to track multiple sensors in our water supply station. 

Is anybody is using LoRa Networks and sensors for monitoring and controlling their water meters or sensors?
If yes, please give your feedback about their feasibility and how user-friendly they are.

 

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6 Answers

  1. It is early days for Water and LoRa. In the Netherlands we are however a few steps ahead. With the National Dutch Telco KPN having a nationwide coverage, I-Real is providing LoRa dataloggers for groundwater monitoring. The Product LevelTrack works on battery. IN comparison with 2G/3G battery life now goes beyond 3 years and prices of communications is less than half.  I-Real has also the RealSense-1 product that is a square box for other measurements like quality that are not in a bore-hole, shaft, tube.  check out: www.i-real.com or the video on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBSh7blERVE Contact me if you want to have more info on our experiences. 

    Simon van den Dries

    simon.vandendries@i-real.com

    +31 6 460 744 74

  2. Dear Dennis,

    we have a sensor unit, a.o. used by a major UK company as a remote monitoring solution for water temperatures, used as part of a control regime for Legionella. The device can be used to monitor outlets, incoming mains temperature, cold water storage, calorifiers, and other parts of the water system. The temperature monitoring device works in conjunction with an evaluation platform to provide long term data capture, analysis, reporting, alarms, notifications and auditing. 

    If you would like more info please let me know.

    Regards,

    Huub Robroek

    hrobroek@iot-wirelesscom.eu

  3. Dear Mr. dennis

    LoRa sensors specially designed for water measurement but in order this use case be financially viable it would be better that the water measurement be done without the need to install a water meter in each apartment (breaking the walls to install the meters), but some type of sensor that can read the flow in any other way.Regarding the one in Kickstarter (Fluid) do you believe it can be adapted to use LoRa rather than WiFi?

    Sens’O : LoRa Water Meter Sensor

    Sens’O is dedicated to the measurement and transmission via LoRa radio network of the water meter index. It incorporates the following functions :

    • LoRaTM radio transceiver, bidirectional, long range and low power consumption, with an integrated antenna.
    • Optical coder for the detection of the meter cyble.
    • Electronics circuitry for the cyble direction of rotation detection and index counting.
    • Lithium battery for an operation of up to 15 years.
    • Plastic housing, IP68, which clips to the meter.

    Sens’O transmits the following alarms:

    • Water reverse flow
    • Sens’O removal from meter
    • Water leak
    • Battery low

    Operational parameters are fixed in factory. They can be updated over the air during operation:

    • Alarm level (3) for reverse flow.
    • Index time interval of transmission (4h to 120h).
    • Operational time of 15 years is given for one radio transmission per day.

    limited area like a big hospital but with high density of devices

    • High density of devices (0-1500) in a network
    • Data rate of approx ~100 ASCII Characters+Payload data per device per second – all end-node WEARABLE devices simultaneously sending information (unidirectional) to the gateway – at least 10 continuous hours per day
    • Data acknowledgement by the gateway – that the gateway has received the data (from all devices in the pool) and there is no loss
    • Latency issues if any
    • Availability of network (quality) in deeper areas of the physical building, across walls and glass panels, metal doors
    • Does end node wearable device need to be paired / establish connection every time, if devices move in and out of the network?
    • Any ‘handover’ or other issues if devices are mobile/non-stationary
      Upstreaming from gateway to Cloud Server – technicalities in tunnelling this data to AWS, Azure, IBM Blue,
    • Gateways that can be internet connected by Ethernet/ Cable and Also GSM for different use cases: data capability
    • What are the capabilities of the wifi module for end nodes and can they be utilized for wearable devices?
    • Identification of END-NODE devices/ IPV6
    • Size, weight and cost constraints for the end node wifi module
    • Battery life: can end node (wearable device) work with coin cell
    • Any interference if wearable also has BT/ BLE module alongside the LoRa wifi module, Interference from other radio signals. What are the available small size modules available?
    • Can we make the LoRa network be able to detect and connect only OUR/ IDENTIFIED pool devices and no others can log into the network? Does this require any password or anything. This may mean that we need to hardcode some known passwords for “connection” if we do not wish to do an OTA updates to end node devices?
    • Security issues to make the network private and exclude ‘other' devices
    • Cost of network building/ equipment deployment – including for Gateway/ repeaters and end-node wearable device module

    http://forum.thethingsnetwork.org/t/testing-upstream-communication-between-gateway-and-server/1044

     

     

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