Hello everyone,
I'm trying to design a water meter for a kitchen tap as a university project. On the top of the faucet, I plan on having a dial (like a watch face) to indicate the amount of water used- up to 120 liters.
The constraints I have set for myself are that whatever mechanism is used to measure will have to be powered by the flow of water- thus, some sort of propeller/impeller. And the device will be compact enough to sit flush with the top surface of the tap.
The diameter of the inner pipe in which water flows will be 15mm, and will have a flowrate of 7L/min. I have done the calculations and have found that with a 90% efficiency turbine I can generate 0.023W of power. Therefore, after 120 liters are discharged and 1 revolution is made on the dial, a total of 23.79W is generated. For the dial to indicate 1 liter has been used, it has to rotate 3 degrees using a max of 0.195W (23.79/120).
This device can be broken down into 2 parts: 1 that sits inline with the water flow and propeller and 2 is the dial turning mechanism. Im converting mechanical energy to electrical back to mechanical.
If I use 2 motors in each, one to generate a voltage, and one to turn the dial, that will be over engineered and inefficient- or so I think.
I'm trying to find stepper motors used in watches, but I cant find any online.
What are your suggestions?
I'm trying to design a water meter for a kitchen tap as a university project. On the top of the faucet, I plan on having a dial (like a watch face) to indicate the amount of water used- up to 120 liters.
The constraints I have set for myself are that whatever mechanism is used to measure will have to be powered by the flow of water- thus, some sort of propeller/impeller. And the device will be compact enough to sit flush with the top surface of the tap.
The diameter of the inner pipe in which water flows will be 15mm, and will have a flowrate of 7L/min. I have done the calculations and have found that with a 90% efficiency turbine I can generate 0.023W of power. Therefore, after 120 liters are discharged and 1 revolution is made on the dial, a total of 23.79W is generated. For the dial to indicate 1 liter has been used, it has to rotate 3 degrees using a max of 0.195W (23.79/120).
This device can be broken down into 2 parts: 1 that sits inline with the water flow and propeller and 2 is the dial turning mechanism. Im converting mechanical energy to electrical back to mechanical.
If I use 2 motors in each, one to generate a voltage, and one to turn the dial, that will be over engineered and inefficient- or so I think.
I'm trying to find stepper motors used in watches, but I cant find any online.
What are your suggestions?