Raspberry Pi, any in the know?

[Gingerbread Man]

Raspberry Pi.

I think this is the way forward to make an electronic gauge for my water tank. Here in Australia I run the house from rain water tanks. It would be nice to have a simple phone accessible web page that shows a % full/ empty for the tank. There's a few guides online, but I'm not 100% sure of what's what. I notice that there are a few different versions of the PI around. What one do I need?

I need WiFi, but not many bells and whistles I don't believe, so the newish Pi4 is probably overkill. Would the Pi Zero suffice?

New to all the programming, just fancy a project that delivers a working result.

[shtu]

A Zero W would probably do, but that's without knowing specifically what you are doing.....

[Gingerbread Man]

A few projects that I hope to follow to make mine.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Water-Tank-Levels...

https://developer.ibm.com/recipes/tutorials/smart-...

From my research some use a better ultrasonic sensor that is waterproof, so I'll buy that one. Ideally I'd love it to be solar/ battery powered and mostly look after itself. I don't particularly need it updating the level every 5 minutes. so reducing the transponding time interval would hopefully hold the battery better.

[paul.deitch]

You'll get much more info on the official Raspberry forum. I've had a lot of help there.

[Gingerbread Man]

paul.deitch said:

You'll get much more info on the official Raspberry forum. I've had a lot of help there.

I put a post up. The info went straight over my head. 5 differing opinions, blew me away haha. I can try and follow one of the project links to hopefully make a start. They just start with a Pi, but I'm not sure what one I need as I then learnt there are many more than just one. I guess if they're based around the orignal, then a newer one should be more powerful.

[ARHarh]

RPi is probably a bit over the top for your needs. Try searching nodemcu or wemos d1 mini. Esp8266 boards and the right sensor will do the job Iam sure, these boards a few Pound/dollers each.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Water-Tank-Levels... look at this

[Gingerbread Man]

ARHarh said:

RPi is probably a bit over the top for your needs. Try searching nodemcu or wemos d1 mini. Esp8266 boards and the right sensor will do the job Iam sure, these boards a few Pound/dollers each.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Water-Tank-Levels... look at this

I've seen that one, I didn't realise that it wasn't run from a Pi. Seemingly there's a whole world of small computery things!

[paul.deitch]

Lots of people have done it already with a Pi. Here's a project with code and shopping listhttps://www.pantechsolutions.net/water-level-measurement-by-an-ultrasonic-sensor-using-raspberry-pi

If you want a nicer interface consider a simple web server also easy on pi or something like Domoticz loaded onto the Pi. It's all great fun. I use Pis for a variety of things including controlling Halloween monsters with smoke machine lightning and awful sound effects.

[Baldchap]

Worth noting there are subtle differences between the Pi and Pi Zero in terms of addressing sensors, so if you copy a Pi project, use a Pi. If you copy a Pi Z project, use a Pi Z or make sure you know the changes you need to make.

When you first start out, stuff like this can be frustrating.