Lake Temp

[themlruts]

Just moved into a new house on a lake. Would love to have device that would work with homeseer to measure lake temp. Would like to keep it in year round to plot data of temps
Is there any thing out there? I have zwave Zigbee and insteon connections to homeseer.
Thanks
Mike

[sparkman]

There are floating pool temp sensors that work with the RFXCom plugin. You may also be able to use one of the z-wave devices that support 1-wire temp sensors and use that. Qubino has one, or you could use something like the z-uno: https://z-wave.me/products/z-uno/. How close to shore do you want to measure the temp and how far is the distance to your house?

[Dweber85rc]

I think distance is going to be a factor here also, most of the HA protocols are not great with long distances.

[themlruts]

I am pretty sure we are with in range. I will get a measurement over the weekend. I am thinking like a prob style. since i want to keep it in when the ice freezes

[RoChess]

Also if you want the temperature to find out if it is good for swimming, then you don't want to measure surface temperature, but more at like 3' depth where lake-floor is roughly 4'.

The Fibaro binary sensor supports 4x DS18B20 probes, and you can run 30 meter (100 feet) wires. If that still does not allow you to keep sensor inside a protective weather area, then just buy a $10 outdoor plastic junction box that can hold sensor and power source, such as: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KR3564D/ connect it to a wooden stick in the ground between lake and house (within Z-Wave network range of house), and run 100' wires into lake to a submersed-pole that you connect the DS18B20 sensors onto (ideally one that sticks out of the water or has a buoy attached for future identification) and power line to the shed/home (or device battery power, small marine one would last a decade). Just take proper precautions to ensure the cable is qualified to be submerged and that electrical connections are soldered and finished off waterproof (heat-shrink-tubing makes that easy).

Ideally buy a DS18B20 probe that is rated for submersion and comes prefitted with a long enough cable so you don't have to worry about anything.

Personally I would run the cable from shore to sensor inside a PVC tube for extra protection from swimmers possibly stepping on it.

[JLehnert]

+1 on some type of protection. Don't have a dock at my current location (don't have the necessary $90K in my back pocket), but I did in a previous location in New England. Kid's took the sensor out once swimming under the dock, and a %#@!%!$ snapping turtle did it twice. Idiot turtle probably thought the sensor was a worm. Homemade hardware cloth enclosure did the trick.

[RoChess]

+1 on some type of protection. Don't have a dock at my current location (don't have the necessary $90K in my back pocket), but I did in a previous location in New England. Kid's took the sensor out once swimming under the dock, and a %#@!%!$ snapping turtle did it twice. Idiot turtle probably thought the sensor was a worm. Homemade hardware cloth enclosure did the trick.

Made me spit my drink out almost when I got to the turtle part.

All these questions now: Was it the same turtle twice? Did they just damage it, or is there a turtle swimming around with a nifty probe in New England?

[JLehnert]

I assume it was the same turtle, but it didn't stick around for a mugshot. I used some 14 gauge copper wire (hey, it was handy) to hold the probe in position 2 ft. down and ~3 inches from the dock leg it was mounted to. Came out one morning and the sensor and bottom 3 inches of the wire were gone, sheared right off. After it happened a second time a week or two later, I built the enclosure to protect it. I assume the turtle spit the probes out, but they would have sunk into the muck at the bottom.

[Tomgru]

Also if you want the temperature to find out if it is good for swimming, then you don't want to measure surface temperature, but more at like 3' depth where lake-floor is roughly 4'.

The Fibaro binary sensor supports 4x DS18B20 probes, and you can run 30 meter (100 feet) wires. If that still does not allow you to keep sensor inside a protective weather area, then just buy a $10 outdoor plastic junction box that can hold sensor and power source, such as: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KR3564D/ connect it to a wooden stick in the ground between lake and house (within Z-Wave network range of house), and run 100' wires into lake to a submersed-pole that you connect the DS18B20 sensors onto (ideally one that sticks out of the water or has a buoy attached for future identification) and power line to the shed/home (or device battery power, small marine one would last a decade). Just take proper precautions to ensure the cable is qualified to be submerged and that electrical connections are soldered and finished off waterproof (heat-shrink-tubing makes that easy).

Ideally buy a DS18B20 probe that is rated for submersion and comes prefitted with a long enough cable so you don't have to worry about anything.

Personally I would run the cable from shore to sensor inside a PVC tube for extra protection

Having just moved to a small Lake, I'm really loving this idea. I have an older fibaro door sensor that I used on my hot tub that I could repurpose for just this project.

Having trouble finding the probe in 100 foot lengths. Are you suggesting wiring additional Cable in between the probe and the sensor?

[RoChess]

Having trouble finding the probe in 100 foot lengths. Are you suggesting wiring additional Cable in between the probe and the sensor?

Yup, solid copper CAT cable will work fine for long range, especially if you get shielded and ground (actual ground, not your power circuit ground) the shielding to avoid as much interference as possible.

Be sure to use quality heatshrink tubing or other waterproof ways on all your soldered electrical connections.

Test everything first near a temperature probe you trust before you put it in the lake

[themlruts]

i know this an an old post. But I had built the temp probe for the lake. All was well. Long story short the older Fiabaro sense i was using died. I broke lol. Any ways does anyone know of a battery device that i can hook the probe to? The old Fibaro devices cant be found any longer. I would buy one if any one had some laying around . Thanks

[RoChess]

themlruts the Fibaro FGBS-222 is still available @ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NDRCTJK/ and other places

As you can see on reviews the experience is wildly different. One user says it absolutely does not work on Samsung SmartThings, then another reviewer says they are using it fine to measure their hot-tub. One reviewer says they got it only partly working in HS3, but their focus was on the two relays, where they got one to work, and not the sensor capabilities.

For a better deal on price I'd recommend the $39.95 at: https://www.thesmartesthouse.com/pro...plant-fgbs-222 but you would need to buy something else then as free shipping starts at $50+, and they state HomeSeer support just fine as well as include DeviceHandlers for SmartThings which give a good insight into how the device is usable in other controllers.

Just remember that your experience including it as S0 or S2 might vary.