Water on OGLAS — Off-Grid Local Alert System

Water Trough Level

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The OGLAS Water Trough Level sensor is purpose-built for stock water — the troughs scattered across paddocks where animals depend on a working float valve and a charged pump. If a trough goes dry, you find out before the animals do.

What it does

Reports level periodically — default interval an hour; configurable down to minutes when you’re commissioning, back up to once a day when you trust it.
Raises an immediate out-of-water alert when level drops below a configured threshold — independent of the reporting interval. This is the message that matters and it doesn’t wait.
Includes GPS coordinates with each reading, so the hub knows which trough this is without you having to track node-id-to-paddock mappings by hand.
Reports battery voltage so you can replace the battery on schedule, not on failure.

Why GPS

A property with twenty troughs is a labelling nightmare. Without GPS:

Tank level

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The OGLAS tank level sensor reports how much water you’ve got, in millimetres, on whatever schedule you set — from once a minute to once a day.

Why it matters

If you run on tank water, the difference between “fine until next month” and “the pump’s run dry overnight” is the level of the tank you forgot to check. OGLAS makes it the hub’s job to remember instead.

Water Pump

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The OGLAS Water Pump controller starts and stops a pump on the conditions you set — a tank dropping, a trough low, solar surplus available — and, crucially, confirms the pump actually ran by measuring its current. It’s the Smart Switch tuned for the one job that matters most on a dry site.

What it does

Drives the pump on a rule — start when a tank or trough drops below a threshold; stop when it’s full. Combine with solar surplus so the pump runs when there’s sun to spare.
Confirms it ran — current sensing tells you the motor actually drew power, not that a relay merely clicked. “Pump on, no current” is a real failure you’ll hear about.
Dry-run protection — no flow or a current signature that says the pump is cavitating? Shut it down before it burns out.
Logs every cycle — run time, current, and starts-per-day to your hub, so a pump heading for failure shows up as a trend.

Pairs well with

Tank level and Water Trough — the level that drives the pump.
Water Flow & Pressure — confirms water is actually moving, not just that the motor spun.
Power Management — run on solar surplus instead of grid or generator.
Bell — a failed pump rings the homestead.

Building this into a larger site? That’s exactly what we do — start a custom build or email us.

Water Flow & Pressure

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Level tells you how much water you have; flow and pressure tell you what it’s doing. The OGLAS Water Flow & Pressure sensor sits inline and watches the things that go wrong between the source and the tap.

What it does

Measures flow rate — litres per minute through a line, totalised over time so you know exactly how much moved.
Measures line pressure — at the pump or anywhere on the line.
Catches leaks — flow when nothing should be running is a burst pipe or a stuck valve, and it raises an alert straight away.
Catches blockages and a tiring pump — pressure climbing or falling outside its normal band points to a filter, a kink, or a pump losing its prime.

Hardware

An inline flow meter (pulse or analog) and a pressure transducer, read by an OGLAS node and reported to your hub. Runs from the same supply as a nearby pump, or battery + solar for a remote line.

Soil Moisture

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Irrigating on a timer waters the calendar, not the crop. The OGLAS Soil Moisture sensor reads what the ground actually holds — at root depth — so water goes on when it’s needed and stays off when it isn’t.

What it does

Reads soil moisture — volumetric water content from a probe in the root zone; one or several depths.
Reads soil temperature — the other half of the germination and growth picture.
Reports on a schedule — hourly is plenty; deep-sleep between reads keeps it running a season on battery.
Drives irrigation — feed the reading to a Smart Switch: water only when moisture is below threshold and the weather isn’t about to do it for you.

Hardware

A capacitive soil probe (no corroding exposed electrodes) on an OGLAS analog node, battery-powered with a small solar trickle — see Off-grid power.

Water Quality

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plenty of water is no good if it’s the wrong water. The OGLAS Water Quality sensor monitors the condition of what’s in your tanks, troughs, dams, and tanks for stock, irrigation, or aquaculture.

What it does

pH — drift outside the safe band for stock, crops, or fish.
Salinity / EC / TDS — dissolved solids creeping up in a bore or dam.
Temperature — drives dissolved-oxygen levels in aquaculture and dam health generally.
Turbidity — cloudiness from algae, runoff, or a disturbed dam.
Dissolved oxygen (option) — the one that matters most for fish.

Readings go to your hub on a schedule, with alerts when any value leaves its safe range.