Apex DOS DIY level switch?

[Humpty]

Just a guess but, do you have power going to the DOS?

Yes there is power to the DOS. when plugged in the sensors show up in fusion but the sensor will not change it state from closed to open.

When you say "wet", you mean underwater, right?

Yes I mean underwater. When submerged in water or dry it still shows up as closed.

 

[Salty1962]

Has anyone successfully achieved adding the optical sensors to their FMM? Trying to get same outcome with my dosing containers. It sounds like using the DOS for it isn't straight forward unless you have the complete system or am I missing something?
Thx

 

[Humpty]

I just hooked up ebay flow meters to my fmm. The optical sensors should work the same.
You have to wire the 4 optical sensor to an aux cable. For the flowmeter I wired it like this to the aux cable
(Base, closest to insulation) Pin1 - Ground
Pin 2 - Power
Pin 3 - Unused for flowmeter
(Tip) Pin 4- Signal

Id imagine if you wire the optical sensor in the same way but using the 3rd pin that it will work. I was gonna try this out tonight or tomorrow

 

[Salty1962]

I've tried to find this cable but couldn't. Any change of part#?

 

[Salty1962]

Have my parts ordered, have the DOS and want to be able to monitor my dosing containers, I hope I can get it to work

 

[rioreef]

Humpty

Did you get the op sensors to work? I just unplugged mine to move wires around and plugged back in. While unplugged the sensors and DOS tiles disappeared from Fusion. Plug back in and after refreshing Fusion they were there, but op sensors only showed a closed state (like yours).

So I reseated the optical plug into the DOS to ensure a good connection. Refreshed app and they came back and reporting sensor state.

Have you tried to reseat all your connections at DOS and op sensors cables?

Salty1962,

Let’s us know how it goes.

 

[Salty1962]

Instead of having to crimp wires and pins, I got this molex cable assembly (WM15769-ND) from Digikey. Fits perfectly into the DOS port. No crimping of pins and inserting into a molex connector. The second picture is of the cable assembly to connect to the optical sensors. You could go direct from the optical sensors to the molex cable assembly, but I wanted a separate plug(s). Plug a optical sensor into each of the 3S JST EH cables so you know what end not to cut and then cut connector the other end to expose the wires, do this for both optical sensors. You then cut one end of the microfit cable and splice together the two sets of four wires from the optical sensors (follow the colors on the optical sensor) in with the six wires from the molex cable. I just used butt connectors that had shrink tubing on them and then electrical tape to keep it neat.

On the Digi-key page for this cable is a drawing document that shows the specs of the cable including wire colors.
1-Black, 2-Brown, 3-Red, 4-Orange, 5-Yellow, 6-Green
The pin layout of the microfit 6 circuit socet matches what was posted earlier for the DOS.

Digikey has the microfit cable up to 5m lengths and you might be able to find a vendor that sells them individually or not on backordered, they had lots of the 0.5 meter cables. This cable has the same socket on each end, so if needed you can cut the cable in the middle and wind up with two microfit cables and could build out four optical sensors if you have multiple DOS units.

As in any DIY, perform at your own risk.

How did you wire up the readttosky cables to the digi cable?

 

[Salty1962]

How did you wire up the readttosky cables to the digi cable?

Never mind, I think I have it now.

 

[Salty1962]

Here's a quick couple of pics of the 6 pin cable I made. Sensors will be in next week for testing. Hopefully I got it right;Wacky

 

[Salty1962]

Has ayone else tried this?

 

[rkpetersen]

I just put a 160 ohm resistor across the 4 & 6 pinholes on the DOS to bring up the graphical fluid level display to use with any containers. I don't need the optical sensors since the display always tells me how much fluid is left in each container. And frankly, the optical sensors that come with the DDR are cheap garbage that are prone to fail within months of installation. If the aftermarket ones purchased off ebay are of the same quality, I can live without them.

 

[rioreef]

Here's a quick couple of pics of the 6 pin cable I made. Sensors will be in next week for testing. Hopefully I got it right;Wacky

Your cable looks like mine does. As far as the sensors they should be fine. I like the fact you can use them for any level sensing (not being tied to the DDR) and not use ports on a Breakout Box

 

[rioreef]

So if you are using the DOS as an AWC and set one of the pumps to Reverse , here is an observation I made.

For a reversed pump (old water taking out) to show volume removed on the DDR tile you must set the initial volume to zero. The forward rotating pump gets the initial volume set to the size of your container water level.

I checked in in the classic dashboard before I made this change and it was showing the volume removed way above the original setting of 151400. So the dashboard did keep track of what was removed but since the tile maxes out at 151400 it did now show this. Now it does with the initial set point at zero.

 

[Salty1962]

Does anyone, or has anyone tried, how to wire up an optical sensor to a 3.5mm jack? I know if has to be a 4 conductor but just don't know what goes to each segment. Where to get jacks?
Thx

 

[rkpetersen]

Neptune sells sensors with that jack. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/os-1-optical-level-sensor-neptune-systems.html

 

[Mark Gray]

Nice

 

[Salty1962]

Neptune sells sensors with that jack. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/os-1-optical-level-sensor-neptune-systems.html

I was trying to make my own for allot less.

 

[rkpetersen]

Ah. Got it. Well it's a good question then!

 

[billr65]

you got me thinking to

 

[Debacle]

I just hooked up ebay flow meters to my fmm. The optical sensors should work the same.
You have to wire the 4 optical sensor to an aux cable. For the flowmeter I wired it like this to the aux cable
(Base, closest to insulation) Pin1 - Ground
Pin 2 - Power
Pin 3 - Unused for flowmeter
(Tip) Pin 4- Signal

Id imagine if you wire the optical sensor in the same way but using the 3rd pin that it will work. I was gonna try this out tonight or tomorrow

Can you elaborate? Which flow meters did you get and how did you hook them up?