IoT Water Flow Meter Using ESP8266 & Water Flow Sensor

2022. 10. 14.
14:13 IoT Water Flow Meter using ESP8266 & Water Flow Sensor
IoT Water Flow Meter using ESP8266

& Water Flow Sensor
Admin Last Updated: August 21, 2022
Table of Contents [hide]
1 Overview: IoT Water Flow Meter using ESP8266 & Water Flow
Sensor
2 Bill of Materials
3 YF-S201 Hall-Effect Water Flow Sensor
4 IoT Water Flow Meter using ESP8266 & Water Flow Sensor
5 PCB Designing & Ordering Online
6 Mathematical Calculation to Measure Flow Rate & Volume
7 Setting up Thingspeak
8 Source Code/Program
9 Monitoring Water Flow Rate & Volume
10 Video Tutorial & Complete Guide
Overview: IoT Water Flow Meter using

ESP8266 & Water Flow Sensor
https://how2electronics.com/iot-water-flow-meter-using-esp8266-water-flow-sensor/ 1/15
2022. 10. 14. 14:13 IoT Water Flow Meter using ESP8266 & Water Flow Sensor
In this project we will learn how to make IoT Based Water Flow
Meter using ESP8266 & Water Flow Sensor. We will interface
YFS201 Hall Effect Water Flow Sensor with NodeMCU ESP8266

Board. We will display the water flow rate & Total Volume in 0.96″
OLED Display. We will then integrate the hardware with IoT Server.
For IoT Server, we will use Thingspeak App. The water flow rate &
volume data can be uploaded to Thingspeak Server & can be
viewed/monitored from any part of the world.
Water Management System is an important part of City

Management. Water management involves supplying water
according to the real requirement & without wasting Water.

Therefore it is very important to measure water flow rate and
volume. Without measuring these parameters, Water Management

is almost impossible. Also monitoring the Water Volume, Flow Rate
& Water Quality remotely using Internet Connectivity has become

very essential. Therefore there is a need for Monitoring Water
Management System Online.
There are so many Water Flow Sensors available in the market but
are too expensive to use and afford. As a result, a low-cost water
flow meter is required. So we will use YFS201 Hall Effect Water

Flow Sensor with ESP8266 & design simple IoT Based Water Flow
Meter.
Bill of Materials
Following are the components required for making this project. All
the components can be easily purchased from Amazon. The
component purchase link is given below.
COMPONENTS
S.N. DESCRIPTION QUANTITY
NAME
1 NodeMCU ESP8266-12E 1 https://amz
Board
2 Water Flow YF-S201 Hall- 1 https://amz

Sensor Effect Water
Flow Sensor
3 OLED Display 0.96" I2C 1 https://amz
OLED Display
4 Connecting Jumper Wires 10 https://amz
Wires
5 Breadboard - 1 https://amz
YF-S201 Hall-Effect Water Flow Sensor
This is an image of the YF-S201 Hall-Effect Water Flow Sensor. This
sensor can be connected to the waterline as it has both inlet and
outlet. Inside the sensor, there is a pinwheel that measures how

much liquid has moved through it. There’s an integrated magnetic
hall effect sensor that outputs an electrical pulse with every
revolution.
The sensor comes with three wires:
1. Red (5-24VDC power)
2. Black (ground)
3. Yellow (Hall effect pulse output)
The water flow rate can be calculated by counting the pulses from
the output of the sensor. Each pulse is approximately 2.25
milliliters. This Sensor is cheaper and best but not the accurate one
as flow rate/volume varies a bit depending on the flow rate, fluid
pressure, and sensor orientation. To get better precision of more
than 10%, a lot of calibration is required. You can make a basic IoT
Based Water Flow Meter using this Sensor.
The pulse signal is a simple square wave so its quite easy to log
and convert into liters per minute using the following formula.
Pulse frequency (Hz) / 7.5 = flow rate in L/min
To learn more about this sensor, you can follow our previous guide
here: Arduino & Water Flow Sensor Complete Hookup Guide
IoT Water Flow Meter using ESP8266 &

Water Flow Sensor
Now let us interface YF-S201 Hall-Effect Water Flow Sensor with
Nodemcu ESP8266 & OLED Display. The OLED Display will show
Water Flow Rate & Total Volume of Water passed through the
pipe. The same Flow Rate & Volume data can be sent to
Thingspeak Server after an interval of 15 seconds regularly. You
can switch to Blynk Application if you want immediate data.
Similarly using MQTT Protocol better wireless communication can

be achieved.
But now let us see the IoT Water Flow Meter Circuit Diagram &
Connection.
Water Flow Sensor is a digital Sensor, so we can connect its output
pin to any of the digital pins of ESP8266. In my case, I connected to

GPIO2, i.e D4. The sensor works at 5V & can be connected to Vin
of ESP8266. Similarly, I2C OLED Display SDA & SCL pins are
connected to D2 & D1 of ESP8266 respectively. The OLED Display
works at 3.3V so it can be connected to 3.3V pin of Nodemcu.
I have assembled the circuit on Breadboard. You can use the
custom-designed PCB for making the small Water Flow Meter

board.
PCB Designing & Ordering Online

The PCB for this project has been designed in EasyEDA online PCB
making tool. Below is the front view and Back View of the PCB
generated from Gerber Viewer of NextPCB.
The Gerber file for all the PCB is given below. You can download the
Gerber file and order the PCB online from NextPCB.
Download Gerber File: IoT Water Flow Meter
Now you can visit the NextPCB official website by clicking here:
https://www.nextpcb.com/. So you will be directed to NextPCB
website.
You can now upload the Gerber File to the Website and place an
order. The PCB quality are clean and brilliant. That is why most of
the people trust NextPCB for PCB & PCBA Services.
Mathematical Calculation to Measure Flow

Rate & Volume
We have determined flow rate by a change in velocity of the water.
The water velocity depends on the pressure that forces the through
pipelines. The cross-sectional area of the pipe is known and
remains constant, thus we calculate the average velocity that
indicates the flow rate.
Let us consider Q is the flow rate/total flow of water through the
pipe, V is the average velocity & A is the cross-sectional area of the
pipe. In such a case the basis relationship for determining the

liquid’s flow rate in such cases is Q=VxA
Sensor Frequency (Hz) = 7.5 * Q (Liters/min)
Litres = Q * time elapsed (seconds) / 60 (seconds/minute)
Litres = (Frequency (Pulses/second) / 7.5) * time elapsed (seconds)
/ 60
Litres = Pulses / (7.5 * 60)
Setting up Thingspeak
Now we need to setup the Thingspeak Account. To set up
Thingspeak follow the following Steps:
Step 1: Visit https://thingspeak.com/ and create your account by
filling up the details.
Step 2: Create a New Channel by Clicking on “Channel” & fill up the
following details as shown in the image below.
Step 3: Click on API Key, you will see the “Write API Key“. Copy the
API Key. This is very important, it will be required in Code Part.
Step 4: You can click on the “Private View” & customize the display
window as you want.
So, that’s all from the Thingspeak Setup Part. Now let us move to
the programming Part.
Source Code/Program
Now Let us see ESP8266 Water Flow Sensor Code using Arduino
IDE. The code can be directly uploaded to the NodeMCU Board. But
before that we need few Libraries for OLED Display. So download

the Library first and add it to the Arduino IDE.
1. Download SSD1306 Library
2. Download Adafruit GFX Library
String apiKey = "KBD1JSZTUKCXJ15V";

const char *ssid = "Alexahome";
const char *pass = "loranthus";
Change the Thingspeak API Key, Wifi SSID & Password from the
line above.
The complete source code is given below.
#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
#include <SPI.h>
#include <Wire.h>
#include <Adafruit_GFX.h>
#include <Adafruit_SSD1306.h>

#define SCREEN_WIDTH 128 // OLED display width, in pixels
#define SCREEN_HEIGHT 64 // OLED display height, in pixel
#define OLED_RESET -1 // Reset pin # (or -1 if sharing

Adafruit_SSD1306 display(SCREEN_WIDTH, SCREEN_HEIGHT, &Wire,

String apiKey = "KBD1JSZTUKCXJ15V"; // Enter your Write API
const char *ssid = "Alexahome"; // replace with your wif
const char *pass = "loranthus";
const char* server = "api.thingspeak.com";

#define LED_BUILTIN 16
#define SENSOR 2

long currentMillis = 0;
long previousMillis = 0;
int interval = 1000;
boolean ledState = LOW;
float calibrationFactor = 4.5;
volatile byte pulseCount;
byte pulse1Sec = 0;
float flowRate;
unsigned long flowMilliLitres;
unsigned int totalMilliLitres;
float flowLitres;
float totalLitres;

void IRAM_ATTR pulseCounter()
{
pulseCount++;
}

WiFiClient client;

void setup()
{
Serial.begin(115200);
display.begin(SSD1306_SWITCHCAPVCC, 0x3C); //initialize wi
display.clearDisplay();
delay(10);

pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
pinMode(SENSOR, INPUT_PULLUP);

pulseCount = 0;
flowRate = 0.0;
flowMilliLitres = 0;
totalMilliLitres = 0;
previousMillis = 0;

attachInterrupt(digitalPinToInterrupt(SENSOR), pulseCounte
}

void loop()
{
currentMillis = millis();
if (currentMillis - previousMillis > interval)
{

pulse1Sec = pulseCount;
pulseCount = 0;

// Because this loop may not complete in exactly 1 secon
// the number of milliseconds that have passed since the
// that to scale the output. We also apply the calibrati
// based on the number of pulses per second per units of
// this case) coming from the sensor.
flowRate = ((1000.0 / (millis() - previousMillis)) * pul
previousMillis = millis();

// Divide the flow rate in litres/minute by 60 to determ
// passed through the sensor in this 1 second interval,
// convert to millilitres.
flowMilliLitres = (flowRate / 60) * 1000;
flowLitres = (flowRate / 60);

// Add the millilitres passed in this second to the cumu
totalMilliLitres += flowMilliLitres;
totalLitres += flowLitres;

// Print the flow rate for this second in litres / minut
Serial.print("Flow rate: ");

Serial.print(float(flowRate)); // Print the integer par
Serial.print("L/min");
Serial.print("\t"); // Print tab space

display.clearDisplay();

display.setCursor(10,0); //oled display
display.setTextSize(1);
display.setTextColor(WHITE);
display.print("Water Flow Meter");

display.print("R:");
display.print(float(flowRate));
display.print("L/M");

// Print the cumulative total of litres flowed since sta
Serial.print("Output Liquid Quantity: ");
Serial.print(totalMilliLitres);
Serial.print("mL / ");
Serial.print(totalLitres);
Serial.println("L");

display.print("V:");
display.print(totalLitres);
display.print("L");
display.display();
}

if (client.connect(server, 80)) // "184.106.153.149" or ap
{
String postStr = apiKey;
postStr += "&field1=";
postStr += String(float(flowRate));
postStr += "&field2=";
postStr += String(totalLitres);
postStr += "\r\n\r\n";

client.print("POST /update HTTP/1.1\n");
client.print("Host: api.thingspeak.com\n");
client.print("Connection: close\n");
client.print("X-THINGSPEAKAPIKEY: " + apiKey + "\n");
client.print("Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlen
client.print("Content-Length: ");
client.print(postStr.length());
client.print("\n\n");
client.print(postStr);

}
client.stop();
}
Monitoring Water Flow Rate & Volume

Once the Code is uploaded the OLED Display will strat working and
will show the flow rate and volume. Initially the flow rate will be 0
liter/minute(L/M). Also Total Volume shown will be 0 Liter(L).
Once the motor is turned ON & Water Starts flowing, you can see
the OLED Display displaying the Flow Rate (F) & Volume(V).
Now you can monitor the Water Flow Rate & Volume Data on
Thingspeak Server as well. You just need to visit the Private View of
Thingspeak Dashboard.

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2022. 10. 14.

IoT Water Flow Meter using ESP8266

Admin Last Updated: August 21, 2022

Table of Contents [hide]

Overview: IoT Water Flow Meter using

Meter using ESP8266 & Water Flow Sensor. We will interface

YFS201 Hall Effect Water Flow Sensor with NodeMCU ESP8266

volume data can be uploaded to Thingspeak Server & can be

viewed/monitored from any part of the world.

Water Management System is an important part of City

according to the real requirement & without wasting Water.

volume. Without measuring these parameters, Water Management

& Water Quality remotely using Internet Connectivity has become

flow meter is required. So we will use YFS201 Hall Effect Water

component purchase link is given below.

1 NodeMCU ESP8266-12E 1 https://amz

2 Water Flow YF-S201 Hall- 1 https://amz

3 OLED Display 0.96" I2C 1 https://amz

4 Connecting Jumper Wires 10 https://amz

YF-S201 Hall-Effect Water Flow Sensor

This is an image of the YF-S201 Hall-Effect Water Flow Sensor. This

sensor can be connected to the waterline as it has both inlet and

outlet. Inside the sensor, there is a pinwheel that measures how

hall effect sensor that outputs an electrical pulse with every

The sensor comes with three wires:

1. Red (5-24VDC power)

3. Yellow (Hall effect pulse output)

the output of the sensor. Each pulse is approximately 2.25

pressure, and sensor orientation. To get better precision of more

Pulse frequency (Hz) / 7.5 = flow rate in L/min

here: Arduino & Water Flow Sensor Complete Hookup Guide

IoT Water Flow Meter using ESP8266 &

Thingspeak Server after an interval of 15 seconds regularly. You

can switch to Blynk Application if you want immediate data.

Similarly using MQTT Protocol better wireless communication can

Water Flow Sensor is a digital Sensor, so we can connect its output

pin to any of the digital pins of ESP8266. In my case, I connected to

connected to D2 & D1 of ESP8266 respectively. The OLED Display

works at 3.3V so it can be connected to 3.3V pin of Nodemcu.

I have assembled the circuit on Breadboard. You can use the

custom-designed PCB for making the small Water Flow Meter

PCB Designing & Ordering Online

generated from Gerber Viewer of NextPCB.

Gerber file and order the PCB online from NextPCB.

Download Gerber File: IoT Water Flow Meter

https://www.nextpcb.com/. So you will be directed to NextPCB

the people trust NextPCB for PCB & PCBA Services.

Mathematical Calculation to Measure Flow

pipelines. The cross-sectional area of the pipe is known and

remains constant, thus we calculate the average velocity that

indicates the flow rate.

Let us consider Q is the flow rate/total flow of water through the

pipe, V is the average velocity & A is the cross-sectional area of the

pipe. In such a case the basis relationship for determining the

Sensor Frequency (Hz) = 7.5 * Q (Liters/min)

Litres = Q * time elapsed (seconds) / 60 (seconds/minute)

Litres = (Frequency (Pulses/second) / 7.5) * time elapsed (seconds)

Litres = Pulses / (7.5 * 60)

Thingspeak follow the following Steps:

Step 1: Visit https://thingspeak.com/ and create your account by