Get An SMS Tank Overflow Alert

Detailed step by step instructions at: http://www.instructables.com/id/SMS-Tank-Overflow-Alert/

Introduction:

Water tank overflow is a major problem in most of the homes these days (not in appartments). Of course there are such alarms to prevent this problem but still, they are not that effective. This is almost the same thing but much smaller and with better features, the best one being that instead of an audio or visual signal, this one gives you an SMS alert to your phone as the tank gets full! This should be a much better option, isn't it? If not, then you can just build it as a cool weekend project just to satisfy your desire to MAKE it yourself!

This one uses the Mediatek Linkit ONE, an awesome prototyping platform with loads of features. As you just have to send a text message, this one uses the GSM feature to give you an alert no matter where you are in this world. For overflow detection, it uses that old yet effective transistor circuit with two wires moving towards the tank. Some people would have a doubt that combining electricity and water can be risky, but you needn't worry as this one has no such risks unless you throw your Linkit ONE inside water ;)

How It Works?

First, starting with the working of this project. The main process, as already explained in the introduction part is that the Linkit ONE will send you a text and will ring a buzzer + glow an LED as soon as it detects that the water tank is full.

The first part is the water sensor board that actually detects water after it has reached a certain level to prevent an overflow. You may already know that tap water is a fair conductor of electricity (neither too good, nor too bad). Now using this fact and placing two wires inside the tank at a certain level, we can easily detect the level of water as when the water will reach that level, it will act as a conductor or simply a resistor and join the other two wires completing the circuit. As water has a quite high resistance, I have used a transistor to detect even very small current that will flow through and give the output to linkit ONE accordingly.

Rest of the part is pretty straightforward. As the Linkit ONE gets a output from the transistor, it sends an SMS to your phone through it's built-in GSM feature. But you should also have a SIM card inserted to actually make it work. I have also added an LED and a buzzer to give audio as well as visual indications along with an SMS alert. 

Detailed step by step instructions at: http://www.instructables.com/id/SMS-Tank-Overflow-Alert/