I have been building control panels for 30 years. One of my customers wants to power a pump with flow control from a solar array. He had decided on the supply (solar panel, controller, deep cycle battery, ..) which gives me 12 VDC to work with.
The controls are straight forward. The problem I am having is with a conductivity switch that works on 12 VDC. What we normally do is put a simple high level float on the tank to shut it down when full (plus a second high high level for safety).
He is pumping oil from a spill. He does not want to pump ground water so we put a conductivity switch low in the tank. If he starts to pump water, the oil floats and the conductivity switch is triggered by the water at the bottom of the tank (the switch is not triggered by the oil). I use something like the Omron K8AK-LS (and there are several others)... but all use 24 volts or 120 volts. I searched the internet for 3 hours and could not come up with one that works on 12 VDC!
Can anyone tell me if one exists?
I did find one from Euro but can't find a supplier yet, and the company has not offered a way to purchase it. Actually found sellers in Australia but all said the item is on back order. I thought about a 12vdc to 24vdc converter then the conductivity switch (say $100 for the converter and $150 for the switch ... $250 total).
Just seems to be a "messy" way of doing it, I don't like adding extra parts if I can just find a switch that operates off 12 volts.
Thanks so much ....
Mike
The controls are straight forward. The problem I am having is with a conductivity switch that works on 12 VDC. What we normally do is put a simple high level float on the tank to shut it down when full (plus a second high high level for safety).
He is pumping oil from a spill. He does not want to pump ground water so we put a conductivity switch low in the tank. If he starts to pump water, the oil floats and the conductivity switch is triggered by the water at the bottom of the tank (the switch is not triggered by the oil). I use something like the Omron K8AK-LS (and there are several others)... but all use 24 volts or 120 volts. I searched the internet for 3 hours and could not come up with one that works on 12 VDC!
Can anyone tell me if one exists?
I did find one from Euro but can't find a supplier yet, and the company has not offered a way to purchase it. Actually found sellers in Australia but all said the item is on back order. I thought about a 12vdc to 24vdc converter then the conductivity switch (say $100 for the converter and $150 for the switch ... $250 total).
Just seems to be a "messy" way of doing it, I don't like adding extra parts if I can just find a switch that operates off 12 volts.
Thanks so much ....
Mike