Robust pressure sensor idea

[JimS]

I pump from a creek so have some concerns of loosing prime or other issues happening and damaging the pump from running dry or blocked outlet (failed zone valve). I have been running for some years and avoided any issues so far… I have tried some solid state pressure transducers but the run from them to the Opensprinkler is about 75 feet and have damaged 2 from electrical storms and also damaged the analog input on my OSPi. So I am looking at more robust solutions. I could try to put a ESP8266 or similar board at the transducer so the long lines would be eliminated. But my current thinking is to use a cheap popup sprinkler as a pressure sensor by connecting a magnet to the pop up portion and used a series of reed switches to give output increments of pressure – I only need a low cutoff and a high cutoff (for blocked output) so the less resolution isn’t an issue. I would block the sprinkler water outlet with epoxy. I also might add another spring to get more range of pressure for the full travel of the pop up. Just thought I would throw this out here for any feedback. I have seen some parts of this (the magnet and reed switches to measure liquid levels) but not anything on using a sprinkler as a cylinder for actuation. Wifi or some other isolation seems good to eliminate any surge issues at the OSPi end.

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