This work presents the first prototype of the Smart Pipe, a compact and intelligent wireless node hosting miniaturized sensors, embedded in a flange, for distributed and real-time monitoring of water contamination and for optimization of water treatment plants. Beyond pH and temperature, it features a low-cost and high-resolution (13 ppm, 11 ms response time) custom-designed 4-channel conductivity measurement circuit. Long-term operation and optimized on demand maintenance are achieved by the innovative combination of an impedance sensor measuring the thickness of sludge and biofilm depositing on microelectrodes with self-cleaning capabilities offered by UV photo-regeneration of nanometric TiO2 electrodes coatings. Finally, here we also demonstrate selfpowering of the unit by means of an energy harvesting control valve, regulating the flow in the water distribution network where an efficient installation of these sensors is today foreseeable
Motivated by the widespread need to sense water conductivity in oceanography, as well as in other applications in fluid dynamics and environmental monitoring, we propose using the exposed gold-plated pins of readily available micro-USB connectors as miniaturized, parallel finger electrodes. Since the electrodes are 600 μm apart, they grant sub-mm spatial resolution, suitable for most applications. Standard micro-USB cables are an ideal, ready-to-use solution, since they are shielded, are preassembled in different lengths, and enable 2 and 4-wire measurements. In order to take full advantage of these USB probes, we have designed a custom, open-source 4-channel measuring circuit, named "Conduino", consisting of a low-noise (SNR = 60 dB) shield board coupled to an Arduino microcontroller. Experimental results demonstrate sensing performances comparable with state-of-the-art reference instrumentation (0.1% resolution in the 0.1-15 S/m range), with significantly lower cost and increased versatility and reliability
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