this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2023
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[Help] Looking for a 3D scan of a Utility Gas meter in Ontario. (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by NarrativeBear to c/3dprinting
17 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I am hoping someone may have the ability to scan the front and top of a utility gas meter that looks like the one above.

I would like the use this scan to model a front cover similar to the one shown in this link below, but suited for this type of meter.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4845512

The purpose of this project is to hold a esp32 board to get consistent meter readings and feed them into home assistant. Here is the project below.

https://github.com/jomjol/AI-on-the-edge-device

Any help would be appreciated.

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[–] QuarterSwede 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Why wouldn’t you just make a camera mount that can clamp onto one of the two gas pipes and can gimbal for a good view? Seems a lot more flexible and easier to get right the first print.

[–] NarrativeBear 7 points 1 year ago

That's actually not a half bad idea, thanks for that!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I don't know this exact meter, but I had a little optical sensor on my meter for years. There was a dial that rotated once per a given volume, it had a black part and a white part. This way a single led and light detector could measure exact revolutions and be able to read out the value. This way it didn't have to read the numbers, which is much harder and can't measure small increments very well.

My meter got replaced with a smart kind years ago, so now I simply have a port that can be read out directly with way more information. But my janky led and light detector thing worked very well for years. Since this was years ago it ran a very simple PIC micro, nothing like a full fledged ESP platform.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

This model on Thingiverse looks like it might be fairly close.

[–] GentriFriedRice 4 points 1 year ago

If you're already using an esp32 why not just get a simple ultrasonic sensor and measure flow on an indoor inlet pipe? You may need to know the pressure (probably 1.7 kPa) and temperature but that should be possible to calibrate against your meter readings

Then your project just becomes a simple pipe clamp that can be indoors

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Afaik scanning will require extra tuning steps. Alternatively you can take rough measurements of few cross sections, then print them on paper, cut the contours and check how it fits, make adjustments and repeat until you are satisfied

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Damn ngl that thing looks thicc af 🥵💦

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago

New Lemmy Post: [Help] Looking for a 3D scan of a Utility Gas meter in Ontario. (https://lemmy.world/post/9198864)
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