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I have a water level sensor in which by varying the level of the water, an inductance change his value in a mobile coil. The sensor have the internal simple schematic like this (i don't know the value of the components)

enter image description here

The suggested working circuit use a Colpitts oscillator made by some HEX inverters, producing a frequency from 21 kHz to 25 kHz linked to the coil position and at the end to the water level by a provided lookup table.

I should read this frequency (level) by a micro, and I know how to do it, but in my project I used all the internal microcontroller timers. So, what I would ask, is if I can get around, using this variable inductance to produce a variable voltage to be read by the micro (avoiding to measure a frequency). And if it was possible avoiding a cascade of a Colpitts oscillator and a Frequency-Voltage converter (like the LM311).

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3 Answers 3

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You could buffer the oscillator output, then put it through a carefully designed low pass filter. You could do this in a number of ways, like R-C passively, or actively as a second stage, or incorporated into the buffer.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I'm unsure of how this would translate into something measurable. What would low passing the sine/square wave accomplish? \$\endgroup\$
    – Yet Another Michael
    Commented Dec 30, 2019 at 0:40
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Michael sorry you are right... that only works as duty cycle conversion, not frequency conversion... maybe this will help google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://… \$\endgroup\$
    – vicatcu
    Commented Dec 30, 2019 at 1:42
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connect one end to one GPIO and the other end to another, test the pulse resposnse.

that's pretty much how "328 Mega LCR" works.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ How does that work if there are no more timer resources? \$\endgroup\$
    – Dave Tweed
    Commented Dec 30, 2019 at 0:11
  • \$\begingroup\$ the processor clock is still available: run a tight loop counting and hope for no interrupts (or detect and retry, or disable) \$\endgroup\$
    – Jasen Слава Україні
    Commented Dec 30, 2019 at 0:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ What "328 Mega LCR" stay for? \$\endgroup\$
    – daigs
    Commented Dec 31, 2019 at 1:04
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The frequency can be measured to determine change of C due to water Dk= 80 x air. This C change can be correlated with fluid height.

enter image description here

If you really cannot figure out how to share or better utilize your HW timers , get a counter with a serial interface and measure frequency somehow then calibrate it.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Can you explain better to me how to proceed? I didn't realize well the "serial counter interface". Thanks. \$\endgroup\$
    – daigs
    Commented Dec 31, 2019 at 0:51
  • \$\begingroup\$ do I have to explain how to measure frequency with an accurate time interval and counter? circuits4you.com/2016/05/13/arduino-frequency-counter \$\endgroup\$
    – D.A.S.
    Commented Dec 31, 2019 at 0:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ No thanks, I already measure other signals with both the arduino interrupts and timer in my project and as you can see from the question i have timers busy. Timer 0 is used for millis() and timer1 as another frequency counter. Timer 2 is not enough for the scope. Interrupt 0 and 1 are already used too. Your statement "serial interface" got me out of the solution you intended for. I could share the Timer1 stopping a process and start another, but I would use another approach if it exist for the problem, than Colpitts, like a direct voltage variation linked to the LC variation. \$\endgroup\$
    – daigs
    Commented Dec 31, 2019 at 15:09

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