Automated Data Collection for Toilet Flushing Mechanism

CLEVELAND - Sept. 24, 2019 - PRLog -- dataTaker Handles Multiple Test Stations in Product Development Lab

CAS DataLoggers supplied a test system for a manufacturer of pressurized toilet flushing mechanisms to automate the data collection in their product development lab. The standard test procedure required measurement of maximum flow rate, total flow volume, minimum pressure, and fill time at several different water inlet pressures. Management saw the need for a solution which would automate the current time-intensive process and improve the accuracy of the measured data. This solution would need to be flexible enough to monitor all the different parameters and capable of real-time data acquisition.

Installation

CAS recommended a dataTaker DT80 Intelligent Data Logger/Data Acquisition System (https://www.dataloggerinc.com/product/dt80-universal-input-data-logger/) was to capture the toilet testing data. The flexibility of the dataTaker's universal analog inputs allowed the use of existing pressure and flow sensors, some of which had voltage outputs and some of which had 4-20mA current outputs. The DT80 offered sub-second sampling with up to 42 analog inputs, which allowed one logger to handle multiple test stations. Using the built-in Ethernet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet) interface allowed it to be connected over the network to a PC for real-time monitoring of each toilet flush test cycle.

Usage

Using the software provided with the logger, a program was created which used the triggering and totalizing features of the data logger to capture the data of interest. A constantly running schedule sampled the flow rate and pressure 10 times/second. This live data was shown on a dashboard for real-time monitoring. An alarm was created to trigger when the flow went over .02GPM which indicated the start of the toilet flush cycle. This alarm triggered a second schedule which ran while the flush/fill cycle was active.
Using the graphing capabilities of the logger software, a line chart was created to display the pressure and flow data during the toilet flush cycle. A dashboard page was also created to display the summary of the results including total flow volume, peak flow rate, minimum inlet pressure and cycle time from each flush cycle.

To automate the data reporting, the capabilities of the software was used to automatically send the summary data to an Excel spreadsheet. A template form was created that received the new data at the end of each flush cycle. An Excel macro monitored these cells, and when new data appeared, the macro simply copied it to a next row in the report and updated the statistics. This eliminated the need to manually enter the data and allowed the customer to quickly process the data gathered from multiple flush tests at different pressures or set-up conditions.

For more information contact a CAS Data Logger Applications Specialist at (800) 956-4437 or request more information (https://www.dataloggerinc.com/need-more-information/).