I take small tubing from sensor to a barbed fitting to a brass fitting to a fitting for the 5/16 drop lines.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015HL24A...lig_dp_it&th=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1
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I ended up getting some small silicone tubing from amazon and went from that to a piece of 1/4" poly to my 3/16 line, then put a bit of heat shrink tube over each joint. Need to get a check valve though so it doesn't push liquid to it when things freeze up. My solution was just to run it at the end of a 30' coil of tub I had kicking around, and it's lasted 2 seasons now.
@ja2wiles, did you ever get the LoRa working? I'm looking at a couple of different options and trying to decide if I want the packetized or LoRA version at 900 or 433MHz. I'm only about 1200' from my base station, and it's straight shot through the woods. I intended to do that but never got to it. My project this year was a temp sensor for my sap storage and a time of flight distance sensor to measure sap height in my tank. Both worked awesome. Surprised how long the sap stayed cool and managed to only over flow my sap storage 1 time!
circa 1990 - tapped with my father, buckets on trees, boiled on the stove.
2019 - 10 taps, boiled in the house, Syrup in ounces.
2020 - 40 taps on bags, added 1 membrane RO, moved outside, 1 gal.
2021 - 60 taps on bags, 50 on 3/16, 2 memb RO, 3 steam pans w/ a block arch, ~5 gal
2022 - 78 taps, all 3/16 on shurflo, 3 memb RO, 5 pans, ~5 gal
2023 - 90 taps, vac, 5 memb RO, 5 pans, ~15 gal
2024 - Same as last year, rebuilt arch in new location, everything on pump, 11.5 gal.
Yes I have the LoRa working now. I'm using open source LoRa protocol https://clusterduckprotocol.org/ . I use HelTec LoRa WiFi boards and the Adafruit sensor.
Here is a small write up of what I'm doing.
https://medium.com/clusterduck-proto...n-3b1d0488499d
Jeff
For sensor, you can use any MAP sensor from fuel injection engines (they last years in any condition in your car). You can find used in scrap yard or there is a new company in Quebec that has affordable vacuum sensors that you can see on your phone if 330 to 660 feet. You can add station to see the vacuum on internet from any place in the world. Only sensor is 101$cdn per sensor (if you are close enough with your cell phone)
For those interested the company that Mavitec mentioned is erabec.ca. My french isn't that good, but they do offer a system that you can monitor with a smartphone when you are in range of the sensors, and one that is like many other systems with a repeater so pressure can be monitored from the sugar house.
2024 - 57 Gallons - Short season, many and varied problems remedied in short order! - No buckets!
2023 - 38 Gallons - RO broke, Buckets didn't run, rebuilt vacuum pump mid-season, still made good syrup!
2022 - 52 Gallons - DIY RO, 50% less fuel, no late nights in the shack!
2021 - 48 Gallons - new pans, new arch, lots of new taps and tubing
2020 - 32 Gallons
2019 - 27 Gallons
Jeff - this is a great approach.
How successful was it? What is the approximate cost per duck and papa duck?
Dan
Originally Posted by ja2wiles
D. Roseum
www.roseummaple.com | https://youtube.com/@roseummaplesyrup
~112 taps on 3/16 custom temp controlled vacuum; shurflo vacuum #2; custom nat gas evap with auto-drawoff and tank level gas shut-off controller; homemade RO #1; homemade RO #2; SL SS filter press
~30 gallons / year
Vacuum at the pump will be of little help, you want to get the vacuum at the farthest tree. Try gettinhg an old dairy vacuum pump, it will do a whole lot better than a Shur Flo pump. It will even still get you come vacuum if you have some small leaks. Big leaks it won't help but when you detect no vacuum you know you need to get out to the woods asap. If you have good drop at the far end you may want to monitor the vacuum after the good slope.
Last edited by maple flats; 09-22-2024 at 05:58 PM. Reason: fixed numerous typos
Dave Klish, I recently bought a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.
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