Howdy
Can anyone recommend a pretty accurate cell phone app altimeter ?
I have a long gravity flow domestic water line and I need to do some regrading.....need elevation data along about 1/2 mile of pipeline.
Many thanks
David Graves
Posted 19 October 2019 - 10:24 PM
Howdy
Can anyone recommend a pretty accurate cell phone app altimeter ?
I have a long gravity flow domestic water line and I need to do some regrading.....need elevation data along about 1/2 mile of pipeline.
Many thanks
David Graves
Posted 19 October 2019 - 11:52 PM
There are many free apps for both iPhone and Android. Might just load a few up and try them out to see what works best. Some require cell connection, some don't
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Posted 20 October 2019 - 04:37 AM
Posted 20 October 2019 - 05:05 AM
Thanks Paul
Half a mile or more of pipeline and wooded hilly terrain.
I have a transit but cannot make sightlines for trees and such.
I will look into a barometric app.
david
Posted 20 October 2019 - 06:37 AM
David, I agree with Paul on the phone apps. GPS is all over the place.. You might be able to rent a barometric altimeter from an outdoor program or an outfitter. The better (?) multifunction watch style are in the $200+ range. I believe Brunton still offers an anemometer + altimeter. I would loan you my really old Brunton , but it gave up the ghost years ago after a nasty fall.
I am haunted by waters
Posted 20 October 2019 - 08:03 AM
david,
Use the pipe you are laying as the level tube unless it is one piece. If you have to join pieces, it should be possible to cobble something together to work. At the starting end, attach a short vertical piece to the pipe with a funnel into which to pour the water.
At the down hill end of the first section, make an adapter using something like a bicycle inner tube to atttach to the pipe with a hose clamp and also attach the vertical measuring tube.
Pour water into the funnel until it is full. Go to the downhill end and read the height on the transparent vertical tube. Now you know the delta in elevation. Remove the vertical tube and join the next section. Reattach the vertical transparent tube to the new downhill end.
Repeat the filling operation until done.
You are using the half mile pipe as the level.
Alternatively, use a 100 ft length of garden hose and do the work in 100 ft sections.
https://en.wikipedia..._level_(device)
I checked specs on a $200 barometric altimeter and it gave accuracy as within plus or minus 50 ft
This one says 3 ft resolution but that is not accuracy.
Anyway, good luck and full flowing water.
Paul
Posted 20 October 2019 - 03:59 PM
Suggest adding both a surfactant (soap could work but there are other options) to eliminate or reduce the meniscus, and some food coloring to the water.
Posted 20 October 2019 - 04:35 PM
Thanks all for the wonderful suggestions.....I have been building homes and shop work for the last 58 years and I understand that water runs downhill.
My aim here is more simply to check the altitude of two fixed points, about 1/2 mile apart up a mountain creek....and at my home.
I hoped some of them new fangled smart phone thingys would make it simple.
The water line has existed since 1942.....I have been working on it since 1999.
It is sort of an Oregon Vortex thing with lots of ups and downs and a huge low swing below the road bridge and then back up to my domestic tanks at the house....grown men plumbers have sat and wept trying to get it all to work....one went mad and jumped in the creek.
David Graves
Posted 20 October 2019 - 04:49 PM
Wouldn't it be easiest just to measure the pressure at the bottom end of the pipe?
If the inlet is a stream - just measure the pressure at the outlet with a faucet pressure gauge. The elevation change between the two ends of the pipe (in meters) is the pressure (in bar)/0.0981.
Otherwise your iPhone does have a barometric altimeter built in - but I am not sure a barometric altimeter will be any better than an augmented GPS:
https://apps.apple.c...pro/id923043780
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Posted 20 October 2019 - 05:21 PM
Patrick
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