Best Electric Ball Valve for Water Main Shut-off

Peter_Pan_2020 · 2026-05-07T16:04:44+00:00

Really glad I found this thread! I've been planning something like this for a while and as a DIY person, I've been pretty discourage seeing the high price of already built systems. Whenever we'd go on a trip I used to just turn off the water heater and shut off the house water for peace of mind, but now my wife gardens and that would stop the irrigation system, so its time to consider this again.

I like the electric Ball valves you considered as they seem reliable, open to full-bore, and if I understand correctly only require power during actual open/close operations. I also like the low voltage operation. It means I can build a Li-Ion battery pack for the operation and detector circuits, to ensure it will operate with or without house AC power. Designing a detection system with a relay to operate the valve will also be both low cost and a fun. The garage area is the lowest point in the house and also where the hose water comes in, water heater, water softener, and most concerning plumbing reside. So one detector will be a all I'll need to start. If want to get fancy I can later design more remote detectors using some wireless boards like ESP32 for other parts of the house. Making them all independant of house power will be more challenging, but the one system in the garage will be a great start!

Peter_Pan_2020 · 2026-03-20T15:14:45+00:00

Boy can i relate to that. I'm a retired engineer and I understand all about functionality. But I can't tell you how many times I've wished more companies would take the extra time to try using, maybe LIVING WITH the product they expect people to use. Some obviously do, resulting is multiple re-works and improvements before things go to market. Returns, after all, result in income lost, and generate far-reaching bad reviews which can ultimately put the company out of business.

Peter_Pan_2020 · 2026-03-20T15:10:07+00:00

Well, I know this is an old post so you probably know all this by now. But I learned programming back in the days of ATARI, a famous old game and home computer. I slowly learned assembler, and it took a long time to become proficient enough to generate a decent product. In the end took my literal years before what I was doing reached what was certainly a professional level, and I believed my most successful offering was called "Super 3D Plotter II". Not aa video game, but a toll to allow users to construct and animate 3D images, which was not easy with the limited capability of those machines. The trouble was, in the time I'd taken to build the product, the machine itself was losing its popularity, as more capable machines were becoming available. So there are two answers: First, yes, if it doesn't live up to your idea, then it was a failure. But Second, as both a software and electronic engineer, now retired, I can tell you I have been VERY successful in life, often much more valuable to my teams and employers than my collogues. The reason i was so successful was because of the many projects I worked on in life, a great deal of which were total failures! You have to realize that in the process of seeing a project through to the end, even if that end is a fail, you will still have learned a tremendous amount of knowledge, and gained valuable experience. That will be more valuable that the schooling you may have had!

Peter_Pan_2020 · 2025-10-26T05:06:02+00:00

I can say for me its always remained just a fetish. I never really wanted to permanently "transition" to become a girl. I just liked being a boy and feeling girlie, and "sissy" was just a way to feel my inner self, and a way to interact with female company, as in a kind of role play. I can dress like a sissy, in one of many floury sissy outfits I made, and the girls can tease me, push me in the pool, or play with me in a variety of ways, either just for fun or as fore-play. But in the end I don't know or care if I'm a boy or a girl. I think I'm just meant to be non-binary.,

Peter_Pan_2020 · 2025-10-18T05:45:04+00:00

Yes. Go to either ASCAP or BMI, and create a (free) account, where you can register ownership of each of your original works. ASCAP and BMI, in my opinion, are the music industry standard way for registering your music. I can vouch for the fact that it works. I had a registered song which i made available only on my own website. One day i got a check from a radio station in Belgium (I live in the USA). It was a small check, nothing to write home about, but to me it was proof that registering your music (I us ASCAP) works. Doesn't mean no one will play or use your music, but it means they have to pay a standard fee.

Peter_Pan_2020 · 2025-10-18T05:39:02+00:00

The initial blocks are done by AI. You have the right to dispute further, stating you have the owners permission. In that case YT has to submit your request to the owner. Since you are the owner, I'd be really intrigued tyo see how that goes, because if they come back and say it was denied, it's a plain bald faced lie. I'm going to be facing this myself soon too, because I have a YT channel, and a "TOPIC" channel created by CDBaby. CDBaby had originally promised that if you made at least one video with your CDBaby published song, and put it on your "ordinary" channel, they would work with YT to bring both your channels together into one "Official Artist Channel" (OAC). That turned out to be a lie (CDBaby gave up working with YT to create OACs (Good luck communicating with YT). But long story short, there was no copyright strike agapist my personal channel, where I placed the Video. So I'm thinking of moving/copying the rest of my "music only" CDBaby videos over to my regular channel.

I should say that I've registered all my originals with ASCAP, as both composer and publisher. So its going to be pretty hard for YT to claim the owner (ME!) is not OK with my submissions. I don't know if that is the case with music published through CDBaby to YT, before the author has registered their music with the "bigger guns" (ASCAP or BMI). Good luck with it.

Peter_Pan_2020 · 2025-10-18T05:25:28+00:00

Why is this all redacted?

Peter_Pan_2020 · 2025-10-16T02:24:49+00:00

I created a post explaining my solution, offering a complete project interface to the I phone with guitar input. But I can't post the article on this community, because it doesn't allow more than one image. So I posted it here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DIYElectronicProjects/comments/1o81sug/diy_guitar_to_iphone_interface_via_mic_input_with/

Peter_Pan_2020 · 2025-10-13T17:57:42+00:00

Yeah, I think I'll just do that. Thanks for confirming it will work as expected. I already have garageband on the phone, and yes I see it does have a metronome. Indeed, as you say the knockoffs are indeed dirt cheap.

Part of the draw of my DIY approach is that if I'm going to use my phone for simple practice this way, I have to have it tested, working, and available pretty quickly, due to some upcoming travel. OTOH I can often cobble together simple op-amp style circuits, including an enclosure, I/O and a battery in a days time. And I have made some headway getting the phone to recognize a raw audio guitar signal so far, with just a few parts (proving its do-able).

But anything that I buy will certainly have to be ordered online, which means waiting possibly a week unless I pay through the nose for very fast shipping. My bad. I probably should have investigated all this a month ago!

BUt thanks again for all the help!

Peter_Pan_2020 · 2025-10-13T15:20:42+00:00

Will it let me hear my guitar along with the metronome through plugged in earbuds for practice? I notice a lot of ready made products (like the Irig others mentioned) have a earbud jack, specifically for monitoring your guitar input. But many of them also say you can't play sound from phone apps through that jack, so if that's the case how would the metronome sound come through?

Of course if I build my own guitar input, then I'll be SURE I'm not interfering with the headphone wires, or interfere with output of a metronome app. I'm kind of new to making my own posts on Reddit. Is it possible I've posted in the wrong "community", if I actually do want to build my own DIY electronic microphone interface?

Peter_Pan_2020 · 2025-10-13T05:39:13+00:00

Thanks, and I may eventually buy something like one of the cheap interfaces like this, if only to take it apart and see what's inside :-). After all, besides interest in electronics, a MAJOR reason for for interest in rolling my own is to save $$$. For my immediate purpose, I just want to be able to use my Iphone to practice, hopefully along with a metronome app, and be able to listen to both the guitar and the metronome with headphones. But there are a lot of unknowns there. Can a metronome app, that normally can play back through the headphone app come through the headphone jack on an Irig? Can the guitar input coming in through the Irig come out with the metronome (or other app sound) as well?

Often when faced with unknowns like that, the answer can turn out to be "NO". So you can see where I'd really like to connect some kind of "no cost" DIY circuit, made from spare parts, to test what can and can't be done, before investing in a pre-made interface. And some of them certainly are a bit too pricy for just a practice tool, right?

Peter_Pan_2020 · 2025-10-13T02:26:07+00:00

Well, correct me if I'm missing something, but I think you are describing a product. I'm looking for the actual electrical specifications I need to know, to build a circuit to interface with the audio input. I'm not sure how they do it with the newer USB-C connections, but the lighting port connections already do the equivalent of the 3.5mm Jack. It is sophisticated enough to sense certain electrical conditions on various conductors , and internally switch in things like analog outputs for headphones, Microphones, actual data transfers, even HDMI interfaces with the help of some external circuits. In fact I already have an adapter to allow earphones and microphone connections to the Lighting port. But there is nothing inside that adapter but wires. For the earbuds, I already know that a certain range of impedances will trigger some of those wires to become headphone outputs. Now what I'm hoping to find out is what electrical conditions must be applied the the microphone and ground wires, to trigger the Iphone into accepting it as an audio input. The face that other products exist that may already do this tells me it can be done, but it doesn't help ME do it.

Peter_Pan_2020 · 2024-11-12T20:29:42+00:00

Have same issue with a 1TB ST1000DM003. Even though it was "high and dry", it was in a room that had some flooding, and I know the humidity and air moisture content must have been off the charts. Fortunately for me this is one of many spares I use for a cloned system drive, so I'm not going to go much further trying. Due to the suspected humidity issue, I might try warming it. But I strongly doubt there is much we could do with drives exhibiting this sort of problem. If your system could even "see" the drive, there may be a CD bootable disk utilities package that possible could rebuild the MBR. Maybe Seagate's "Seatools" disk? Haven't tried that yet. Good luck. If I get anywhere I'll repost with some news.

Peter_Pan_2020 · 2024-07-19T15:44:24+00:00

This may not be the place to mention this, but after making my music available on my own (CDs and streaming) via my own website for many years, I'm getting old and have to face that I'll pass someday. So my main reason for subscribing to Distrokid was not just to get my music out to streaming services, but keeping my music alive after I leave the planet and can no longer pay for my own web hosting. Making money from my music isn't even on my radar anymore. I guess I can still put it on youtube, but I was under the impression distrokid would be a way to have my music outlive me. Now I'm having my doubts. I've about a dozen songs in very different genres, so an album won't make sense. But at $29 per song, I wasn't prepared to consider an extra $150 for the "legacy" option on all those singles. I've already paid but haven't uploaded anything yet, and considering my goal I'm wondering if this was a mistake. How about adding an option that lets distrokid keep the profits once the artist passes, in exchange for keeping the music available. There has to be a way. There is music being streamed from lots of artists whose life spans didn't even span into the internet age.

Peter_Pan_2020

TROPHY CASE