Leak Rope on GHL

[trevorhiller]

So I am considering a Profilux controller as a gift to myself for finally completing by Bachelor's degree. I've looked at Apex (hate the build quality and cheap look), hydros (big contender) and GHL. The thing that's really making me interested in the GHL is the hardware build quality. It seems a lot of experienced reefers go for GHL and I don't hear as many problems as I do with Apex regarding hardware failures.

The one thing I really liked about Hydros was the leak rope. I imagined tucking this right under my tank stand and having piece of mind of knowing if I had a leak. I see that GHL has a leak detector, but the rope design seems so much better for my application. I'm wondering if I could adapt a hydros leak rope extension to plug into the GHL leak sensor. From what I understand they are essentially an open circuit closed by water that "triggers" the GHL. I presume the GHL sensor works the same. Does it seem possible to get a plug adapter for the Hydros Leak rope extension and convert it to the 3.5 mm plug on the leak detector? or perhaps even plug something like this into it:

SensXtend by LeakSmart Water Rope Sensor

Get smart home leak protection throughout your home with our Rope sensors. Eliminates the need to move appliances during sensor installation. Shop today!

shopleaksmart.com

 

[ReefingIsMyTherapy]

Following, this seems like a great idea

 

[trevorhiller]

Following, this seems like a great idea

I'm just getting my GHL connected now and have a leak detector on order. Once I get everything setup, I'll probably try to DIY one of these leak ropes somehow. If my idea of they work is correct, it shouldn't be hard to adapt (if even needed to adapt it at all).

 

[Macca_75]

If it's just an open circuit that closes when wet you should be either able to cut the adaptor off and wire it straight into the leak sensor OR if you don't want to risk cutting the rope make an adaptor easily enough.
Also instead of the leak sensor a PLM-ADIN card could probably work - it had 4 digital in pins - you could wire it to one of these couldn't you? (this module would allow another 3 inputs such as switches, etc)

All just theory

 

[Macca_75]

On the subject, does the leak rope/senor turn "off" again when it's dry?

 

[trevorhiller]

That’s what I’m thinking. I don’t honestly know what that card is. I’m brand new to Profilux and just learning. I just got my probes connected about an hour ago but I’m exploring the interface now.

I definitely think this is doable though with the right components. It’s too bad the 3 major controllers don’t make the rope style because it definitely seems like a superior detector.

 

[trevorhiller]

On the subject, does the leak rope/senor turn "off" again when it's dry?

I believe they are literally just conductive plastics. Basically how the watchdog has two terminals and when they touch (via water) a circuit is completed. So they should “reset” when dry

 

[trevorhiller]

I’m curious if anyone has connected one to an Apex as well

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

I’m curious if anyone has connected one to an Apex as well

I have a diy sensor wired through a 'bob', in my stand. Its done the job twice so far. Once salt water closes the circuit (puddles under the metal tabs). I have it to shut down uv & return pump.

i

 

[ingchr1]

Here's how rope leak sensors are constructed. The continuity wires are used to detect a break in the cable. Something not that applicable in our application, but useful when run in industrial applications.

 

[trevorhiller]

Here's how rope leak sensors are constructed. The continuity wires are used to detect a break in the cable. Something not that applicable in our application, but useful when run in industrial applications.

Thank you! This is extremely helpful. So if you convert the adapter pins to connect to the Profilux pin, it should work just fine.

Just a simple matter of making the connections.

 

[trevorhiller]

I ordered a leak detector rope from Ali Express. It's 1 meter long and just has bare ends on it. I think I paid $8 shipped lol.

I did some testing on the GHL Leak Detector sensor and when the first and second rings on a 3.5 mm plug are in contact with each other, it causes the GHL Leak Detector to go into error state. I tested this with a 3.5 mm x 3.5 mm jumper cable. See the picture for which pins I jumped out.

So now my plan is to order a bare 3.5 mm plug and some heat shrink and solder the two leak detector wires to the first and seconds pins.

It should work exactly as I thought.

 

[Macca_75]

I ordered a leak detector rope from Ali Express. It's 1 meter long and just has bare ends on it. I think I paid $8 shipped lol.

I did some testing on the GHL Leak Detector sensor and when the first and second rings on a 3.5 mm plug are in contact with each other, it causes the GHL Leak Detector to go into error state. I tested this with a 3.5 mm x 3.5 mm jumper cable. See the picture for which pins I jumped out.

So now my plan is to order a bare 3.5 mm plug and some heat shrink and solder the two leak detector wires to the first and seconds pins.

It should work exactly as I thought.

Do you have the part number handy? And does it come in lengths greater than 1m? (thinking a 5m rope or similar)

 

[trevorhiller]

Here you go:

Edit: for some reason the link didn’t work. But you can search this item.

you can get it in whatever length you want. The longer than 1 meter ones come with a connector, but you can just cut it off unless you make the connector work to your benefit.

and the 3.5 mm plug on Amazon:


That was the first time I ever ordered from Aliexpress. The item came in like 10 days, so I was pretty impressed for $2 shipping from China lol

 

[Dave-T]

I was referred to this thread, after complaining about the GHL leak detector on another thread. The issue for me is that the GHL sensor can't tolerate getting wet. If it does, it can corrode the internal board, rendering it useless. And the bigger issue is that once it goes into an error state, you need to open it up quickly and dry it off completely, before it will stop reporting a leak. Not good if you are away from home and have your tanksitter clean up the leak, and you want to have leak detection tell your controller to turn off your return pump. This exact thing happened to me last month.

So I thought I'd try the leak rope sensor as described here. I ordered one of these:

LeakSmart 8850610 SensXtend Rope Sensor & Extension Cable Pack | 123 Security Products

LeakSmart 8850610 SensXtend Rope Sensor & Extension Cable Pack

www.123securityproducts.com

Luckily this using the same stereo jack as the GHL sensor, so you should be able to plug it into the leak interface in lieu of the GHL sensor. But that didn't work.

When I connected it to the GHL "Leak Interface", it didn't detect that a leak sensor was connected, and it enters an error state. I then tried connecting a GHL leak sensor to the leak interface, and connecting the rope to the leak sensor (GHL lets you daisy-chain leak sensors). Eureka! That worked. If the leak rope gets wet, it triggers a leak with GHL, and if you dry it off (or let it dry), GHL exits the error state. Now I can put my leak sensor high and dry, and use the leak rope as the actual leak detector.

This works fine for me, since I already have a GHL leak sensor (I actually have about 5 of them, I got spares). If you want to save money and not get a GHL leak sensor and connect the leak rope to the GHL Leak Interface, I'm sure there's a way to do that too, you just need to figure out how the insertion detection works. I started down this road and have some thoughts if anyone wants advice on that...

 

[waitwut]

I was referred to this thread, after complaining about the GHL leak detector on another thread. The issue for me is that the GHL sensor can't tolerate getting wet. If it does, it can corrode the internal board, rendering it useless. And the bigger issue is that once it goes into an error state, you need to open it up quickly and dry it off completely, before it will stop reporting a leak. Not good if you are away from home and have your tanksitter clean up the leak, and you want to have leak detection tell your controller to turn off your return pump. This exact thing happened to me last month.

So I thought I'd try the leak rope sensor as described here. I ordered one of these:

LeakSmart 8850610 SensXtend Rope Sensor & Extension Cable Pack | 123 Security Products

LeakSmart 8850610 SensXtend Rope Sensor & Extension Cable Pack

www.123securityproducts.com

Luckily this using the same stereo jack as the GHL sensor, so you should be able to plug it into the leak interface in lieu of the GHL sensor. But that didn't work.

When I connected it to the GHL "Leak Interface", it didn't detect that a leak sensor was connected, and it enters an error state. I then tried connecting a GHL leak sensor to the leak interface, and connecting the rope to the leak sensor (GHL lets you daisy-chain leak sensors). Eureka! That worked. If the leak rope gets wet, it triggers a leak with GHL, and if you dry it off (or let it dry), GHL exits the error state. Now I can put my leak sensor high and dry, and use the leak rope as the actual leak detector.

This works fine for me, since I already have a GHL leak sensor (I actually have about 5 of them, I got spares). If you want to save money and not get a GHL leak sensor and connect the leak rope to the GHL Leak Interface, I'm sure there's a way to do that too, you just need to figure out how the insertion detection works. I started down this road and have some thoughts if anyone wants advice on that...

I'm interested to hear how this went - did you work out how the insertion detection works? I don't have any leak sensors yet so if I can just buy the interface and connect leak rope directly it would save me a fair bit of money.

 

[Dave-T]

I started down that road, and I think it's a pretty easily answerable question. But I found an easy workaround. The GHL leak detection system requires you to get a "Leak Interface" (connected to your profilux or expansion box), and one or more "Leak Sensors" that you can daisy chain together. While the leak rope doesn't work if connected directly to the leak interface for reasons described above, it DOES work if you connect it to a leak sensor. So if you put your leak sensor somewhere high and dry, you can connect the leak rope to it to do the actual leak detection. YMMV, but based on my testing this works well. That's how I have my system set up now. But because you can't trust that you'll get actual leak notification emails/texts from GHL if a leak is detected (something I brought up here), I also am using these for leak notification. Those are excellent. I still use the GHL leak sensor to turn off my return pump if a leak is detected.

 

[waitwut]

Thanks for the additional details - seems that it's definitely not worth spending the money on the GHL gear then. I guess I could live with the cost of the interface, but when I need to buy an interface *and* a leak sensor for each separate detection circuit (sensors that I won't even actually use!) it gets prohibitively expensive very quickly.

I already have a handful of these dirt cheap wifi leak sensors from AliExpress and an existing home assistant setup so I can easily set up notifications and whatever control logic I want through that. I'll have to use a smart socket for each device I want to control - not ideal to be putting another switch in-line with the switched socket as the state won't be synchronised but I think it's still probably the best option.

It feels absolutely ridiculous to be buying cheap smart sockets to piggy-back onto the super expensive GHL Powerbar. It also feels like I shouldn't trust these devices with something so important - but if I'm honest with myself, do I really believe the GHL setup would be more reliable?

 

[sesame]

Thanks for the additional details - seems that it's definitely not worth spending the money on the GHL gear then. I guess I could live with the cost of the interface, but when I need to buy an interface *and* a leak sensor for each separate detection circuit (sensors that I won't even actually use!) it gets prohibitively expensive very quickly.

I already have a handful of these dirt cheap wifi leak sensors from AliExpress and an existing home assistant setup so I can easily set up notifications and whatever control logic I want through that. I'll have to use a smart socket for each device I want to control - not ideal to be putting another switch in-line with the switched socket as the state won't be synchronised but I think it's still probably the best option.

It feels absolutely ridiculous to be buying cheap smart sockets to piggy-back onto the super expensive GHL Powerbar. It also feels like I shouldn't trust these devices with something so important - but if I'm honest with myself, do I really believe the GHL setup would be more reliable?

Definitly you can run these leak detiction loop by its own. but also you can attach to level port in GHL and that will help us to get a push notification rather than simple industry application (sound alarm).
I've already connected leak loop to my profilux, only you need is an additional leak loop adapter. you can got push noticitiaon when you away from your tank or you can got a annoying beeping alarm from adapter itself.