The Mission Brook Sanitary District (Northbrook, Illinois) recently had it's first Smartcover ultra sonic flow level monitoring system installed. With it's unique flat antenna, and remote lithium battery source the Smartcover was installed in about 1 hour. The installation was in a snow plowed road, and required no man entry.     The first step in the installation is to drill an access hole through the casting lid for the antenna cord to connect to the power source. The antenna can be seen at the bottom of the picture.

Next, the lithium battery power pack and processor are mounted to the casting frame with 4 high strength magnets lining up with the hole drilled for antenna cord. A stainless steel teether is drilled through the gusset and attached to the brackets for backup to magnets. The manhole is measured for depth, and line size is used to determine the depth the flow level monitor shall be set at. The ultra sonic monitor measures in a cone and fairly precise measurements(inches) are needed to determine optimal depth.

After a few minutes of letting the epoxy set, the antenna is connected and the monitor is connected.  The lid is placed back on the cover and the system is ready to be put into action. in a short period of time, the unit will begin taking measurements and the data will be populated onto the units website.   Smartcover staff at this point begin the training procedures. First in the field instructed the owners how to open the manholes with Smartcovers, change batteries, and position the monitoring unit. From there, the training continues to a classroom style of training which covers all aspects of monitoring of the system from a computer.   The unit is now ready, and the owner now can do everything remotely from a computer with the exception of the annual battery change.