PhloMetric Water Meter System.

Installation

Three short stories from a real PhloMetric deployment: how a Node gets its power without a new outlet, how the enclosure mounts on the property, and the off-the-shelf box it all lives in. None of this requires an electrician, a service truck, or downtime on the irrigation controller.

Before you start · Confirm your meter has a readable endpoint

The Node reads a radio endpoint that the utility has fitted to the meter. Before ordering hardware or planning a deployment, check that the meter you want to read actually has one. Lift the meter well cover (the cast-iron or composite lid set into the ground at the property line) and look at its center: a compatible installation has a round plastic disk seated in the middle of the lid, like the one below. That disk is the ORION radio endpoint; it is what the Node hears over 900 MHz. No disk, no signal to read.

The disk is usually black, a couple of inches across, and molded with an ORION logo plus an FCC ID. If your lid is solid cast iron with nothing in the center, the meter is a non-transmitting (touch-read or fully manual) type, and this system cannot read it as-is. If you find the disk, note the meter's serial number; you will select it as your default meter during setup.

A water meter well cover (cast-iron pit lid) viewed from above, with a round black plastic ORION radio endpoint disk seated in a circular recess at its center. The disk is molded with an ORION logo and an FCC ID, and has a small antenna feature, this is the part the Node reads over 900 MHz.
Match this · The endpoint disk in the lidThe center of a readable meter well cover holds a round plastic disk like this one, the ORION radio endpoint (note the ORION marking and FCC ID molded into it). This is what the Node receives. If your meter lid has a disk like this, the meter is readable; if the center is solid metal with no disk, it is not a transmitting meter and this system will not pick it up.

If the plastic endpoint mount in the lid is worn, obscured, or unmarked, you can still identify the meter two ways, by lifting the endpoint out of the well. The endpoint type is printed on the endpoint body itself: read its FCC label to learn which ORION model, and therefore which protocol, you are dealing with. And as long as the endpoint has not been pulled from its data wire, the meter ID is on a small barcode label clipped to that wire; that serial number is the one you select as your default meter during setup.

A cylindrical ORION water-meter endpoint lifted out of the well, with its FCC label facing the camera: 'FCC ID: GIF2014W-OSE', 'BADGER METER, INC.', 'MODEL: ORION ENDPOINT', 'IC: 1046A-2014WOSE'.
Worn or obscured? · Endpoint type from the FCC labelThe endpoint body carries its own FCC label. Here it reads FCC ID: GIF2014W-OSE, a Badger ORION endpoint; other units read GIF2006B or GIF2020OCECNA. That GIF model is the reliable way to identify the meter type when the lid disk is unreadable, and it is the type you select on the Node's setup page.
Close-up of an ORION endpoint's copper data wire crossing a galvanized meter lid, with a white barcode label clipped around the wire showing the meter serial number 40088222.
Endpoint still wired in? · Meter ID on the wire labelA small barcode label is clipped to the endpoint's data wire, printed with the meter's serial number (here 40088222). That is the ID you pick as your default meter on the Node's setup page, so the Node locks onto your meter and ignores the neighbors'.

1 · Tapping 5VDC from the irrigation controller's 24VAC

A residential irrigation controller already has the two things a Node needs: weatherproof housing on an outside wall, and a permanent 24 VAC supply for its solenoid valves. We piggyback on both. A small AC→DC buck module rectifies a tap off the 24 VAC bus to a clean 5 V, which feeds the Node sitting a few feet away. No new conduit, no new outlet, and the irrigation controller keeps working untouched.

Total parts added inside the controller: one buck module and four short wires. Five-minute job.

Rain Bird Professional irrigation controller mounted on a weathered wood post, lid closed, with a metal conduit gland and PVC drop visible at the bottom. Comcast utility flag in the foreground.
Frame 1 · The starting pointAn existing Rain Bird ESP-4 outdoor controller, the kind that's already wired to the irrigation valves on most properties. Closed up and weatherproofed. Nothing about it changes as far as the homeowner is concerned.
Same Rain Bird ESP-4 controller with the outer lid open, exposing the programming face: rotary dial, PGM and Manual Start buttons, LCD readout for run times.
Frame 2 · Open the outer lidThe user-facing programming panel: dial, buttons, schedule readout. This is where the homeowner sets watering days and times. The 24 VAC supply and valve outputs are behind this panel, accessible by swinging the face out.
Face panel swung out, revealing the controller's internal terminal strip with screw terminals for 24VAC, common, master valve, and station outputs. Existing irrigation wires routed in, with a small green buck-converter PCB tucked into the lower left, taped in place.
Frame 3 · Inside the wiring compartmentThe terminal strip across the top is where the 24 VAC transformer and the valve wires land. A small green buck-converter PCB sits in the lower-left corner; the orange wire is the new tap off the 24 VAC terminal, the black/red pair leaving the box carries the regulated 5 VDC to the Node.
Close-up of the 24VAC terminal block and a small adjustable buck module marked '470' with a trimpot. Orange wire jumps from the 24VAC terminal to the module input; output pair leaves through the cable gland to the Node.
Frame 4 · The tap, up closeThe module is an adjustable AC→DC buck regulator. Trimmed to 5.0 V output, current draw < 100 mA. The orange tap takes 24 VAC off the controller's input terminal; output goes through the existing cable gland out to the Node.

2 · Mounting the Node on the property

The Node enclosure is small enough to disappear under a deck, on a fence post, or on the back of a garage, anywhere it has line-of-sight to the water meters and a power feed from the controller a few feet away. The photos below show one real install, going from wide property context down to the box itself.

Wide view of a cedar-board exterior wall meeting a concrete walkway, with a small dark device mounted near the bottom edge of the boards and a shrub at the right. The mount sits low, inconspicuous, and out of the homeowner's traffic path.
Frame 1 · Property contextThe Node lives on the outside wall of a side yard, low to the ground, on a south-facing cedar wall. Easy to find for service, invisible to the casual visitor. The 5 VDC cable runs a few feet to the irrigation-controller box just out of frame.
Closer view of the same cedar wall, the mounted device now clearly visible: a small black-bezeled box screwed to one of the lower cedar boards, with a thin power cable running out of frame to the right.
Frame 2 · Closer lookThe enclosure is screwed straight into the cedar through the flanged mounting tabs: two screws, no bracket, no drilling into the house wall. The thin cable to the right is the 5 VDC feed from the controller.
Close-up of the deployed Node enclosure: a clear-lidded plastic project box with two short whip antennas on the left side, an HOA-property identification label visible through the lid, and an external cable exiting the right side.
Frame 3 · The Node itselfInside the clear lid you can see the ESP32 module and its antenna leads. The two stub antennas on the left handle 900 MHz (water-meter receive) and the 433 MHz mesh respectively. The white label on the lid identifies the unit as HOA property with a "questions? text" number, helpful when a curious neighbor spots it.

3 · The enclosure

Nothing custom: an off-the-shelf clear-lidded ABS project box. Flanged mounting tabs make it screw-mountable straight to any flat surface; the clear lid means the antenna pattern isn't blocked by metal and you can see the status LEDs without opening it up.

Vendor product photo of the SL1300-series clear-lidded plastic project box with dimension annotations: 4.53 inches (115mm) long, 3.54 inches (90mm) wide, 2.17 inches (55mm) deep, with a flanged base extending the overall length to 6.02 inches (153mm).
Outline · ABS project enclosureInternal cavity is 115 × 90 × 55 mm (4.53 × 3.54 × 2.17 in). Flanged base brings overall length to 153 mm (6.02 in). Plenty of room for an ESP32 dev board, an SX1262 module, two SMA antenna pigtails, and a screw-terminal expander shield with headroom left for cable strain relief.

What about the rest?

The radio and software side of this Node (protocol decoding, dashboard, emails) is covered on the Node page. If the Node is one of many feeding a central database, the upstream side is the Gateway. For an example of what an installed Node mails out every morning, see the Email sample.