Water tank false trigger

Question

I am trying to make a simple water overflow protection system for my home. I have created it using BC547 and NodeMCU (ESP8266). I have a simple circuit like this:

The problem here is I have 2 wires going into the tank. Which suppose to complete the circuit as soon as water touch both the wires. But the problem here is its by default complete the circuit without even touching, this is happening only in my rooftop water tank. I tried this circuit locally on my desk first and it is working fine. I feel the problem can be humidity inside the tank? Can this be a reason for false trigger?

Here is how I have my code. #define RELAY_1 D1 #define TANK_CONNECTION D4

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  delay(10);


  Serial.println("Started");
  secondsTick.attach(1, ISRwatchdog);

  //Set relay pins to outputs
  pinMode(RELAY_1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(TANK_CONNECTION, INPUT);

  digitalWrite(RELAY_1, relay_on);
  delay(100);

}

void loop() {
  tankFull(); 
  delay(100);
}

void tankFull(){

  Serial.println(digitalRead(TANK_CONNECTION));
   if(!digitalRead(TANK_CONNECTION) && relay_on == 0){
      Serial.println(motorOnCount);
      motorOnCount++;
      motorOffCount = 0;
      if(motorOnCount >= 10){
        Serial.println("Motor Turn OFF");
        digitalWrite(RELAY_1, HIGH);
         if (client.connected()) {
            client.publish(motor_status, "off", true);
            client.publish(tank_full, "on", true);

          }
        motorOnCount=0;
        relay_on = 1;
      }
      delay(100);
   } else{
      motorOffCount++;
       if (client.connected()) {
          client.publish(tank_full, "off", true);
       }
      //Serial.println(motorOffCount);
      if(motorOffCount>=100){
        motorOffCount=0;
        motorOnCount = 0;

      }
   }
}

Obviously this is not the full code. I am just trying to share the pattern of its working for basic understanding of the setup I have.

Any one have idea about why its always shows circuit complete even without touching the wires. I have tried with 5v as well and 3.3v as well which are present on NodeMcu Board. But none of them worked properly.

Answer 1

Certainly the issue is from EMI but not from the collector side as from the transistor base even the wires are shorter on that side as I understand from the comments.

It's a common mistake to let the transistor base floating, see here a different application but with the same cause and result, the transistor is turning on apparently with no reason. With the base floating the EMI current has no other path than through the transistor base where is amplified by beta ( 110 to 800 for BC547).

Put a 10Kohm resistor between the transistor base and emitter to let a path for EMI currents to the ground. Try different values, smaller if you still have false triggering, higher if the sensor is not turning on the transistor.

Of course, use INPUT_PULLUP but the internal resistor is to high 30 to 100 kohm, better use an external resistor arround 10k or lower form the transistor collector to 3V3 to ensure a good noise margin on the collector side to.

^{simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab}