Water quality testing in the field is still mostly grab samples and clipboards. Operators pull a bottle, drive it to a lab, and find out three days later whether something was wrong on Monday. By then, the algae bloom is in full swing, the contamination has already moved downstream, or the treatment system has burned through twice the chemistry it should have.
We built the WQM-1 because we got tired of explaining why this is a solved problem.
What WQM-1 actually is
It's a Raspberry Pi HAT — an open-platform sensor stack that reads pH, TDS, turbidity and temperature continuously, fixes its own position with GPS, and ships the data to the BlueSignal Cloud. ORP, residual chlorine and EC are optional RS485 probes, not part of the base unit. Readings show on your dashboard, an email goes out when a device goes offline, and trends are stored in BlueSignal Cloud.
The WQM-1 is sold installed, quoted per site — get a system quote. BlueSignal designs, sells and installs water systems. Licensed trades do the regulated electrical and plumbing work under their own licenses.
Why open hardware
Every sensor we ship is documented end-to-end:
- Schematics and firmware are published to GitHub.
- Sensor calibration is reproducible — no proprietary black boxes.
- Data ownership stays with the operator. The Cloud is opt-in; you can self-host the same stack.
Closed monitoring systems make sense for vendors. They don't make sense for operators who need to trust the data well enough to defend it in front of a regulator, an insurance carrier, or a customer.
Who this is for
Three groups, in order of how often we hear from them:
- Aquaculture and pond operators — tilapia, shrimp, koi, bass. Continuous pH, turbidity and temperature is the difference between a healthy harvest and a midnight emergency.
- Treatment plant pilots — small-system operators piloting nutrient-recovery, struvite, or membrane processes who need granular feed-stream data.
- Contractors in adjacent trades — solar, electrical, battery, and atmospheric water installers whose customers also need water-quality monitoring on the same site.
If any of those describe your work, get a system quote or contact us.
What's next
Beta 10 is open: the first 10 BlueSignal sites get the WQM-1 at no charge, and the owner pays the installer for the install. Ask about a Beta site.
This blog is where we'll publish field notes, calibration deep-dives, contractor case studies, and the occasional postmortem. Check back here, or follow BlueSignal on GitHub for firmware updates.
— The BlueSignal Team