Simple Water operated relay
This was done in my early days, i have upgraded it, it
ought to work,
reduce the number of transistors to make it less sensitive, also a
lower value in place of 10M will reduce its sensitivity, use clamping
diodes to protect.
BD139 is used to drive the relay as it has good Ic. So you can even use
a low ohm relay. If a Relay resistance is high its quality is higher,
its power consumption is less and it needs thinner wire SWG-AWG.
T2 and
T3 form a darlington pair which drives T1. LED1 shows that the water
level has reached the top of tank and also that the Relay is energised.
D1 a freewheeling
diode. R3 10M ensures that the high gain input does
not float, yet the low leakage current thru the water is not drawn away
by the 10M. R2 limits base current in case water is saline.

The Source file in CadSoft
EAGLE format is here del00006.zip
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