PING Question

Pyrotom

I'm working on the design of a home monitoring system. I live much farther south in the winter (Jamaica) and want to be able to monitor the status of my house over the internet. One thing I'd really like to be able to see is the level of the heating oil in my 500 gallon tank. My current inspiration is to use a PING sensor. If I mount a PING pointed down one of the 1 1/2" pipes coming out of the top of the tank, will that work?

JanCardell

try!

Pyrotom

Easier said than done! I'd have to build a weather-proof mounting, and then wait a full season to see if it was accurately tracking the descent of the oil. I was hoping to find out whether it had a chance of working sooner than next year....

Toby Seckshund

I just wonder if the ultrasonics used in a hard walled, enclosed, container would become more of a reverberation than a nice clean echo.

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Unknown

What kind of heating oil is it?· Is it Diesel that has to be heated before it can be burned?· How is it burned?· What is the ignition source?· Is it the same as K1 Kerosene and does your fuel provider ever change up on what they are delivering?· I'm thinking safety here before I think of solutions.

With the ping sensor, you probably want to take results of the tank with different depths.· You might have to experiment with the sensor in different positions on the outside of the tank.

Pyrotom

Heating oil is the same as diesel fuel - just without the dye that tells the inspectors that the diesel taxes have been paid.

Wurlitzer

Is the ping sensor INTRISICALLY safe? If not, placing it in an atmosphere with possible explosive vapors might not be the best idea.

Unknown

You are probably best at looking to develop a magnetic reed switch with a magnet which is read by a sensor.· The more switches you add the more detail in feedback you might get.

http://www.laureanno.com/oillevel.html

·There are commercially available products you could hack.

Unknown

How you can get false positives with a reed switch.

http://www.meder.com/fileadmin/meder/pdf/en/Technical_Documents/Reedswitch_used_with_permanent_magnet.pdf

·

w8an

My experience with diesel, kerosene and/or heating oil is that until you get it to a high temperature or atomize it (fumes won't do it), it won't burn.

I was gonna suggest the eTape liquid level sensor, but it states usage in water based liquids and dry fluids, so I suspect it won't be too happy in a petroleum fluid.

Unknown

I agree with you but the unknown would be surges, spikes, lightning or the unknown which is why I wouldn't have a wire going into a fuel tank.· I've also heard of people's electronics being destroyed by this middle earth electricity.· It would probably violate the code somewhere.· I had a Commodore 64 hooked up to a tv with Comcast and I found out the hard way that our cable line wasn't grounded correctly because the 6510 is sensitive to static electricity.

w8an said...
My experience with diesel, kerosene and/or heating oil is that until you get it to a high temperature or atomize it (fumes won't do it), it won't burn.

I was gonna suggest the eTape liquid level sensor, but it states usage in water based liquids and dry fluids, so I suspect it won't be too happy in a petroleum fluid.

Cluso99

In boats we monitor the diesel tank level with a ring float that has a magnet. The center shaft is a hollow s/steel tube with a pcb with resistors and reed switches. As the float moves up the total resistance gets lower? and this can be fed to a meter of the prop could calculate the value.

Here is a link http://www.amelec.com.au/products.php?product=levelsenders

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Brian Riley

There is a Parallax document "Water Level Measurement with PING)))" . I cannot seem to find it here on the Parallax site. So I uploaded my copy to my own website, you can download it at -> www.wulfden.org/downloads/datasheets/WaterLevelwithPing-v1.0.pdf .


I would add, I dunno what those fumes will do to the PING))) over extended exposure ...

I hope this helps.

cheers BBR

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