[Novalug] Home monitoring for propane tank - after last nights emergency fill I need a solution

Miles D. Oliver miles.d.oliver@gmail.com
Thu Feb 19 07:12:38 EST 2015


Monitoring My propane is going to be a bit easier than I thought.

The remote ready gauges that are usually applied to a propane tank work
with either a reed switch or a hall effect sensor.

What I need is gauge with a  'hall effect sensor' built in.  There is
already a bunch of info and code for the Raspberry Pi  with hall effect
sensor and using the GPIO pins.

http://www.mcb.com.tr/img/uploads/20111025101427.pdf

I can buy a 'retrofit' Rochester Gauge with Hall effect sensor to screw
into the top of my tank and get a piece of cat 5 cable back into
the house so I can use 3 wires for the sensor.  Doing it with a wired setup
instead of wireless will be much less of a headache to setup
and the Pi can be in the house, protected from the elements.

Should be able to have a cron job run, send voltage to the sensor and get
the readings and then send email based on results.

Now to find where I can buy the gauge with sensor to do this. So far I'm
only finding reed switch stuff online and while I can also do this
with a reed switch it will be much more complicated.





On Tue, Feb 17, 2015 at 10:50 AM, Roger Broseus <RogerB@bronord.com> wrote:

> Miles,
>
> Sorry to hear you were left out in the cold!
>
> If you can go work out wireless, think about a small solar panel for
> power. Small ones are fairly inexpensive and sealed Pb/acid batteries are
> affordable. I replace the ones on my verizon fios box for ~$40. They last
> about the years or so
> --
> Roger Broseus
> www.bronord.com
> (This email was composed on a tablet PC. Pease excuse predictive-text
> induced tiepos.)
>
> On February 17, 2015 7:33:02 AM EST, "Miles D. Oliver via Novalug" <
> novalug@firemountain.net> wrote:
> >Well last night during the snowstorm we used up all our propane in the
> >house and had to call for an emergency delivery.
> >The driver was a total jerk and tried to wiggle out of helping us and
> >chastised us for making him come out in weather like this..
> >A call to the supplier will be made today for someones 'attitude;.. As
> >a
> >paying customer I found the response less than helpful.
> >
> >We are scheduled for 'auto fill' from the local company but they are
> >doing
> >a poor job of calculating and monitoring our usage to
> >schedule a routine delivery. This is the 2nd time in 3 years this has
> >happened.  Don't know, maybe the colder temps have caused our usage
> >to increase but not to the point that we should have run out between
> >auto
> >fillups.
> >
> >So I have to find a solution to doing our own monitoring so WE can call
> >when the tank is at 25% and not rely on their calcs and usage
> >monitoring.   I have found I can get a 'remote ready' gauge to easily
> >replace the current gauge without loss of propane and a 2 screw change.
> >I can then attach a remote cable and run it underground back to the
> >house
> >to a small panel that i'd have to press to check
> >
> >
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HS8CZOG/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
> >
> >but I'd rather see if I can find a way to use a home PC, in my case one
> >of
> >my Raspberry P's to do a daily check, read the level and send email if
> >the
> >level drops
> >below my self imposed 25% level.
> >
> >The sensor and cabling are easy, I'll just have to wait for warmer
> >weather
> >to bury a cable and conduit to the tank. Its about 50 feet from the
> >house
> >and I can run off the conduit
> >we ran for the dog fence so I'll only have to work with about 25 feet
> >or
> >less to the tank.  My biggest problem is going to be able to find a way
> >to
> >measure
> >and send the email.   Maybe I can use the GPIO pins from the PI or will
> >have to come up with another solution.
> >
> >I've thought about wireless but from what I can find online they are
> >either
> >commercial applications with cell callout but the home wifi solutions
> >are
> >also way too
> >unreliable and and not flexible and use Windows for the interface.. not
> >happening here.
> >
> >So anybody on the list into home automation that could offer any tips?
> >I've got to get this done because I can't have another night like the
> >last
> >one
> >being 'out' and having a driver with an attitude.
> >**********************************************************************
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>



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