Hiya,
I’ve two of these boards and wanted to repurpose them and learn some new things. I’d like to learn how to configure the boards to detect the tank levels and direct the output values to a serial terminal. I’d like to leverage the STM32 micro controller that is on the the XM125 and not use another MC. Any advice would be appreciated.
What might those be?
I read the tutorials and opened up the STMProgrammer and flashed after placing the sparkfun board in DFU with the tank level .bin file from the SDK unzipped folder. It looked like it worked but when I tried to connect it to realterm, putty, and other terminal serial monitors to see the values it might connect but nothing at 115200 baud. Thoughts?
Assuming it’s for measuring fluid fill level in a vessel (and not warfare tanks), it’s entirely dependent on the materials and operating conditions. Radar, sonic pings, optical techniques, buoyancy floats, weighing, external sight glass are familiar and totally useful in all sorts of applications.
I’ve had some involvement with radioactive sources & detectors for level measurement in a very tough heat, pressure, corrosive & unpredictable environment common in, say, mining and oil gas exploration & refining. For example, hot bitumen and tar at 150 psi coats the entire inside of the tank and gums the $#|% out of almost any sensors inside but a rad source can still pierce the muck.
This will be a simple application to measure how much water is in my garage reservoir for my ebb and flow tray system. Often, the drain from a tray will clog and the reservoir will go empty and deprive the pumps of solution to pump. Having one of these monitoring and reporting will ensure no empty reservoirs.
You might just get by with a floating apparatus and a couple limit switches….one that kicks on a refill cycle and one that kicks it back off once back to an acceptable level
Yea, I’d want to try those radars, too. I wish I had one now.
Still, I’m personally biased toward weighing so this sounds like an ideal place for some scales. Does the reservoir have rigid sides (no baby pools or holes in the floor) and the size-ish of a white appliance, water heater or washer? Stick a scale platform under it. Or hang it from one, possible if a self standing drum. Weight will probably offer higher resolution water & arguably more data in the more direct mass measurement. And having a medium-cap scale (say 24x24" 1000 x 0.1 lb) and readily integrated into your wider system/other projects is handy as the day is long.
Another neat technique measures the mechanical resistance to paddles vibrating in the fluid, a viscometer. I’ve never used them for the purpose but seem to be [immerse Y/N?] for run-dry/overtopping detection than level measuring. They’re sometimes genericized as Liquiphants for this mfg’s tradename: