keen gull
Folks, looking for some ideas for a level sensor. Currently I use ultrasonic sensors to determine the pellet level in a hopper but one of them has several chrome bars that cross the hopper and I am discovering that even the slightest movement is causing them to mess with the level detection.
I have set it with the hopper empty but after filling with pellets, even the slightest shift is causing the ultrasonic sensor to give skewed results, looking for something with a finer range.
sullen echo
Folks, looking for some ideas for a level sensor. Currently I use ultrasonic sen...
my first though was "more ultrasonic sensors and try and filter bad results".
what type of pellets are they? or does that change?
and what is the hopper made of?
keen gull
the pellets are wood, its a pellet stove and the hopper is made of stainless steel. the hopper is about 800mm in depth and is 30mm square at the top but tapers down to a point at the bottom where there is an auger. The problem is that in one stove, the bars across are round and small but in this second stove they are flat and have a larger surface area. Over the 800mm depth there are two of them, one at 300mm depth and another at 500mm. I am finding that a lot of the time, the sensor is reading that the hopper is at 60% and sticks there, meaning that its reflecting off the bars. I slightly adjust its position to get it to read correctly but within a day or so, its back to reading incorrectly or giving skewed figures
I have automations in both stoves that when the pellets get below a certain level, HA turns them off and triggers notifications as letting the pellets run out is bad for the stove and a pain in the ass to go through the refill process. Level sensors are built into newer stoves so this was my work around.
sullen echo
you could put a series of beam sensors at different levels on 2 sides. or at least one at your "danger low" level
deft gate
I use a VL53L1X for my oil tank but pellets aren't exactly level.
sullen echo
or put sensors on the bars.
if lower distance = 0 (because under stuff) then look at middle, sensor, if thats also 0 look at top sensor.
keen gull
I had contemplated putting stuff on the bars but I think they would be destroyed by the pellets in no time
sullen echo
I had contemplated putting stuff on the bars but I think they would be destroyed...
yeah you could have to protect them in a cage (with a gap for sensor to read through) or something.
you could put a camera in there and use AI to analyse a frame capture every x minutes or something... although this might be overkill
keen gull
I was thinking of something where I could put something down the side of the hopper and as its covered it reads the level but not sure what I would use for that.
or uncovered
sullen echo
could maybe put a series of light sensors. then have a light at the top.
could have a perspex tube for protection whilst being transparent then slide in something with sensors every x distance.
sullen echo
could do it with IR if you don't want a visible light to be on all the time.
cameras and some animals would still see the IR
ornate sluice
My pellets burner uses an ir beam at the top to detect when it stops filling via the auger
If that is any help!
ornate sluice
Pellets go in at the top
You can just see the ir sensors, yellow and orange wires
When the motor powers the auger, if it fills too slow it will say the pellets ran out
Or if it is feeding and it isn't going down it will say there is a jam
Not quite what you asked about but I hope it helps
Pellets container is about 80x80cm and can hold about 400kg, I have also been looking for a reliable way to measure the amount of pellets in it
keen gull
i get the idea alright, mine is domestic interior so the hopper is built into the stove. much smaller setup
ornate sluice
Quite obviously this is a (max) 20kW setup for a whole house, it works really well
I am not sure what voltage it runs at but it is just a simple ir emitter and reciever
Probably about 3V like normal LEDs
keen gull
the one my ultrasonic works on is the whole house heater, just built an extension and have a stand alone pellet burner in there