MY LATEST TOY an IR THERMOMETER!

I just received today a IR thermometer RAYTEK MINITEMP
is pretty impresive it has a LED laser built in .. So i've been shooting
all over the place and taking mesurments
i know now how cold my dog's nose is .
It occured to me that i could mesure water tanks levels based in the
difference of temperature .between the part of the tank occupied by
the liquid and the one that is empty .
I'm a lazy person and i don't want to go and get a THERMODYNAMICS book

does any body here know how could i implement such an algorithm to
detect where the level of the liquid is ??

Otherwise i will have to go back to the books
but thanks for dropping by

By the way i have already protected this idea

jajaj!

Hi eltonjohn,
Try to use a rotating mirror to move the sensing spot along tank height.
Just an idea, but I'm willing to share revenues!

some problems

You should try this experimentally with a pot of water. I suspect that the water is very reflective and you will be reading the tank wall temperature when you are pointed at the water.

Hi eltonjohn

my first idea was also using a rotating mirror. But I also see problems because of the angle (reflections from water-surface). Wouldn't be easier to detect the hight by a capacitance-measurement or by using microwaves (as many applications do)? I think such an IR thermometer is also more expensive than the other types.
But anyway: a good idea!

Bye

Hi guys !

Thanks for your thoughts .. The mirror idea "Cela va de soi" we say in french ...(its evident) .. But actually i solved that problem witout a mirror
is not needed ..Is enough to mount the thermometer on a step motor
and voila...
I think that by now i got already all the componentents to solve the problem .. This afternoon i will go an get a gasoline barrel
and i will put together a prototype..
I think it should work! .. i will disclose it later ...
after talking with my lawyers( is a cousine of mine!)

jajaj

Hi All

I don't think the idea will work at all since the water, room and tank will come into thermal equalization after a short while. It would only work to a degree if the water was always being replenished and therefore at a different temperature. Even then the height would be difficult to detect since the thermal conductivity of the tank will 'diffuse' the results. I think there are much better ways to do this e.g. ultrasonic, capacitance etc.

My 2 cents

C

Hi Cybernut

You got it ..! ... I discovered that problem .. but also i manage to work around it ...And i solved that apparent problem !

Is nice to know that there are capable people here !

Hmm, seems another idea goes to head: method without electronic and it will allow to measure water level on remote distance up to 100 meters. All you need is to paint wide vertical line with thermosensitive ink on outer side of vertical tank wall (metallic wall). So, your line will change color on waterline of the tank, and you will read water level by neighbouring scale. Also you can buy binoculars and add scale with big fonts (to increase distance of this wireless measuring ).

Hi Klugg

Yes there are hundred of aproaches ..! The most apparent ones are intrusive
this means to go and adapt some hardware to a tank ... what i want to do
is a non intrusive method .. no investement whatsoever .. just arrive
to the tank with one single system device an be able to know how much liquid there is ...

Actually there an incredible need for this ! . I can't tell you where .
but a solution like this involves a big INDUSTRY ..

One of our friends . mentioned before ,yes a very basic principle on THERMODYNAMICS . On the tendency to STABILITY . But that is only
possible in a STEADY STATE system wih no RANDOM apport or loss of ENERGY . Such CONDITIONS don't exist in NATURAL CONDITIONS
If some STABILITY is reached it will be LOST to a the passage of a CLOUD or a WIND of novenmber .. So those cases can be treated as ANOMLIES with SOFTWARE and perfectly interpolated ..

I'm affaraid i said so MUCH NOW !

If the tank is metal, and exposed to the weather, what will happen
when the metal (without water) goes from above the the water temperature (say during a hot sunny day), to below the water temp (say on a cold windy day with lots of wind chill)? Your algorithm would need to cope with that.

TDC

i made many water level meters for the water company of my town.
I used ultrasound, to know the water level.
Just a pic16f877 (will upgrade to pic16f628}, an amplifier, some resistors, capacitors, a max232, 2 transistors, 2 cmos ic´s and 2 piezoeletric (TX and RX).
These meters have more than a year working without a break.

All for just ~$30 each one. 8)

The water have unity coefficient of blackness, so pretty much do the glass container. If the both have close temperature, than the IR termometer will have hard time to distinguish between the two. Also if some scan to look for the interface of the watter, he should take in accout the long settling time of the IR sensor/system to decide on the proper scan speed.