For those who are seeking a solution to monitor fuel level and fuel flow rate thru the GCS and set proper FS based on it, I have got some good news.
We have developed and manufactured a sensor that does both fuel level monitoring and fuel flow measurement at the same time thru capacitive fuel level sensor. We display this info in multiple ways analog voltage, SMbus and Serial.
You can find the brochure of the sensors for gasoline and heavy fuel types and a short video that demonstrates how it works when it is connected to ardupilot.
With this sensor you will be able to measure the tank levels in voltage as this sensor is set like a battery and the change in tank volume will be displayed as voltage drop. Also fuel flow can be seen at the current display if it is setup.
So with ine sensor you have the chance to measure fuel level and fuel flow at the same time.
We have couple of ardupilot users that are actually using it on their platforms so if anyone is interested please feel free to drop me DM or email at tyelutas@gmail.com.
thanks for posting!
Do you have drivers for the serial and SMBus outputs for ArduPilot support? Do you have specs for the protocols?
Ideally we’d get this properly supported then documented in the ArduPilot wiki.
The brochure you linked only seems to talk about fuel level, when in practice fuel flow is usually more useful. Do you have information on the fuel flow capabilities?
I will be preparing the necessary information by Tuesday and share with you.
We do have the fuel flow integrated with the fuel level sensor as we calculate it based on the tank capacity and the fuel level drop and display as ml/min thru current.
In order to make it useful we used the smbus generic function and it worked. Since that function is developed for batteries it displays voltage and we simulate the tank capacity as full voltag value. In that sense if tank volume is 10 lt, it displays 10v for full tank.
It will be great to define the sensor in the system as we want to display temperature of the fuel, exhaust and the engine as well with different sensors. These are also needed for ICE users which is missing in the code.
Well up until now for those we have spoken fuel flow sensor was not the attraction point as they mostly interested in the fuel level, that is why we integrated the fuel flow inside the fuel level as an indicator.
We do have a prototype idea for a reliable fuel flow sensor. We can work on that one to integrate.
I do see now these added as option where I believe you refer 17, 18 and 19. Can you give us idea how these are working? I couldn’t find info about them.
0:Disabled 3:Analog Voltage Only 4:Analog Voltage and Current 5:Solo 6:Bebop 7:SMBus-Generic 8:UAVCAN-BatteryInfo 9:ESC 10:SumOfFollowing 11:FuelFlow 12:FuelLevelPWM 13:SMBUS-SUI3 14:SMBUS-SUI6 15:NeoDesign 16:SMBus-Maxell 17:Generator-Elec 18:Generator-Fuel 19:Rotoye
It is the EFI parameters, currently only for plane (we have not hand requests for this for copter). We support both CAN and serial devices.
You can see the code here:
a fuel level sensor can be useful, but my experience of them is that vibration and movement can make them tricky to get accurate. I’ve had more luck with integrating a fuel flow sensor to give total fuel used and remaining.
We currently support fuel flow sensors as “battery” monitors, where fuel flow is used as current in Amps. An example sensor that has been used successfully is this one:
I would LOVE a good fuel level sensor solution. A flow rate meter would be nice also, but ive given up on them.
i have a problem with flow sensors having too high min rates (ie: .015lpm/…5oz/min), too expensive to try, too large, unreliable, etc. i tried an expensive graupner one previously (min rate just above what i needed) and it would get stuck and stop working (gears).
regarding the level sensor, the vibration issue is something that i think could be overcome with some averaging-over-time and a correlation to plane airframe attitude (level flight reading). im also concerned with weight/size as my tanks may be 8-32oz and weight is a bigger factor as planes get smaller/slower, especially considering that FC’s batteries, cameras are already loading the plane. also, i’d imaging a capacitive sensor needs to be taylored to tank depth (can they be cut?)? do i need to cut a hole in my tank?
The sensor we have weighs around 30 gr depending on the probe length. We taylor the probe based on your tank size and yes you need to make a hole to fit the probe. We can share technical drawings with you.
We just need your tank dimensions and the cable length you need. Can you mail me those? tyelutas@gmail.com
Actually we are using these probes at our gasser helicopter platforms where we use Zenoah engines so we are filtering these vibrations during the level calculation. So we are pretty much confident about the accuracy of it.
Fuel flow sensor can be a verification point on the fuel level as without knowing the actual level it is not possible to give the level from the consumed amount. For that we are giving an estimate fuel flow at our fuel level sensor.
The current smart battery structure that we are using to define these sensors at ardupilot is working well for us. We do have the capability to monitor multiple tanks and display them as 1 tank where FS can be set. Since this protocol is made for batteries it is limited to 60V and we bypass this by defining the tank capacity in voltage to the probe. If your tank is 10 liters it will display 10V and it will drop as fuel level goes down.
We are currently limited with the tank capacity so if that voltage limitation is removed or flexible it will be easier for us to assign different tank sizes.
Also we are communicating thru 0xB address, as we understand at the moment using this address multiple ports can be managed. Can we use same port and use different address?