Mopeka TankCheck - Bluetooth Gas Level Check

[Allanm]

Looking good.



I'm not sure if you're aware, but you can change the refresh rate of the sensor (from 1(?) second to 10.5 seconds) which should help a little with battery life. The refresh rate appears near the bottom of the settings screen and you can toggle it by pressing the button on the sensor.

BTW: Mine took 8 days to arrive (ordered on 3rd delivered on 12th March).

I wasn’t aware, I’ll change the settings, but the batteries were showing half full as soon as I activated the sensors, in fact, one was dead on arrival ( app couldn’t see it) so I removed the battery and put it back when I discovered I didn’t have any spares. It came to life immediately.
Still very pleased with them though.

 

[sallylillian]

If it does work on an underslung (ie horizontal) tank then it won't read correctly as I assume it works on the top level of the liquid, so when it full it should show 100%, but at 75% it would actually be more than 75% of the liquid, at 50% it should be accurate but, and this is the issue I see, at 25% it will actually have quite a bit be LESS than that. This is because the cylinder is on it's side so the curvature will come into play. You could work out so when it reads 25% you know what it means in reality ... maths wasn't my strong point but I've found this which may help:

https://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/volume-in-a-horizontal-cylinder

Excellent tool Mel, still does not account for the dome ends but nevertheless useful. It reminds me of 2 of the fuel tanks on my boat which had parallelagram end cross sections and the sensors measured a depth. However one could enter volumes at measurement points in the setup procedure and it generated pretty accurate tank capacity. So I created a spreadsheet incorporating the formulae with set points every centimeter!
So with that in mind I ordered one yesterday for the underslung tank on my Morelo, I will measure the tank and create my own table using your user friendly link so I can extrapolate the readings from the app to accurate capacity remaining.
By the way I ordered it yesterday from Amazon.com and just had notification from UPS that it will be delivered tomorrow!!!!

 

[icantremember]

Can anyone please tell me if these will work accurately with Alugas 14Kg bottles... same diameter as 11Kg but taller.

 

[sallylillian]

Can anyone please tell me if these will work accurately with Alugas 14Kg bottles... same diameter as 11Kg but taller.

If you download the app instructions I think you will find that once you have selected Europe then different size bottles are offered or the opportunity to set your own height?

 

[Two on Tour]

I see that the LPG Shop are flogging the Mopeka sensors for £45.99 including delivery.

https://www.lpgshop.co.uk/mopeka-ta...FQH8o_mDT2CQe_4DoVtICqouCYodQ0DBoC0PQQAvD_BwE

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[Two on Tour]

Mine has now arrived and is fitted to our under slung tank.

It paired with my mobile ok but will not pair with my Lenovo tablet.

As the underslung tank is open to elements under the van, I tried it in a clip seal bag but it did not want to know, so I'll try covering the top of the case in clear fablon to stop water ingress.
Magnets seem to hold ok through the anti-stone chip coating I applied to the tank but wonder what effect a good pothole will have.

Just need to work out now how fluid hight relates to what's left in the tank.

 

[Minxy]

Mine has now arrived and is fitted to our under slung tank.

View attachment 291054

It paired with my mobile ok but will not pair with my Lenovo tablet.

As the underslung tank is open to elements under the van, I tried it in a clip seal bag but it did not want to know, so I'll try covering the top of the case in clear fablon to stop water ingress.
Magnets seem to hold ok through the anti-stone chip coating I applied to the tank but wonder what effect a good pothole will have.

Just need to work out now how fluid hight relates to what's left in the tank.

Could you not adapt an old Tupperware tub to enclose the unit (except for the bit touching the base of the bottle obviously) so that it keeps moisture out and doesn't get damaged from a stone etc, I'd also be using some cable ties to keep it all in place as I certainly wouldn't want to lose it if it got hit with something.

 

[Allanm]

Mine has now arrived and is fitted to our under slung tank.

View attachment 291054

It paired with my mobile ok but will not pair with my Lenovo tablet................

Just need to work out now how fluid hight relates to what's left in the tank.

You can change the reading to percentages. Probably easier to figure out what’s in the tank that way.

 

[Allanm]

Looking good.



I'm not sure if you're aware, but you can change the refresh rate of the sensor (from 1(?) second to 10.5 seconds) which should help a little with battery life. The refresh rate appears near the bottom of the settings screen and you can toggle it by pressing the button.

Don’t seem to be able to change the settings on mine. Refresh rate is set at 3.5 seconds and one sender seems to be rather erratic, showing full then 42%.
I just changed the batteries for new longer life Duracell’s and emailed the seller about the erratic sender. Wondering if I have old stock and/ or older generation senders. They came with the green rubber spacers ( which I don’t need. ) I read there is a later version that is supplied with metal spacers.

 

[Allanm]

Can anyone please tell me if these will work accurately with Alugas 14Kg bottles... same diameter as 11Kg but taller.

If your Alugas bottles are aluminium, then you won’t be able to physically fix them to the tank without modification because they are held in place by magnets.

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[icantremember]

If your Alugas bottles are aluminium, then you won’t be able to physically fix them to the tank without modification because they are held in place by magnets.

I'm aware of that but just wanted to know if they would work with the taller 14Kg bottles.

 

[Ridgeway]

Guess you'd have to remember to remove the device from the bottom of your bottle if you're on exchangeable bottles.... can see a few forgetting to do that !

Might be worth tying some obvious ribbon to it as a visible reminder.

 

[Misterg]

I'm aware of that but just wanted to know if they would work with the taller 14Kg bottles.

14kg is one of the preset sizes for European bottles (6, 11, 12, 14 & 18kg listed, plus the option to input your own height. There don’t seem to be any limits on this.)

 

[Cal54]

Mine arrived a few days ago and I have just installed. Hardest part was the pairing and that’s because I was being a wimp and not pressing the sync button hard enough!!

 

[Ridgeway]

Ordered one as well, will remember to press the button hard enough, thanks Carol !!

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[Two on Tour]

Update on my Mopeka tank sensor.

As my underslung tank is under the van and likely to get water and such flung up at it and Mopeka confirming that tank sensor is not waterproof, I have covered the top surface (label side) with a self adhesive membrane like Fablon to seal it.

I mounted my underslung tank well up out of harms way, so the tank sensor unlikely to get clobbered and knocked off, but I was concerned that hitting a pothole or driving in Belgium would dislodge it, so I have made and fitted a removable aluminium cover to hold it in place.

With the Mopeka app set to "Arbitrary" and the LPG tank diameter I was not convinced that the app calculated the volume of the tank with it's cross section being round, and an email back from Mopeka confirmed this to be the case, although an update to the app is due out in the near future will have a "Horizontal Arbitrary" option, which will perform the calculation for round cross section underslung tanks, so during the meantime I will revert back to measuring height rather than percentage in the app.



LPG tank well above the height of the exhaust silencer box.

Sensor mounted on the tank.

The sensor is flush with the tank mounting brackets, that's a bit handy.

Aluminium cover trial fitted and ready to paint.

 

[Two on Tour]

At present for those of us using the Mopeka tank sensor on a underslung or horizontal gas tank, the app does not calculate percentage for round horizontal gas tanks, it assumes they are flat sided, so until Mopeka update the app which they say they will to calculate percentage for round horizontal gas tanks I'm using this vessel volume and level calculator which I like as it also gives me a visual representation of the level in the tank which I can relate to better.

https://checalc.com/calc/vessel.html

Here's a screen shot of the present level in our underslung tank using the calculator and the liquid height the Mopeka app says I have in the tank.

 

[Ridgeway]

Installed mine on Sunday. App was fine and it connected to the sesnsor immediately but there was no way i could get a reading from either bottle

Anyone had a similar problem, any ideas ?

 

[Misterg]

any ideas ?

Are the bottles vertical...? With the round bit of the sensor as near dead centre on the bottom as possible...? Were the bottoms clean...?

Have you set the bottle size in the app?

It takes a little time (maybe a minute, or so??) for the gas to stop sloshing around enough to get a reading if you've just attached the sensor then stood the bottle up.

Did you use the grease between the sensor and the bottle? (I found it worked OK without, but you never know...)

That's it. That's all my ideas!

 

[Ridgeway]

The sensor was central on the bottle, i cleaned the bottom but just by wiping my hand over it (no loose rust etc), i perhaps only waited a max of 1min (not more).

But no grease ?

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[Theonlysue]

Another new toy
Will wait to see hiw it pans out.
Will be interested in users comments.

 

[Two on Tour]

The sensor was central on the bottle

Just to clarify, you have placed the actual sensor rather than the unit central ot the cylinders and the unit is sitting parallel to the base of the cylinder.

Can you upload a photo of the app screen you have to get a better idea of what or in your case what's not going on.

 

[Ridgeway]

Yep mine was positioned as above. The app image just showed an empty bottle even though i tried it on 2 different bottles, one was about 25% full and the other was full.

 

[Two on Tour]

Although your supposed to use the conducting gel on the sensor, I found with mine when I first tested the unit out without the gel it worked fine and with the gel it would not indicate, so I cleaned all the gel away from the sensor and tank and it's worked fine since, might be worth a try.

 

[Ridgeway]

Gel ? didn't get any gel with mine...

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[Two on Tour]

I take it that you did not get this with yours then ?

 

[Ridgeway]

Nope

 

[Two on Tour]

Your welcome to mine if you want to give it a try, PM me your details if you want it posting to you.

 

[Ridgeway]

That's very kind of you but i'll try a few ideas here:

Better cleaning of the bottle
Leaving it a few minutes to settle and get a reading
Try a 3rd bottle (from house BBQ)

Failing that i can ask my Doc for some sensor gel (ultrasonic) as I'm sure he has a bit hanging around

 

[autorouter]

It looks like the sensor is placed under the bottles, hence the need for spacers to lift them up to give space for it.

I think the need for spacers is to allow space for the radio (Bluetooth) signal from the sensor to the display/smartphone. Radio signals do not travel through solid metal. If the floor of the cupboard is metal then without the spacers no signal at all will get through.

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