November 14, 2019  New firmware for Tank Adapter

With the new firmware, the device can control NMEA 2000 digital switching equipment. The data damping interval now can be increased to improve liquid volume readings stability in rough sea conditions.

NMEA 2000 Tank Adapter with digital switching support

We have already added the option to control standard NMEA 2000 digital switching equipment using our smart sensors. The time has come to add the same feature to our Tank Adapter.

With the new firmware, you will be able to control NMEA 2000 digital switching equipment managed by the NMEA 2000 "Switch Bank Control" PGN 127502. Compatible equipment includes our own products:

You can set 4 rules to turn the digital switching equipment channels ON and 4 rules to turn them OFF. Rules can be set with either a configuration file on a MicroSD card or "YD commands" which can be sent to the Device by setting NMEA 2000 installation description Fields.

For example, with those rules you can create a tank monitoring system with audible alarms using our Alarm Button YDAB-01. You will be able to hear an alarm when the tank fluid level is too low, or while refilling the tank when it is almost full.

Below, we will show how to handle the following situations:

First we need to set up an Alarm Button YDAB-01 and upload 4 custom sounds (voice messages) in slots number 25—28. We generated voice messages for you (see links above) using Text2Speech.org (this free service was first in Google, we did not cost services) and adjusted the frequency of WAV files to 22 kHz with free Audacity software.

Then set the YDAB-01 Digital Switching "bank number". We will use bank number 1 in the example configuration below. Then we need to configure the Tank Adapter and set the rules. If a MicroSD card is used, the rules will be:


  # Empty tank, <1% for 15 seconds, bank 1, channel 25 ON
  SW1_ON=<1 15 1 25
  # Immediately cancel empty tank alarm, if the level is >1%, bank 1, channel 25 OFF
  SW1_OFF=>1 0 1 25

  # Low fluid level, <20% for 60 seconds, bank 1, channel 26 ON
  SW2_ON=<20 60 1 26
  # Cancel low fluid level alarm, if the level is >20% for 30 seconds, bank 1, channel 26 OFF
  SW2_OFF=>20 30 1 26

  # Refueling complete, >96% for 20 seconds, bank 1, channel 27 ON
  SW3_ON=>96 20 1 27

  # Sensor failure for 3 seconds, bank 1, channel 28 ON
  SW4_ON=ER 3 1 28
  # Cancel sensor failure alarm, turn bank 1, channel 28 OFF
  SW4_OFF=OK 3 1 28

One of our customers noticed that the fluid level values reported by YDTA-01 are too sensitive to the boat attitude and that level readings fluctuate a lot in rough sea conditions. YDTA-01 already has a signal damping feature, but the data damping time constant was fixed to 3 seconds.

Now it is possible to set the damping constant explicitly with DAMPING settings. We have also modified and added the corresponding "YD commands", so you can perform the Device configuration using an installation description strings.

Command responses have also been modified: if the command is sent to the Device and the parameter is omitted, it will reply with the current parameter value.

Firmware Update for Tank Adapter YDTA-01 (1.05) is available on the Downloads page. Please check the updated YDTA-01 manual for additional details.

 

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