Do you need an automated way to keep track of your product inventory in tanks? Are you looking for alerts when tank levels and tank volumes go above or below the number you want? This step-by-step video tutorial shows you how to use Tools.Valarm.net features to easily calculate volumes of your tanks, so you know how much product you have at any time, no matter where you are.
Need to refill your tanks with chemicals, gas, oil, or fertilizers? Use Valarm’s Industrial IoT web dashboards so you’re aware of what’s going on with your remote assets by conveniently using the web browser on your phone, tablet, or computer. Valarm will help you monitor your tanks whether they’re stationary or mobile tanks on vehicles / trucks!
Here are the types of tanks that Valarm will automatically give you volumes of:
- Vertical cylinder tanks
- Horizontal cylinder tanks
- Horizontal ellipse tanks
- Rectangular tanks
If you need to monitor the volumes of any other types of tanks then please don’t hesitate to contact us and we’ll add it for you!
Have a look at our Remote Monitoring and Sensor Telemetry Dashboards to see how our customers use tank sensor information for real-time situational awareness.
Also see our Customer Stories for more on how Valarm’s Industrial IoT (IIoT) solutions are used around the world in various industries like agriculture, oil & gas, governments, natural resources, chemical distribution, water resources management, and high tech transport / fleet tracking with mobile sensors.
Questions?
Give us a call at +1 (424) 442-0963 or email us at info@valarm.net.
Video Transcript / Voiceover:
Howdy, this is Edward from Valarm!
In this video you’ll learn how to automatically calculate volumes of your products you have in your tanks, which are remotely monitored with Valarm. Do you have some tanks in a remote location that you need to automatically monitor with sensors? You’ll see some examples in this video of our customers that use Valarm for Industrial IoT applications including tanks full of liquids, chemicals, cement, fertilizers, and other fluids. Here you see examples of solar-powered, tank monitoring units that report real-time tank level and tank volume data to Valarm Tools Cloud at http://tools.valarm.net. Have a look at our Customer Stories page on www.valarm.net for more info and don’t hesitate to contact us at info@valarm.net if you have any questions.
First you’ll register your Valarm sensor hubs to send your sensor data to tools.valarm.net via GSM cell network, WiFi Wireless Internet networks, ethernet, or any other way you want to connect your Industrial IoT devices to the internet. See our other video for how to connect your Industrial IoT devices to tools.valarm.net if you haven’t already. Once your sensor devices are cloud-connected then go to Device Manager on tools.valarm.net and click your device you’d like to set up for tank volume calculations.
In this example you see tank levels being monitored by Flowline 4-20mA level sensors. These sensors are placed on top the tanks and are non-contact since they use ultrasonic or radar pulses to measure tank levels. The raw 4-20mA sensor values reported by the sensor report a low, empty tank as 4 mA and a full tank as 20mA. Depending on the range of your fluid, tank, or water level sensor, the max might be 32 feet, or 200 meters. You can see in the Valarm Tools Cloud graph that recently the level of product in this tank has been relatively stable. However, it’s much more useful for you and our customers to know the height in real world values, like feet or meters. That’s why we’ve set up a linear scaler that’s being reported in the Calc 2 field. You’ll see how to set this up in just a minute. You can use the linear scaler with the tank height as an input for a Tank volume calculator. In this case Calc 3 is the volume of your tank.
Now let’s go through how you can set up these handy tank monitoring features on Valarm Tools Cloud – tools.valarm.net. First you’ll set up a linear scaler under Configure Data Path. The Linear scaler scales your raw sensor values you’re receiving to the real world values. For example, if your Industrial IoT level sensor reports values between 4 and 20 mA, with 4 corresponding to 0 ft of product and 20 corresponding 32.8 ft of product, then you’ll put your in min as 4, in max as 20, out min as 0, and out max as 32.8. Now Valarm Tools Cloud will automatically scale your raw 4-20mA sensor values in a linear fashion so that the output channel or field now has the level of fluid in your tank.
Next you’ll use the Volume Calculator under Configure Data Path to set up your tank volume calculations. You’ve got a set of channels and tabs you can use to enable volume calculations. Here you can enable channel 1 and give it a name like petrol tank in building A or chemical fertilizer tank in lot B. Add some notes so it’s clear to you and your team in the future what asset you’re working with. Under the Type you can choose your type of tank vessel, either a vertical cylinder, horizontal cylinder, horizontal ellipse, or rectangular tank. If you need additional tank or volume calculators then please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@valarm.net and we’ll add them.
For your Input channel use your linear scaler that you set up previously, in this case the Calculated 2 field has what we need – the sensor’s latest value for the height, in feet, of product in the tank. Use a new, unused, output channel for where the volume calculation results will go, in this case we’ll use Calculated 3. Set your units for your input, e.g., feet or meters. Then choose the output volume units you need, like liters or gallons. Last you’ll enter your tank parameter variables like length, diameter, and/or height.
That’s it. Now the Calc 3 field will be populated with your tank volumes in all of the features around the Valarm Tools Cloud website, including maps, graphs, and JSON API calls. You can see your tank volume data in a graph where the output is whatever you need like cubic feet, gallons, or liters.
Do you need to see this information on a web dashboard that you and your teams can login to from anywhere in the world? We can make a custom dashboard for you or your organization that has maps, graphs, widgets, whatever you need. You can monitor your assets using any device with a web browser, like your phone or tablet. You’ll receive alerts when sensor values go to high or low. This goes for anything you need to monitor, not just tanks. Any Industrial IoT or remote monitoring applications you need, like high tech transport vehicles with sensors and industrial equipment like switches, hydroblasters, pumps, and vacuums. Or water wells, water pumps and flow meters, air quality, or other environmental factors that can be monitored with sensors.
Have a look at our website at www.valarm.net for customer stories on how organizations around the world use Valarm to literally monitor anything, anywhere!
Please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@valarm.net or give us a call at +1 (424) 442-0963. We’d love to hear you tell us about your Industrial IoT, remote monitoring, and sensor telemetry needs. Thank you for watching!
