Stick-on capacitive level sensors supporting NMEA 2000?

[codingparadox]

The two holding tanks in our new-to-us cat are basically inaccessible other than on their ends, so adding a sensor from the top is incredibly unlikely unless I start drilling holes through floors.

On our last boat, I used a TankEdge system that had stick-on capacitive sensors (attach two vertical lines of aluminum tape and it would detect the capacitance through the tank). Worked great, but requires a dedicated remote panel for the sensors.

In this new boat, I'm trying to run everything on the smart network, so that I can do things like aggregate all battery and tank information onto a Cerbo GX. So, I either need to find a capacitive sensor that then converts into a resistive sensor for one of the standard NMEA 2000 tank level meter conversions (since they all support only resistive sensors, as far as I can tell), or find another system with NMEA 2000 integration out of the box.

Any suggestions? I've spent the last hour googling around and can't find anything at all.

[codingparadox]

Dug back into this. It looks like I can actually use the Yacht Devices YDTA-01 -- it has an option for voltage-based sensors (and doing multi-point curves from it and such). The TankEdge MODA sensors take a 12v/gnd input and output a 0-5v signal on a third line. So, I'm going to order up two of each and give it a shot later this month!

[saildave]

David,

I have the same system and would like to connect to NMEA 2000.

Did you have any luck connecting the Yacht Devices to the i series?

Thanks in advance.

David

[codingparadox]

Yup, it worked fine. MODA sensor, had to add their little voltage regulator to keep it to a fixed voltage (since it fluctuates with input voltage otherwise), and then ran it into the YDTA-01, and it works great. Note that the YTDA has a reference INPUT 12V, it doesn't output voltage.

[SV.Vindicator]

I'm looking to do the same thing on my sail boat. How is this working for you? What is the resistor you mention?

Thanks

[codingparadox]

Still working great. It's not a resistor, it's a regulator -- their sensor gives a relative voltage to the input voltage for capacity, so if you want something predictable to read (i.e. 10V = full), then you need to regulate the input voltage down to a fixed value that will always be the same, so the output is always relative to the constant input voltage.

https://tankedge.com/order.html
Scroll down to "10 Volt Inline Regulator Adapter". Just a very simple little thing that they charge too much money for.

[SV.Vindicator]

Thanks. I'm looking at the YDTA-04 which claims to be able to read 4 tanks and talk to my NMEA 2000 network.

[codingparadox]

Yeah makes sense -- our two hulls have a very long run to get wires between them so instead I'm using two different ytda-01s and N2k is the "common network". But it should presumably be the same on the 04.

[razy]

Hi David, I have just ordered the moda sensors and YTDA-01R devices (my system is Raymarine) and was told by the sensor manufacturer that they are not designed to be powered on all the time. Their panel usually scans the sensors every 5 minutes, and this is the only time when they are powered up.

Do you have your sensors on all the time or do you just switch them on when you want to read the tank levels?

[codingparadox]

I have them on full time. They've been on for about 1.5 years straight now.