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kymooses 
Senior Member 
Joined: 01 Aug 2010 Location: Louisville, Ky Online Status: Offline Posts: 1807 |
 Topic: Mods for Camplite 21RBSPosted: 04 Mar 2014 at 6:02pm |
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Will be looking forward to this ultimate RV monitor panel mod!
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bhamster
Senior Member
Joined: 19 May 2011 Location: Washington Online Status: Offline Posts: 165 |
Posted: 04 Mar 2014 at 5:58pm |
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Ditto here. I also had a crazy idea to check the tank level using resonance (think blowing into a beer bottle). Then I found the SeeLevel and decided to use their proven approach over my theories. The price is a steal when you consider I would spent 20+ hours coming up with my own.
But being the tinkerer that I am, I decided not to use the display that came with it. I've reverse engineered their one-wire protocol to add it to my own custom unified RV monitor. The current plan is to use a 2.2" color LCD to display the following information: AC Volts AC Frequency AC Current EMS Status (in readable text) DC Volts DC Current Fresh Tank Level Grey Tank Level Black Tank Level Inside Temperature/Humidity Outside Temperature/Humidity Water pressure Items in bold obviously come from the SeeLevel sensors. All the "AC" and "EMS" info comes from the surge protector. But I had to reverse engineer the surge protector protocol too. Their display was hideous:  No thanks, they can send that display back where it came from... the 90's Here's the best part: the surge protector that I bought was $50 less because it didn't have a display, but they use the same circuit board and microcontroller inside. So the remote display signal was still being sent, I just have to solder on some headers. Once my ultimate RV monitor is complete I'll post pictures and details. Charlie- did you have to chop the seelevel sensors to fit the tanks?
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CharlieM
Senior Member
Joined: 23 Nov 2012 Location: N. Colorado Online Status: Offline Posts: 1797 |
Posted: 04 Mar 2014 at 5:43pm |
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Technically they don't really measure capacitance, but the result is the same. I think they detect an AC current between a common "transmit" pad and individual "receive" pads. The paths are through the plastic tank wall, through the liquid, and back through the wall. In effect you have 2 capacitors connected in series by a liquid path. There seems to be some measurement of signal level because the display increments in smaller increments than would be expected for the number of pads on the sensor board. For example a sensor with 4 pads increments at 6-7% as the tank fills. No idea how accurate it is but it's fun to watch.
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Charlie
Northern Colorado OLD: 2013 RP-172, 2010 Honda Pilot 3.5L 4WD PRESENT: 2014 Camplite 21RBS, 2013 Supercharged Tacoma 4L V6 4WD |
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techntrek
Admin Group - pHp 
Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Location: MD Online Status: Offline Posts: 9062 |
Posted: 04 Mar 2014 at 4:58pm |
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Interesting, capacitance. Makes sense. And nothing inside the tank at all is perfect.
I've had a few of those ideas over the years!
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CharlieM
Senior Member
Joined: 23 Nov 2012 Location: N. Colorado Online Status: Offline Posts: 1797 |
Posted: 04 Mar 2014 at 2:51pm |
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Doug,
You'll love this. When I started camping with my Pod and was having the normal difficulty with the black tank monitor I concluded there was no fix with that that technology. Most advice came down to "live with it". But, being the engineer, I thought I thought: I could design a sensor to measure the capacitance between two plates on the side of the tank, using no internal probes. The rising liquid level could be sensed as a change in capacitance or AC impedance as the level covered multiple sensor points. Well guess what. That's how the SeeLevel works. All with no development work by me......and no royalties  . I just installed the system so a field test is scheduled this weekend. The only complaint I have read on the external sensors is that they may fall off if not properly applied. But with proper surface sanding and cleaning they should work. The Seelevel sensors are adhered using 3M 300LSE adhesive. Google it! Some wicked stuff, advertised to stick to Polypro and Polyethylene. Nothing sticks to PE so time will tell. Great customer service from Garrett too. |
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Charlie
Northern Colorado OLD: 2013 RP-172, 2010 Honda Pilot 3.5L 4WD PRESENT: 2014 Camplite 21RBS, 2013 Supercharged Tacoma 4L V6 4WD |
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techntrek
Admin Group - pHp
Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Location: MD Online Status: Offline Posts: 9062 |
Posted: 04 Mar 2014 at 2:23pm |
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I looked up the SeeLevel but can't find how it detects the level. Info?
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CharlieM
Senior Member
Joined: 23 Nov 2012 Location: N. Colorado Online Status: Offline Posts: 1797 |
Posted: 04 Mar 2014 at 2:02pm |
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A few mods to my 2014 Camplite 21RBS. Although these are for the Camplite they came about from my RPOD experience and the help from this forum. I think this will just about complete the outfitting project. Now off to the campground!
2. 3. 7. 9.
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Charlie
Northern Colorado OLD: 2013 RP-172, 2010 Honda Pilot 3.5L 4WD PRESENT: 2014 Camplite 21RBS, 2013 Supercharged Tacoma 4L V6 4WD |
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Mods for Camplite 21RBS
