We have one of these (no gas here) and it seems to be flaky. We had a fill recently and the reported level fluctuates between 9 down to 6 and back again. Definitely no leak - no smell of oil near the tank. I assumed that the rocket ship part (sits on the tank) mebbe needed a new battery but it's only a couple or three years old (came with a new tank).

Power cycling the receiver is, I assume, supposed to flash all the LCD
segments so you can be sure whether they are working or not - just like the kitchen scales do on power-up. The segments flash (not for quite long enough, really), but my sense is that many of them are only working intermittently.

Anyone have this experience or seen it? If the transmitter is working, then it would be annoying to have to fix this by buying both ends again.

--
The Internet has made the human world a monstrous village with an ever-growing population of nags, scolds, and officious fools. -- James Lovelock

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 22 Apr 2025 21:39:44 GMT
Tim Streater <[email protected]> wrote:

We have one of these (no gas here) and it seems to be flaky. We had a
fill recently and the reported level fluctuates between 9 down to 6
and back again. Definitely no leak - no smell of oil near the tank. I
assumed that the rocket ship part (sits on the tank) mebbe needed a
new battery but it's only a couple or three years old (came with a
new tank).

Power cycling the receiver is, I assume, supposed to flash all the LCD segments so you can be sure whether they are working or not - just
like the kitchen scales do on power-up. The segments flash (not for
quite long enough, really), but my sense is that many of them are
only working intermittently.

Anyone have this experience or seen it? If the transmitter is
working, then it would be annoying to have to fix this by buying both
ends again.

Not much help, I'm afraid, but mine has worked flawlessly ever since I
bought it about 12-13 years ago. It needed a new battery, after approx.
10 years, but other than that, no problem. It replaced a Watchman that
just failed completely.
Good luck with it.

--
Davey.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Tim Streater wrote:

We have one of these (no gas here) and it seems to be flaky. We had a fill recently and the reported level fluctuates between 9 down to 6 and back again.
Definitely no leak - no smell of oil near the tank. I assumed that the rocket ship part (sits on the tank) mebbe needed a new battery but it's only a couple
or three years old (came with a new tank).

Power cycling the receiver is, I assume, supposed to flash all the LCD segments so you can be sure whether they are working or not - just like the kitchen scales do on power-up. The segments flash (not for quite long enough, really), but my sense is that many of them are only working intermittently.

Anyone have this experience or seen it? If the transmitter is working, then it
would be annoying to have to fix this by buying both ends again.

Not meaning to be flippant, but why not use a dip stick? I have some
sort of sensor but it's unreliable so made a dip stick with a length of
bamboo set into a short piece of wood to make a "T". The bamboo is
marked every 100mm and I record the level weekly(ish) in a spreadsheet, together with deliveries and oil price. The spreadsheet calculates
volume/day, cost/day and cost/year, as well as producing a useful graph. Simples!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wed, 23 Apr 2025 11:21:32 +0100
No mail <[email protected]> wrote:

Tim Streater wrote:

We have one of these (no gas here) and it seems to be flaky. We had
a fill recently and the reported level fluctuates between 9 down to
6 and back again. Definitely no leak - no smell of oil near the
tank. I assumed that the rocket ship part (sits on the tank) mebbe
needed a new battery but it's only a couple or three years old
(came with a new tank).

Power cycling the receiver is, I assume, supposed to flash all the
LCD segments so you can be sure whether they are working or not -
just like the kitchen scales do on power-up. The segments flash
(not for quite long enough, really), but my sense is that many of
them are only working intermittently.

Anyone have this experience or seen it? If the transmitter is
working, then it would be annoying to have to fix this by buying
both ends again.

Not meaning to be flippant, but why not use a dip stick? I have some
sort of sensor but it's unreliable so made a dip stick with a length
of bamboo set into a short piece of wood to make a "T". The bamboo is
marked every 100mm and I record the level weekly(ish) in a
spreadsheet, together with deliveries and oil price. The spreadsheet calculates volume/day, cost/day and cost/year, as well as producing a
useful graph. Simples!

As I mentioned, my Apollo has been flawlessly reliable, and reading the
tank level does not require me to go outdoors and fight my way through
the foliage to read it. Its accuracy is plenty good enough.
My trips to the tank are limited to unlocking and relocking it for
fill-ups, and 10-year trips to fit a new battery.

My spreadsheet tells me the average litres/day between fill-ups, which
is as much information as I want to derive from the readings. I can
calculate to sufficient accuracy how much room there is left in the
tank when fill-up time comes along, and suppliers do not mind a little over-estimating of capacity, as long as it is within reason. Simples!

Since the only control I have of the cost of oil is to choose the
cheapest supplier at fill-up time (I run the local Oil Syndicate), I
have no need to calculate cost/day or cost/year

Feel free to use your dipstick, but I will stay with my Apollo, thanks! Although I am a Luddite when it comes to unnecessary digitisation of my
life, this is one technology that seems to work just fine.
I used a dipstick when originally calibrating the Apollo's readings vs.
litres in the tank, but since then, it has been 'repurposed'.

--
Davey.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 23 Apr 2025 at 11:51:54 BST, "Davey" <[email protected]d> wrote:

On Wed, 23 Apr 2025 11:21:32 +0100
No mail <[email protected]> wrote:

Tim Streater wrote:

We have one of these (no gas here) and it seems to be flaky. We had
a fill recently and the reported level fluctuates between 9 down to
6 and back again. Definitely no leak - no smell of oil near the
tank. I assumed that the rocket ship part (sits on the tank) mebbe
needed a new battery but it's only a couple or three years old
(came with a new tank).

Power cycling the receiver is, I assume, supposed to flash all the
LCD segments so you can be sure whether they are working or not -
just like the kitchen scales do on power-up. The segments flash
(not for quite long enough, really), but my sense is that many of
them are only working intermittently.

Anyone have this experience or seen it? If the transmitter is
working, then it would be annoying to have to fix this by buying
both ends again.

Not meaning to be flippant, but why not use a dip stick? I have some
sort of sensor but it's unreliable so made a dip stick with a length
of bamboo set into a short piece of wood to make a "T". The bamboo is
marked every 100mm and I record the level weekly(ish) in a
spreadsheet, together with deliveries and oil price. The spreadsheet
calculates volume/day, cost/day and cost/year, as well as producing a
useful graph. Simples!

As I mentioned, my Apollo has been flawlessly reliable, and reading the
tank level does not require me to go outdoors and fight my way through
the foliage to read it. Its accuracy is plenty good enough.
My trips to the tank are limited to unlocking and relocking it for
fill-ups, and 10-year trips to fit a new battery.

My spreadsheet tells me the average litres/day between fill-ups, which
is as much information as I want to derive from the readings. I can
calculate to sufficient accuracy how much room there is left in the
tank when fill-up time comes along, and suppliers do not mind a little over-estimating of capacity, as long as it is within reason. Simples!

Since the only control I have of the cost of oil is to choose the
cheapest supplier at fill-up time (I run the local Oil Syndicate), I
have no need to calculate cost/day or cost/year

Feel free to use your dipstick, but I will stay with my Apollo, thanks! Although I am a Luddite when it comes to unnecessary digitisation of my
life, this is one technology that seems to work just fine.
I used a dipstick when originally calibrating the Apollo's readings vs. litres in the tank, but since then, it has been 'repurposed'.

Indeed. And now the receiver is claiming to be hearing nothing from the transmitter, so I've just ordered a new unit (i.e., both ends).

--
When I saw how the European Union was developing, it was very obvious what they had in mind was not democratic. In Britain you vote for a government so the government has to listen to you, and if you don't like it you can change it.

Tony Benn

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 23 Apr 2025 11:41:00 GMT
Tim Streater <[email protected]> wrote:

On 23 Apr 2025 at 11:51:54 BST, "Davey" <[email protected]d> wrote:

On Wed, 23 Apr 2025 11:21:32 +0100
No mail <[email protected]> wrote:

Tim Streater wrote:

We have one of these (no gas here) and it seems to be flaky. We
had a fill recently and the reported level fluctuates between 9
down to 6 and back again. Definitely no leak - no smell of oil
near the tank. I assumed that the rocket ship part (sits on the
tank) mebbe needed a new battery but it's only a couple or three
years old (came with a new tank).

Power cycling the receiver is, I assume, supposed to flash all the
LCD segments so you can be sure whether they are working or not -
just like the kitchen scales do on power-up. The segments flash
(not for quite long enough, really), but my sense is that many of
them are only working intermittently.

Anyone have this experience or seen it? If the transmitter is
working, then it would be annoying to have to fix this by buying
both ends again.

Not meaning to be flippant, but why not use a dip stick? I have
some sort of sensor but it's unreliable so made a dip stick with a
length of bamboo set into a short piece of wood to make a "T". The
bamboo is marked every 100mm and I record the level weekly(ish) in
a spreadsheet, together with deliveries and oil price. The
spreadsheet calculates volume/day, cost/day and cost/year, as well
as producing a useful graph. Simples!

As I mentioned, my Apollo has been flawlessly reliable, and reading
the tank level does not require me to go outdoors and fight my way
through the foliage to read it. Its accuracy is plenty good enough.
My trips to the tank are limited to unlocking and relocking it for fill-ups, and 10-year trips to fit a new battery.

My spreadsheet tells me the average litres/day between fill-ups,
which is as much information as I want to derive from the readings.
I can calculate to sufficient accuracy how much room there is left
in the tank when fill-up time comes along, and suppliers do not
mind a little over-estimating of capacity, as long as it is within
reason. Simples!

Since the only control I have of the cost of oil is to choose the
cheapest supplier at fill-up time (I run the local Oil Syndicate), I
have no need to calculate cost/day or cost/year

Feel free to use your dipstick, but I will stay with my Apollo,
thanks! Although I am a Luddite when it comes to unnecessary
digitisation of my life, this is one technology that seems to work
just fine. I used a dipstick when originally calibrating the
Apollo's readings vs. litres in the tank, but since then, it has
been 'repurposed'.

Indeed. And now the receiver is claiming to be hearing nothing from
the transmitter, so I've just ordered a new unit (i.e., both ends).

I think that is the best decision.

--
Davey.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 22 Apr 2025 21:39:44 GMT, Tim Streater wrote:

We have one of these (no gas here) and it seems to be flaky. We had a
fill recently and the reported level fluctuates between 9 down to 6 and
back again.

I have no experience of your particular sensor, but have worked with a lot
of other makes.

You say it went faulty after a fill.

Could the tank have been filled higher than the norm at all, because the problem you describe was common in the Siemens industrial units if a tank
was overfilled or the programming not quite right.

You see there is a blanking distance of approx 0.3 m in most sensors and
if the liquid enters this space it can confuse the algorithm used to
determine a particular tanks capacity. With the Siemens there would be erroneous readings until the tank was empty or the system was reset.

Failing that I have had spiders setting up home on the head.

A foolproof test to ensure that internal reflections are not a problem is
to simply remove the measuring head and point it at a wall or flat board.
A set of steps is advisable as the time constants to indicate results can
be long. It should be easy to position the head at the appropriate
distance to simulate the height you would expect any particular liquid
level to give.

This information may be useless to you, but it does have the advantage of giving an idea of how to approach the problem instead of looking at the
final display for inspiration :-)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 23/04/2025 12:41, Tim Streater wrote:

On 23 Apr 2025 at 11:51:54 BST, "Davey" <[email protected]d> wrote:

On Wed, 23 Apr 2025 11:21:32 +0100
No mail <[email protected]> wrote:

Tim Streater wrote:

We have one of these (no gas here) and it seems to be flaky. We had
a fill recently and the reported level fluctuates between 9 down to
6 and back again. Definitely no leak - no smell of oil near the
tank. I assumed that the rocket ship part (sits on the tank) mebbe
needed a new battery but it's only a couple or three years old
(came with a new tank).

Power cycling the receiver is, I assume, supposed to flash all the
LCD segments so you can be sure whether they are working or not -
just like the kitchen scales do on power-up. The segments flash
(not for quite long enough, really), but my sense is that many of
them are only working intermittently.

Anyone have this experience or seen it? If the transmitter is
working, then it would be annoying to have to fix this by buying
both ends again.

Not meaning to be flippant, but why not use a dip stick? I have some
sort of sensor but it's unreliable so made a dip stick with a length
of bamboo set into a short piece of wood to make a "T". The bamboo is
marked every 100mm and I record the level weekly(ish) in a
spreadsheet, together with deliveries and oil price. The spreadsheet
calculates volume/day, cost/day and cost/year, as well as producing a
useful graph. Simples!

As I mentioned, my Apollo has been flawlessly reliable, and reading the
tank level does not require me to go outdoors and fight my way through
the foliage to read it. Its accuracy is plenty good enough.
My trips to the tank are limited to unlocking and relocking it for
fill-ups, and 10-year trips to fit a new battery.

My spreadsheet tells me the average litres/day between fill-ups, which
is as much information as I want to derive from the readings. I can
calculate to sufficient accuracy how much room there is left in the
tank when fill-up time comes along, and suppliers do not mind a little
over-estimating of capacity, as long as it is within reason. Simples!

Since the only control I have of the cost of oil is to choose the
cheapest supplier at fill-up time (I run the local Oil Syndicate), I
have no need to calculate cost/day or cost/year

Feel free to use your dipstick, but I will stay with my Apollo, thanks!
Although I am a Luddite when it comes to unnecessary digitisation of my
life, this is one technology that seems to work just fine.
I used a dipstick when originally calibrating the Apollo's readings vs.
litres in the tank, but since then, it has been 'repurposed'.

Indeed. And now the receiver is claiming to be hearing nothing from the transmitter, so I've just ordered a new unit (i.e., both ends).

Mine (Oil watchman) did that and I took it apart and poured all the
water out of it - no idea how that got in - put it in the airing
cupboard to dry out and it's mostly OK now. Trouble is its at the end of
its range and reception is therefore iffy...


--
Of what good are dead warriors? … Warriors are those who desire battle
more than peace. Those who seek battle despite peace. Those who thump
their spears on the ground and talk of honor. Those who leap high the
battle dance and dream of glory … The good of dead warriors, Mother, is
that they are dead.
Sheri S Tepper: The Awakeners.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 23/04/2025 16:08, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Mine (Oil watchman) did that and I took it apart and poured all the
water out of it - no idea how that got in - put it in the airing
cupboard to dry out and it's mostly OK now. Trouble is its at the end of
its range and reception is therefore iffy...

We have a Watchman. It's useless. Our tank is inside a room attached to
the workshop (where the sun can't rot it, and the thieves can't easily
access it). The watchman doesn't seem able to transmit through the
fireproof board. And even if it does it only measures in tenths of a tank.

The old tank had a clear plastic tube connected by a tap that you had to
pull to make oil flow. It was simple, reliable and accurate. Apparently
you can't get them any more.

I use a dipstick. Which is a PITA.

--
Do not listen to rumour, but, if you do, do not believe it.
Ghandi.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 01/05/2025 17:08, Vir Campestris wrote:

On 23/04/2025 16:08, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Mine (Oil watchman) did that and I took it apart and poured all the
water out of it - no idea how that got in - put it in the airing
cupboard to dry out and it's mostly OK now. Trouble is its at the end
of its range and reception is therefore iffy...

We have a Watchman. It's useless. Our tank is inside a room attached to
the workshop (where the sun can't rot it, and the thieves can't easily
access it). The watchman doesn't seem able to transmit through the
fireproof board. And even if it does it only measures in tenths of a tank.

The old tank had a clear plastic tube connected by a tap that you had to
pull to make oil flow. It was simple, reliable and accurate. Apparently
you can't get them any more.

I use a dipstick. Which is a PITA.

I must gert round to finishing my own ultrasonic gauge based on a Pi
PICO W which will send its data to my central heating website...via wifi.

I am not sure if the wifi will get through., Hmm that was postoned till
a sunny day the days are sunny.

--
In todays liberal progressive conflict-free education system, everyone
gets full Marx.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Thu, 1 May 2025 17:08:34 +0100, Vir Campestris <[email protected]d> wrote:

The old tank had a clear plastic tube connected by a tap that you had to
pull to make oil flow. It was simple, reliable and accurate. Apparently
you can't get them any more.

https://www.fueltankshop.co.uk/push-button-sight-gauge-6ft/p8551

"Push Button Sight Gauge ½' 6ft"


Thomas Prufer

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 04/05/2025 08:45, Thomas Prufer wrote:

On Thu, 1 May 2025 17:08:34 +0100, Vir Campestris <[email protected]d> wrote:

The old tank had a clear plastic tube connected by a tap that you had to
pull to make oil flow. It was simple, reliable and accurate. Apparently
you can't get them any more.

https://www.fueltankshop.co.uk/push-button-sight-gauge-6ft/p8551

"Push Button Sight Gauge ½' 6ft"

Hmm. Interesting. Our boiler service guy wasn't interested in doing one.

Andy
--
Do not listen to rumour, but, if you do, do not believe it.
Ghandi.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)