Pressure sensors for reef tanks

[jared355]

So me and some friends have be running around with some ideas on how to revolutionize the hobby, we are a bunch of aerospace engineers with nothing better to do and the idea came up of taking pressure sensors and configuring a computer program to read the pressure on seams and different points of the tank. (Building them into a stand, bottom of the tank, or even just using it as a setup only then emptying removing the sensors and refilling, etc. there is a lot of testing we are going to do but you as a hobbyist would you utilize somthing like that if it was available on the market? The idea of knowing all your seams and tank are supported equally on all points.

Just curious! Thanks

-jared

[dukduk]

are you talking electronic or some disposable color changing-inidicator pads?

i can see the pads as a hobby grade solution for those diy tank/stand builders. i personally would use them because knowing that one corner is off on a manufactured tank would be worth it.

[jared355]

Originally Posted by dukduk

are you talking electronic or some disposable color changing-inidicator pads?

i can see the pads as a hobby grade solution for those diy tank/stand builders. i personally would use them because knowing that one corner is off on a manufactured tank would be worth it.

I am talking electronic, I will make a USB access so you could download my program and load it on a laptop and read your points

[reefwiser]

Doubt there would be enough interest to make this a viable product.

[ken6217]

Originally Posted by jared355

So me and some friends have be running around with some ideas on how to revolutionize the hobby, we are a bunch of aerospace engineers with nothing better to do and the idea came up of taking pressure sensors and configuring a computer program to read the pressure on seams and different points of the tank. (Building them into a stand, bottom of the tank, or even just using it as a setup only then emptying removing the sensors and refilling, etc. there is a lot of testing we are going to do but you as a hobbyist would you utilize somthing like that if it was available on the market? The idea of knowing all your seams and tank are supported equally on all points.

Just curious! Thanks

-jared

I think you could take all of the people on this forum that would be interested in buying this and fit them into a phone booth.

If you want to sell it to someone, sell it to the manufacturers.
Ken

[jared355]

Originally Posted by ken6217

I think you could take all of the people on this forum that would be interested in buying this and fit them into a phone booth.

If you want to sell it to someone, sell it to the manufacturers.
Ken

It is more of a idea I know I would use somthing like that for piece of mind especially on very large tanks. 30 grand in water damage on a preventable measure would be a huge life savor. There is a lot of tank failures that go unsolved even on level tanks and I do feel like it's because of load points. Anyway just seeing if anyone shared the same interest. Obviously it wouldn't be very productive to use it on a 29 gallon aquarium but on a very large tank I could myself see the use.

Thanks for the replies!

[ken6217]

I think the manufacturers would be a good staring point though.

[Eric Boerner]

I'd be more interested in water pressure readings on running plumbing. Especially in closed loop systems with a monster pump running in schedule 40. "Am I close to 140 PSI or no?" would be a huge piece of mind for a lot of us, Im sure.

[BeanAnimal]

Originally Posted by jared355

So me and some friends have be running around with some ideas on how to revolutionize the hobby, we are a bunch of aerospace engineers with nothing better to do and the idea came up of taking pressure sensors and configuring a computer program to read the pressure on seams and different points of the tank. (Building them into a stand, bottom of the tank, or even just using it as a setup only then emptying removing the sensors and refilling, etc. there is a lot of testing we are going to do but you as a hobbyist would you utilize somthing like that if it was available on the market? The idea of knowing all your seams and tank are supported equally on all points.

Just curious! Thanks

-jared

A few thoughts....

Using RC public forums as your R&D springboard for a business venture rarely turns out well (see maximods, ats in a bucket, multichip leds, etc). RC has rules about commercial-interest related posts.The bottom line is that there are plenty of contributors here that have the skillset to design and market products to the hobby. Most of them follow the terms of service and don't cross that line but are more than happy to turn in those that do.

With regard to strain/stress measurements: I am not sure of many reefers (even high end gadget gurus) who would care about reading stress on seams and stand contact points. Even if they did, what would the metric be that those numbers were compared to? That is, what use would they be to anybody, even if they were a structure engineer? Putting meaning to the numbers is far more complex than gathering them in the first place. There is no question that point loading and other similar non-uniform loading of aquaria causes disasters. The issue (again) would be collecting enough data points to make even wild guesses as to what that data from any given random "measurement" setup would mean.

With regard to using strain gauges to measure liquid levels, etc. Sure, it is a great non-invasive technique but at what cost and at what level of complexity in both setup and the constant need for calibration. Add some rock to the tank, then you need to recalibrate. Add a fish, recalibrate, etc. For such a gauge to be useful it would have to be too sensitive to be useful...

With regard to pressure sensors for liquid level etc. Sure, not a bad idea but again what do you really gain over a tiny mechanical float switch? I have a pile of micro pressure transducers and played with them for my ATO system. Cool, but frankly not worth the trouble.

With regard to developing an electronic product for the hobby in general. This is a VERY SMALL demographic, even if you include the freshwater folks. Subtract those who could care less about the product, those who can not afford the product, those who don't frequent any venue where they would learn about it, those who are interested but never buy, etc. Your possible target domain of real world purchasers is extremely tiny. Then consider how much it is going to cost to provide support and warranty service to those customers (usually, easily 10x-50x the cost, time and resources what you would expect). Add in your development time, cost of insurance, and other overhead. Now consider how many of the small handful of customers are going to be repeat customers. If you take a quick look, you will see that this hobby leaves behind a constant trail of corpses that belonged to those who thought they could make a business out of developing aquaria specific products.

[BeanAnimal]

Originally Posted by Eric Boerner

"Am I close to 140 PSI or no?" would be a huge piece of mind for a lot of us, Im sure.

NO.. there is not a centrifugal pump in our hobby that could come close the burst pressure of even the weakest plumbing in our systems (thinwall vinyl hose).

That is not to say that there are not uses...

I built a small test setup that utilized tiny pressure transducers on the output ports of my Oceans Motions device. The resulting output easily showed if the drum was revolving or not. I never put the project into the live system simply because there was no use for it