[geeks] Level monitoring

[Phil Stracchino]

Does anyone have any good, practical suggestions for how to remotely
monitor and log the propane level in an outside propane tank?

The tank in question is a 500-gallon tank, maybe 30 feet from the house.
 It has an existing analog gauge, under a hinged semi-armored cover that
protects the gauge and the valves.  What I need is some way to remotely
sense the level in the tank on an hourly or several-times-hourly basis,
in a way that yields a result I can simply log and chart without having
to (for example) do image recognition of the gauge.  One acceptably
accurate way would probably be to track the weight of the tank, but as
the tank is already in place, retrofitting strain gauges under it would
be challenging and possibly infeasible.


-- 
  Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
  alaric at caerllewys.net   alaric at metrocast.net   phil at co.ordinate.org
         Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
                 It's not the years, it's the mileage.