The Stirling Blue project will be measuring several Stirling engine parameters including inputs and outputs so I can calculate efficiency. The input to the engine is fuel - alcohol in this case, and I will need to know how much is consumed. I could do a before and after weight measurement, but I want the PSoC6 to be able to monitor all parameters in real time. The gas tank is actually a 10 ml glass jar. The fuel is drawn out using a wick that also acts as the burner. This blog explores using capacitance to measure fuel level in the jar. I did an earlier road test of the TI FDC2214, which is a very accurate capacitance measurement circuit. This will be a good choice for measuring such a small jar. It uses an I2C interface so I will have to figure out how to get the PSoC6 talking to it.
Capacitance sensing of the fuel level with the FDC2214 works well. I may double the width of copper tape on the bottle to increase the capacitance values.
Upcoming blogs:
Blog 5 will be about how Stirling engines work
Blog 6 will start connecting some sensors to the PSoC6
Blog 7 will be about designing the sensor interface PCB
Related Links:
Bluetooth Unleashed Design Challenge
Bluetooth Unleashed Design Challenge: The Challengers
Bluetooth Unleashed Design Challenge: About This Challenge
Links to other blogs for this project:
Stirling Blue - Project Description - Blog 1
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