Tidewater Offers Accurate and Safe Wireless Fuel Gauge for Boaters

Recreational boaters, and for that matter, most boaters, have to deal with a fuel gauge that just isn’t accurate or reliable. This is because the pitch and sway from waves seriously impairs a boat’s fuel gauge accuracy. Not only that, present day marine fuel gauges aren’t considered that safe. And that’s because many aren’t completely isolated from the explosive fuel.

The explosion problem is not just a boat problem, but a major problem with many other vehicles; however it is a problem that has been mitigated with technology from NASA. According to one of the developers of the magnetic sensor based fuel gauge technology, Stan Woodard, of NASA’s Langley Research Center (Hampton, Virginia), its new fuel gauge “technology eliminates many of the causes of the TWA Flight 800 and Swissair Flight 111 accidents.” He adds that “in both cases, damage to a direct electrical line from the aircraft power system to a fuel probe inside a fuel tank containing combustible fuel vapors was a critical link in a chain of events that led to these tragedies.”

NASA’s new fuel gauge technology is based on a magnetic field response recorder. That recorder, which includes fluid measurement sensor technology, is outlined in United States patent application 20070157718 and United States patent 7,255,004. In a nutshell, the recorder uses the response frequency from one sensor and roll and pitch of other sensors to calculate the angle of the liquid. With the angle information as well as information about the size and shape of the fuel tank, the technology is able to calculate the amount of fuel left in the tank.

Tidewater Sensors (Newport News, Virginia), which licensed the technology from NASA, now offers a commercial version of the NASA measurement system, named the TS1500. The non-moving fuel gauge probe contains an antenna and a sensor that will give boaters not only the accurate and reliable fuel gauge measurements needed in rough waters, but will also allow them to respond quickly when water gets in the fuel tank. When the TS1500 detect waters in the fuel, it immediately generates both a video and audio alarm. Such an alarm allows the boat owner to escape expensive engine repairs simply by turning the engine off.

Besides the ability to measure fuel level, the NASA technology also has the ability to measure the level of an untold number of other fluids, gases, powders and solids. Modifications of the system have demonstrated that the magnetic field response recorder can be used to measure transmission fluid, ammonia, liquid nitrogen, salt water, tap water, and a wide range of powdered food products. Additionally, modifications can be made to detect other types of non-liquid contaminants in the fluid.

Such capabilities, as well as the ability to transmit fuel measurement and composition data without wires, are expected to result in a number of other industrial applications for the technology. Such applications include underground tank fuel measurements and oil refinement and processing applications.

Presently, Tidewater Sensors offers the fuel gauge sensor on its web site priced at $340.00. Other companies may in the future also offer the same product. Licenses and partnership programs for the development and commercial sale of NASA’s magnetic recorder technology are available through NASA’s Technology Gateway program.