Pick the question before the hardware
Facilities teams lose time when a wet floor alarm is asked to do a tank inventory job. Wet or dry tells you to walk the room. A level value tells you whether the day tank will last the shift. If the vessel has a known volume and a high and low operating band, you want hydrostatic level, not a rope along the bund.
Use rope or a spot probe in the bund anyway if overflow is the hazard you page on. Those kits share the gateway and the application. They do not share the decoder. A level decoder that is pasted onto a rope node will publish nonsense and look like a sensor failure.
Particlesensing kits are factory tested, with decoder profiles for The Things Network and ChirpStack. Manufacturing history is 25 years, 2.5 million units deployed, and a 0.3% field failure rate. Quote the tank job from the datasheet span, not from those company figures.
How the level kit is installed
The submersible element goes in the liquid. The radio node stays above the high-water line, with a path to the gateway. Metal tank lids and underground rooms block uplinks; survey the lid-open and lid-closed cases before you sign off coverage.
Zero the sensor at the empty or minimum operating level on the datasheet. Confirm span against a known fill. Write both numbers in the commissioning pack. A replacement probe without those notes will trend a different tank even if the vessel did not change.
Cable glands and chemical compatibility are datasheet items. Do not drop a water-service element into a solvent tank because the radio is the same. If the media is not on the quote, stop and ask before installation.
Reporting interval follows how fast the tank moves. A slow day tank does not need a reading every minute. Faster uplinks shorten battery life. The product page states the battery window at a typical interval; use that interval in the quote unless operations has a reason to go faster.
Dashboards and alarms
Store level, battery millivolts, and the frame counter. Alarm on the operating band your utilities team already uses — low level for run-dry, high level for overflow risk. Do not alarm on every small change or the night shift will mute the channel.
A flat level with a moving frame counter means the tank is stable. A flat level with a frozen frame counter means the node is silent. Teach that distinction once. It prevents truck rolls for a radio problem that looks like a stuck float.
If you also measure flow or pressure on the same fill line, those are separate kits. Flow tells you the branch is moving. Pressure tells you the line is charged. Level tells you the vessel. The industrial solution page is the category view; this page is only the vessel.
Commissioning pack
Include device EUI, tank name, zero, span, unit, decoder version, and the factory functional-test uplink. Name the tank the way the SCADA screen names it. A device called sensor-12 is useless at 2 a.m.
OTAA join belongs in the same application as the plant-room leak kits if one gateway covers both. Keep device profiles separate so the codec matches the hardware. Clone the level profile only onto other level nodes.
Trial quantities start at 100 units for stock hardware. Most single-site tank jobs are below OEM branding quantities. Branding from 500 units is for distributors who want the carton to carry their name, not for a three-tank pilot.
What this pattern does not do
It does not measure interface level between two liquids unless the datasheet says so. It does not replace a custody-transfer meter. It does not satisfy a statutory overfill protection scheme by itself. Use it for operational visibility and keep the certified overfill device your process hazard analysis already required.
EU868 and US915 are the standard radio plans. Other regions need a confirmed channel plan on the quote. Destination documentation is separate from the decoder page. Ask for both when the tank site is not in the region you piloted.
If two tanks share a sump room, give each vessel its own device name and its own zero. A single node cannot describe two water lines. Budget a second kit rather than averaging two vessels into one trend.
Level versus leak
| Need | Use | Payload after decode |
|---|---|---|
| How full is the tank? | Submersible level kit | Level, battery, frame counter |
| Is the bund wet? | Rope or spot leak kit | Wet/dry and optional zone |
| Is the fill line moving? | Inline flow kit | Flow, not level |
| Is the header charged? | Pipe pressure kit | Pressure, not level |
Related pages
FAQ
Can a leak rope measure tank level?
No. Rope reports wet or dry along a cable. Tank level needs the submersible level kit and its own decoder.
Where does the radio node go?
Above the high-water line. Only the submersible element enters the liquid. Survey metal lids before you accept coverage.
What should I record at zero and span?
The empty or minimum level and a known fill, in the unit on the datasheet, stored next to the device EUI.
Which decoder page do I send to the integrator?
The PS-240 decoder page. Byte offsets in the shipped file win if they differ from the public example.