Insane Hydraulics

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Wireless Pressure Gauges After Two Years of Service

My DIY wireless pressure gauges are two years old now, I've been using them non stop in my "field-trips", and I think it's time to run some tests and answer the main question about their function that only a certain amount of time could answer:

Can my DIY pressure gauges be trusted?

Allow me to elaborate on the origins of the "doubts":

Firstly - when I built the prototypes, my older "pressure-making solution" (can be seen here) that I used for calibration had the maximum pressure of 400 bar (with a lot of muscle input), so the calibration profile for the 600 bar sensor had to be interpolated. Not ideal. Since I have Pressure Maker II now, I can double-check if the profile is "good".

Secondly - all pressure sensors suffer from degradation, so I was wondering if the Gems Sensors that I used gained any off-set after two years of extensive use.

Thirdly - I used the 12-bit ADC built into the module's microcontroller, a couple of precision resistors, and a simple low pass filter to interface the sensors. This solution is simple and cheap, and it worked surprisingly well in all of my initial tests, so I was wondering if it also stood the "test of time".

As you know - FLUKE multi-meters are expensive not because they are filled with features, but because they have authority - i.e. they have been proven to be trustworthy over time. Tens of years for some models, actually. You can get far cheaper multi-meters with a greater resolution and added functionality, but how can you prove that they will still be good after 15 years of service if their model is only a couple of years old? I guess this can be applied to digital pressure gauges as well.

My solution can't boast that many years of service, of course, but still - two years is like twenty years in DIY gadget years...

I don't have a dead weigh pressure calibration stand (yet - I already have some ideas on how to build one, from industrial scrap, of course), so my pressure reference is the good old and time-proven Parker SCJN-600-01 - a pressure gauge that is better than its spec sheet says it is. If my pressure gauges are as good as the Parker - I am happy.

I have two transmitters in my toolbox - one uses a Gems Sensors 400 bar 0...10V pressure transmitter, and the other - 0...600 bar 4...20 mA transmitter. This is the test setup:

And these are the results (readings in bar):

Parker SCJN-600-01 GEMS 3100-S0400-S01B-000, 400 bar, 0-10V GEMS 3100-B0600-S01B-000 600bar, 4…20 mA
0 0 -0.2
20.0 20.2 19.8
40.0 40.0 39.8
60.0 60.0 59.6
80.0 79.9 79.4
100.0 99.9 99.6
120.0 120.0 119.7
140.0 140.0 139.1
160.0 160.1 159.2
180.0 180.1 179.5
200.0 200.0 199.4
220.0 219.9 219.5
240.0 240.0 239.8
260.0 259.9 259.6
280.0 279.9 279.5
300.0 299.9 299.4
320.0 320.0 319.3
340.0 339.9 339.5
360.0 359.8 359.5
380.0 379.8 379.4
400.0 399.8 399.4
420.0 419.8 419.1
440.0 --- 439.1
460.0 --- 459.1
480.0 --- 479.4
500.0 --- 499.4
520.0 --- 519.1
540.0 --- 539.1
560.0 --- 559.5
580.0 --- 579.6
600.0 --- 599.6
620.0 --- 619.6

And some pictures:

Conclusions:

Now I know I can trust my gadgets. And I can prove why.