Design And Construction Of An Automatic Car Fuel Gauge Level With LCD Display Using Microcontroller

1.0 INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Today, though everything is going digital, most of the fuel meters in vehicles today are analog-based [1] and the few ones which are digitally based, only display the amount of fuel in percentage values or in bars. The most common fuel indicator system makes use of the type known as resistive float. In this type fuel indicator, measurement of the fuel level in the tank is leveraged on sensors. And it comprises two modules: the sensing module which measures the level of fuel in the tank and the gauge which displays to the driver, the measured fuel level with a deflecting needle oscillating between empty (E) and full (F) [2]. This fuel meter is not that accurate and it provides insufficient knowledge on the amount of fuel present in the tank. This creates a problem of determining the actual fuel available when refilling the fuel tank as well detecting any form of discrepancy in fuel purchased [3].

The concept of this paper is to produce an advanced fuel measuring system which indicates the exact quantity of fuel available in litres. With increase in the variety of sensor usage [4, 5], this paper explores the ability of an ultrasonic sensor to determine the actual amount of fuel in car tank and also calculate how much distance that can be covered with corresponding amount of fuel in the tank. These values, with the help of a micro-controller, are displayed on the LCD screen.

Ultrasonic sensor helps to determine how far (i.e. distance) is the surface of the liquid (i.e. fuel) to the top of fuel tank when measuring the quantity of fuel in the tank. These sensors principle of operation depends on echoes from radio or sound waves which is usually analog [6]. Besides that, it is also called a transceiver. This means the sensor can transmit and receive signals [7]. Ultrasonic sensors work at high frequency to calculate distance travelled by the signal send and echo received by the sensor. These sensors are also capable of evaluating the time interval between the sent signal and the received echo to calculate the actual distance to an obstacle (surface of the fuel in this case) [8].

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
Presently most of the motor vehicles display the amount of fuel in the fuel tank with the help of some or the other kind of indication showing the E (empty), H (half) and F(full) indicators. The manufacturer provides the specification that E, H and F bar maps corresponding to the litres of fuel approximately. In daily life we might have experienced the problem of improper measurements of the fuel level in the tank with the existing system. The existing system do not show the exact amount of fuel present in the tank. So this problem is taken into consideration in this work for developing the digital fuel indicator system which shows exact amount of fuel in a car tank digitally.

1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main of this work is to build an automatic car fuel gauge level with LCD display using arduino microcontroller. The objectives are:

1. To build the system prototype
2. To overcome the problem of the existed fuel gauge
3. To know that exact quantity of fuel in the car tank

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of this work covers building a fuel level monitoring system that can be mounted in the fuel tank of a vehicle. It can be mounted in any tank and the fuel going inside the tank is monitored with the help of an ultrasonic range finder this is triggered from the ATMEGA328 microcontroller. The ultrasonic range finder can sense any type of liquid such as water, gasoline, diesel, kerosene, etc. The ultrasonic range finder used in this project can measure distances from 2cm to 400cm with an accuracy of 3mm. Hence, it displays accurate volume of fuel. A 20*4 LCD display is interfaced with the ATMEGA 328 micro controller. Therefore, it displays the volume of fuel digitally.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

• The study will be of great benefit to every motorist by ensuring that the exact amount of fuel is in the car tank. Digital fuel indicator helps to measure a quantity of fuel remaining in fuel tank.
• It will help the user to have knowledge of petrol bunk better than the analog
• This device will also help to calculate the how fuel remain in tank as well as calculate how much kilometer can travel depend vehicle

To the student involved, this project will help him to understand how ultrasonic sensor is interfaced with arduino microcontroller.