The IDS Water Level Station and the IDS Smart Tide Gauge are complete turnkey systems that can be configured for fixed installation for long term deployment and is also available as a Portable Gauge is for short-term deployment.

Our gauges include a reliable, low maintenance pressure transducer (manufactured for IDS by Tyco Environmental) for measuring gauge or absolute pressure.  The Data acquisition and telemetry component is the  IDS Data POD and the while the system can be configured to run for up to one year on a single battery charge, there is an option for  solar charging where sampling frequency and telemetry is more intense. IDS is also happy to supply rugged gauge boards with any of our systems.    The Tide Gauge also incorporates an integrated barometric pressure sensor (by Honeywell) and optional integrated GPS for accurte time stamping.  One of the the functions that make IDS gauges smart is adaptive sampling where systems can be configured to automatically change sampling and reporting behaviour based on local conditions (e.g. increase reporting during a flood) and also the integrated alarm system. Our gauges are available for different water level ranges  with standard ranges incl 2.5m, 5, 10, 20,75 and 100m with others available on request. The accuracy is 0.1% of full scale (0.05% of FS as option) and the IDS solution has very good long term stability (0.2% per year).

A key advantage of this sensor over alternatives is that we use a 12.5mm ceramic sensor head which is bigger than most alternatives and means that  the IDS solution is much less suspectable to fouling than other systems and require less maintenance. It is available in an aecetal enclosure and does not corrode.

The IDS Portable Water Level Gauge is technically similar to the fixed station except instead of the IDS permanent mounting it is supplied with a small transducer frame that is usually temporariy secured on or near the river or seabed.

The graph below is an example of data from one of our client stations on a large lake (Lough Ree) the River Shannon System - This is LIVE data where readings are taken every 15 minutes but only updated on the web every 4 hours (i.e. running in ultra-low power mode).  On this example graph you are shown the last 20 days of data. You can page back through the last 120 days of data using the buttons under the graph or can specify specific dates to view. If you select less than 3 days of data additional detail is shown. To view Data from this station in table format please click here

Like most IDS systems data is transmitted from an IDS Tide Gauge or Water Level station in real-time and can be visible on the web or on your mobile phone within seconds of being collected.  Data is delivered in a manner that is not only timely and accurate but is displayed so that it is easily understood and absorbed.

With advanced features such as adaptive sampling and adaptive telemetry an IDS systems can do much more than the routine display of data and a station owner can configure their system so that not only will it change its sampling behaviour in response to user-specified conditions being met but it can also change its telemetry behaviour. For example in an area prone to flooding, it is easy to configure an IDS system so that it  as the water level rises close to flood levels, it will automatically change its operation so that it samples and transmits data more frequently. If necessary it can be configured so that it will also transmit alerts to multiple users by email and/or SMS.