what do I need to know replacing fuel gauge

[Yooper78]

Are gas gauges fairly universal in compatibility with gas tank senders? I'm going to be replacing some weatherd and hard to read gauges, one of which being the gas gauge. But I hope to not have to lift the cockpit sole to get to the sending unit.

[gonzo]

There are two different types. If you can see the brand name on the gauge it should be easy. The difference is on the resistance of the sending unit

[Yooper78]

Thanks gonzo!

I want to replace with a Faria.

I don't see a marking on the existing but it has a light blue "can" and I think it's a teleflex.

Is a teleflex sender compatible with a faria fuel gauge?

[Tim B]

As I understand it, there is basically variable voltage and variable resistance types. That is to say, one type is a potentiometer (with 3 wires (+, -, signal), and the other is a variable resistor. However, within these categories, there are a few variations.

I will (week after next) be working with TekTanks in the UK who have kindly agreed to help add support for tank senders in OpenPilot. It should not take too long to develop hardware that will handle any form of analogue gauge.

Yooper, let me know if you want to investigate OpenPilot further, and I'll do my best to make sure that you have a fully working system that fits your needs.

Cheers,

Tim B.

[Yooper78]

Thanks Tim.

The Faria manual doesn't give much detail: says that I specify either American or European Resistance (but not what either is, but implying I suppose that all gauges in the US will be compatible with all senders as "American" resistance? which would make things really easy and be great) and Floating or Standard Ground but that a Floating ground sender may be used in a standard ground system but not vice versa. < http://www.faria-instruments.com/site_manuals/IS0008e.pdf > But that's it.

I had not considered replacing all my analog gauges with a computer - mine is an open boat where the helm could get wet. I don't know where I would begin with solid state sealed screen/cpu and I think this would be too costly. Also I am not sure about visibility of a screen or power use which I think would make this less advantegous on a small boat (although very cool - the other boaters would all come and look at the dock if I could replace everything with a flush mount sealed dailight visible flatscreen behind the wheel.)

[pistnbroke]

There are two sorts bi metal and crossed coil ...the bi metal has a voltage stabiliser usually in a seperate unit .

To tell measure the resistance from sender wire to earth ,,

If its low resistance with the tank full and high with it empty then its a bimetal type

If its high res when full and low when empty its a crossed coil type sometimes called air cored ..no voltage stabiliser is uses with this type..

I use a dipstick ....

[gonzo]

The standard resistance is 240 empty and 33 full. You could test it by filling the tank and measuring the resistance at the pink wire to ground.

[Tim B]

Yooper,

The price of embedded machines with small touch-screens is dropping (you can get them for about £100) Though I don't know how daylight-visible they are. Might be worth it if you ever wish to add GPS or battery voltage monitoring etc.

Cheers,

Tim B.