Church

Nice spot, I couldn't miss the opportunity to take a picture.

Red bull F1 racing

On the way back from Santa Pod I stopped at the Offices of the Formula 1 Red Bull Racing Team.



Red Bull F1 Racing Team

Big Bang 2008

Direction Santa Pod for Big Bang 2008.

I am not sure this one will pass the next MOT!!!

Show and shine display.

How a GTI got stuffed by a Van !!!

This is what Santa Pod is all about.

TFT 1.8" Monitor

Direct from Hong Kong, I received this mini TFT screen. It is 1.8" and I might use it soon for something funky.....

Insulation

The camping season is approaching and it's time to insulate the van. Thanks to my mate Andy who gave me a reel of insulating foil. He has done his panel van and was very pleased with it.

All the panels will be done like that.

Putting the foil facing inside gives the best insulation.

The corners were tricky to do.

My mate Andy's panel van.

Laying cable

The fuel gauge will be fitted in the air vent above the windscreen and some cable will be needed to power the gauge. I am also planning to have gauges for the oil pressure and temperature plus a tachometer. I will need a wiring loom to the engine bay.

I have managed to pass the wires through a very small existing hole on the side of the front screen.

They go down just above the shelf

I have estimated the length of the cables at about 5 metres to ensure they will reach the engine bay.

I have soldered all the wires together, to slide them into the sleeving

A bit of washing up liquid was needed to ease the job.

At the front I have drilled a small hole under the cabin

I have put it under the van near the existing one.

All the wires arrived in the engine bay, ready to be connected.

Autometer gauge test

It's time to test if my calculations are correct. I have fixed the autometer gauge in order to have a proper setup and to be able to test everything properly.

The picture shows the gauge position on nearly empty and the LED is on. This indicates that the petrol is going to run out very shortly....... I have the mechanical reserve anyway. The switch allows me to disconnect it as I am not connected to the after contact wire yet.

This view shows the 130 Ohms resistor at the back of the gauge.

The PCB will light the LED when the petrol is nearly empty.

Here we can see everything connected.

I need to empty the tank and then fill up to make sure that the needle goes up to the full position and that the LED switches off.

Matching the gauge to sender.

Today I tried to connect the fuel gauge to the van. Being referenced 73 Ohms empty/8-12 Ohms full, I thought that it would a be straight forward job
But after connecting the gauge to the sender, the needle registered nearly empty while the tank was full.
I thought that it must be possible to fix, so decided to investigate.
This is what I have done....

From last week, I knew that when the petrol tank is empty, the resistance at the sender is 70 Ohms and when the tank is full the resistance is 14 Ohms.
Connecting a resistor between the "S" connector and the ground should give me a variation of the needle.I had to figure out what resistor corresponds to the needle on position empty, and what resistor corresponded on position full.
After a few attempts I found out that with a resistor of 45.7 Ohms the needle goes on empty and with a resistor of 10 Ohms the needle goes on full.
I needed to find the relation between the tank empty and the needle on "Empty" and then the tank full with the needle on position "Full"
If I put a resistor in parallel with the resistance of the tank I will reduce the overalL resistance and I might match the gauge to the sender.
The calculation gave me a resistor of 130 Ohms. I will then have 45.5 Ohms for the empty position and 12.6 Ohms for the full position.
We can notice that 45.5 Ohms is very close to 45.7 Ohms so the needle will be exactly on the mark. While 12.6 Ohms is 1.4 Ohms away from 14 Ohms so the needle will be a bit below the full mark.

Click to zoom

The schematic above shows a little diagram which will light an LED to show that the tank is nearly empty.

Simulation of half a tank of fuel with resistor.

Gauge on empty position with resistor.

Autometer fuel gauge Ultralite

Today I received this parcel

That's a cool gauge...

Hope this is gonna work with the original sender...