fuel gauge

[scott]

are any of you guys keeping track of how many potato head moves i make while working on my rove? well here's another one.

being cheap and inpatient and forgetful (i'm always ordering parts and forgetting one or two) i decided to make my own voltage stabilizer. it came out pretty good but...

i tied a knot in a green wire, stripped and cut it to so i've about 1/2" past the knot. did this to a black wire too. took a light green and tied two knots in it and stripped the insulation between the knots. then i solder a 300 ohm resister with a power rating 500 mW, soldered the other end to the light greens between the knots. are you asking yourself why knots?

next i soldered a 12 v zeter diode 1100 mW rating to the black and between the resister and the light greens. these unlike the resister are directional so i had to go find some reading glasses to see the marking on the tiny bugger. still wondering about the knots?

then i heat up a bbq scewr on the stove and melt 2 little holes in the bottom of a film canister and 2 more in the lid. now the knots reveal thier purpose. slide the green and black out the bottom of the film canister and the light green through the lid. snap lid shut. tied 4 more knots sliding 'em as tight to the canister as i can. soldered male quick connects to the greens and and eyelet terminal to the black. removed and replaced one of the male quick connects, cussed a bit, slid the forgotten heat shrink on resoldered the connector. head out to the rove, cuss some more, go back in and replace the male quick connects on the light greens with females, go back out to the truck, i'm really getting pist at me now, go back in and replace the eyelet terminal on the black with a bigger one so it fits grounding bolt.

plug everything in but the gauge, turn on ignition and get a steady 9.56v out of the light greens from a digital voltmeter. crank it over and rev it up and steady as a rock at 9.61v.

feeling pretty good, not counting all my time (with all the freak'n do overs) voltage stabilize less than $1.

i should have never removed the old gauge, i think it may have gotten hosed cause it ain't working. it used to when i was just running 12v to it but now nada, not with 9.61 not with 13+ (when the truck is running and i bypass the stabilizer).

anyone gotta a couple of use gauges they want to sell?

[scott]

that's a zener not zeter diode. spell'n ain't my strong suit

[Nium]

Yeah, I was wondering about the knots.:sly:

Sorry no gauges. But you are crafty. I'm in the process of gettin meself edumacated in dem dar electronics stuff so I figure when I have then Electronics Tech AAS degree what you did will make more sense, but it was a good read anyway.

Thanks for the grins.

[superstator]

I'm having a hard time picturing your circuit, but is it possible you accidentally built a step-up transformer when you had more amperage going through it? Only way I can imagine you would have smoked the guage...

[scott]

i don't think so. the output should be 9.6v at about 1 amp. the little brown glob is the resister the pink the diode

[scott]

another correction. i used a 10v 1w zener diode and not a 12v 1.1w.

[SafeAirOne]

I know it's not really relavent now, but using an NTE1953 (http://www.nteinc.com/specs/1900to1999/pdf/nte1953.pdf) low dropout voltage regulator will give you a solid 10v and all you need to do is solder and heat-shrink 2 wires to it (12v in & output to gauges) then screw it to the bulkhead for the gouund.

Probably can't do it for $1 though. This solid-state regulator cost me about twice that.

[LaneRover]

Nice usage of a film canister!

They also work as 'Redneck Speedloaders' if you have a 5 shot .38.

Brent

[NickDawson]

I'm just tipping my hat - I've made my own USB, and eSATA cables, wired cat5 juctions out of romex (don't ask) and once tried to make an electromagnet with an I-bolt, coat hanger and spare lamp socket (nearly died, I was 5)...but never tried to make a stabalizer. Nicely done!

[scott]

I know it's not really relavent now, but using an NTE1953 (http://www.nteinc.com/specs/1900to1999/pdf/nte1953.pdf) low dropout voltage regulator will give you a solid 10v and all you need to do is solder and heat-shrink 2 wires to it (12v in & output to gauges) then screw it to the bulkhead for the gouund.

Probably can't do it for $1 though. This solid-state regulator cost me about twice that.


dude, i was feeling bad that i hosed my gauge, then i was feeling better cuz i came up with a better/cheaper v stabilzer and now i feel like crap cuz my mcgrubering isn't half as good as yours. dang for $2 i could have chipped my rove.

[swanny681]

Where can these voltage drop regulators be found?

Swanny

[SafeAirOne]

dude, i was feeling bad that i hosed my gauge, then i was feeling better cuz i came up with a better/cheaper v stabilzer and now i feel like crap cuz my mcgrubering isn't half as good as yours. dang for $2 i could have chipped my rove.


No, No...I think a TRULY homemade stabilizer is great! :thumb-up:. I'm just cheap AND lazy, so the NTE 1953 fits BOTH my criteria for low cost and very little work on my part. BTW, before you toss the gauge, you might check to make sure that the path to ground on the gauge & instrument panel is good--They can be a bit of a pain sometimes if they don't have good contact (at least in my SIII).




Where can these voltage drop regulators be found?


I got the regulator at my local electronics surplus store, but it is available on the world wide interweb too. Just google NTE 1953 (NTE electronics Inc. is the manufacturer). I read somewhere that it has to be a "low dropout" variety of regulator, whatever that is, so the NTE 1953 fits the bill perfectly.

These solid-state regulators are also available as "british car instrument voltage regulators" on the internet and use the same regulator. The only difference is that they are already built and cost a LOT more and use model-specific wiring colors and connectors.

[SafeAirOne]

Scott is still looking for a fuel gauge if anyone has one.

Here (http://www.britishv8.org/Articles/MGB-Voltage-Stabilizer.htm) is the link to how to use the NTE 1953 as an instrument voltage stabilizer.

And, just to clarify my previous post, the fuel gauge is, of course, grounded through the fuel sender, so I'd probably check to see if you are getting 10v INTO the gauge and 10v OUT of the fuel gauge TO the sender before I write it off.

[scott]

[QUOTE=... the fuel gauge is, of course, grounded through the fuel sender, so I'd probably check to see if you are getting 10v INTO the gauge and 10v OUT of the fuel gauge TO the sender before I write it off.[/QUOTE]

i grounded the gauge directly which should have given me a Full reading but the needle just jerked a bit and then stayed on Empty. i've got a new harness. i'm thinking i tweeked the needle a bit when pullng it out, maybe even tore something apart inside there