whos interested if i make these?

[Long way 'round]

I'd have one aswell.

[Woodzie]

The standard guages are c rap ........jotto fitted a set of after market guages and they read totally different to the factory fitted ones


I would thing that is the way to go for peice of mind

[Apache]

ok, what ill do is knock up one that the light comes on full blast when the temp goes 3/4 way.
components were looking at is, some wire, a LED, a few resistors, a capacitor and some clips/splicing clips so it can connect easily...
i havnt added all the bits together, but if just a couple of people want one, im quite sure it will be less than £10 including postage. but i havnt actually made one yet so bear with me.
ill see how far i get tomorrow. then hopefully by end of the day i can go to maplin on the way home and build it tomorrow night

once ive built this i can look into making it flash, but will need a few more components..

You can buy a flashing LED...

I dont think there is a switched O/P from the temp sender? Just thinking a typical LED fwd voltage is around 2.2v (but may be different for ultrabright types so scale your current limiting resister accordingly), so you will need to drop that amount across the LED to get it to light at all.

Are you going to just take a feed from the standard temp sender? If so, you might want to build a comparator so you can set the on point. Otherwise an LED fed from the temp sender will just get progressively brighter (or dimmer - I dont know in what sense they work) as temperature goes up so it wont be obvious when you've hit the 'danger' point. It's easy enough with a handful of resistors and a cheap op-amp such as a 741. The Maplin catalogue used to have diagrams of such things, thought these days they just seem intent on selling gadgets rather than components... I digress...

Anyway, I hope I'm not telling granny how to suck eggs here!

Dont forget to factor in development costs into the final price!

Matt F will be along with suggestions soon too no doubt <edit> Oh yeah, I see 'IT boy' has already responded!

Is he around these days?!

[Apache]

Oh reallyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyy.

Hahaha! OK, so there's two!

Wait til you see the pics of my finished shed!

Model making lathe, and milling head, two large benches, acres of shelving and storage bins, 12 (yes, count em!) sockets, built in PC with home designed 20dB helical antenna to get me a good signal on the house wireless ethernet... insulated with 25mm kingspan for all year round sheddery...

[Apache]

Yeah, you're an I.T. boy, remember?

Vince, soon as the shed is finished, the Knight Rider lights are my first task! (Though you've probably gone off the idea now...)

[Gupster]

You could use a thermo switch like this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ELECTRIC-COOLI...QQcmdZViewItem

Its a bit pricy but ive seen exactly the same ones for £14.99 with adjustable temp cut in (just cant remember where i saw them will have to remember). Then wire to a relay and from then on you can drive whatever lamp, buzzer or anything you want.

Cheers,

[Morr]

As Ian pointed out above, the standard gauge is woefully inaccurate, so using it to drive a warning light may not be the best safeguard.
It has been observed before that by the time the standard gauge gives sufficient indication, overheating may have already occurred.

A better idea is to use an alternative, more accurate and possibly better located temperature sensor, and use this to either replace the current indication, or use it to drive the warning light you are proposing.

[jeff.fn02jwa]

if you get it up

if you get it up and running and it works i will have one

[NiftyNev]

Waste of time hooking something up to the Temp Gauge Sender. Usually the coolant is gone before you realize so it woulldn't work just like the gauge.

I think this system is much better.

http://www.enginesaver.com.au/

Nev

[POPEYE]

Far be it from me (a know nuffink) to suggest owt but my (with matt's help) system works fine, money would be better spent on a decent aftermarket gauge, and re wire the sensor so you have better controll over it, if you want a hight temp buzzer just wire a temp switch say around 120c cut in, that will give ya an audible warning should it shoot up quick,

[Karma Supra]

Deffo a good idea......

But what happened to just looking at the Temp guage???

I feel weird drving without an oil presure guage! I am always scanning them! Maybe it comes from years of driving modified engines that can be.... "fragile"

[dieselboy]

Deffo a good idea......

But what happened to just looking at the Temp guage???

I feel weird drving without an oil presure guage! I am always scanning them! Maybe it comes from years of driving modified engines that can be.... "fragile"

well, these days im finding my self having to have one eye on the temp gauge, whilst one eye on the speedo doing exactly 30mph through mobile speed cameras, the other eye on the oil pressure and because i drive a 2.4 that means i need another eye on the fuel gauge.
so that leaves no eyes left for actually watching the road, or women.

[dieselboy]

i understand that if coolant is lost then the temp gauge wont read correctly at all.
how much of a tollerance to our temp gauges actually have? i didnt think about this... mine always site just below half way.

i wasnt going to power the led off the temp sensor, i was going to get +ve off the battery and use the temp sensor just as a sensor.

where is the ECU temp sensor? is that lower down? might be better to get a reading off that but what i will make will be the same.
im just wanting to make something cheap so that it relaxes my parranoyer. i wouldnt be able to afford a head gasket if it ever went on me, and sometimes i will finish my jeourney and then thing 'cr@p whats the engine temp at' at this point if it had got hot while i was driving i would be fookd.

[Karma Supra]

or women.

I sympathise! Suddenly it all all becomes clear!

At least in a surf you can't scuff the wheels on the curb!

-wrecked alloys AND a slap from the mrs... Bad times

[Apache]

My point is though, you cant just connect an LED to a temp sensor and expect it to light at the correct point just using a v/div network of resistors. there needs to be a comparator so you get a defined switch on point. You will also need to build in some hysterysis so it doesn't oscillate between on and off at the selected point. You want it to come on and stay on when the danger point is reached.

I'd agree with other comments regarding the sensor though. Garbage in = garbage out.

A better idea would be to sense temperature independently, feed that data to a comparator and set the switch on point to something you're comfortable with. This will not be a straightforward task unless you have some lecetronics design experience. An easier solution may just be a better sensor / gauge.