Reason your resistor goes up in smoke at the end of the scale is that the display of the tank level takes quite a bit of power, the (cheap and rugged) way Ford did this was using a bi-metal to drive the needle and a *heater* to control the position of the needle by bending the bi-metal due to it getting warm. So, if it requires say 1/4 Amp at the minimum resistance of the heater then the resistor may need to be able to dissipate 2 Watts or burn up if it is too light... You should be able to drive the needle by outputting a voltage, probably the easiest is a PWM controlled output, with the duty cycle controlling the position of the needle. No resistors needed. But you are likely to see that the PWM must stay below about 50% duty cycle or it overheats the bi-metal (needle in the corner) so set the start (empty) and end (full) PWM limits accordingly.
Success! Cor van de Water Chief Scientist Proxim Wireless office +1 408 383 7626 Skype: cor_van_de_water XoIP +31 87 784 1130 private: cvandewater.info http://www.proxim.com This email message (including any attachments) contains confidential and proprietary information of Proxim Wireless Corporation. If you received this message in error, please delete it and notify the sender. Any unauthorized use, disclosure, distribution, or copying of any part of this message is prohibited. -----Original Message----- From: EV [mailto:ev-boun...@lists.evdl.org] On Behalf Of ROBERT via EV Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2016 3:21 PM To: Bill Collins; Electric Vehicle Discussion List Subject: Re: [EVDL] Electronics help anyone So. What does it matter? Did the PCM drive the gauge or did the tank sensor? Look at the vehicle wiring diagram. If the sensor came to the PCM, and the PCM output a signal to the gauge then you will never figure out the PCM signal type or level. The PCM is gone. Look at what you have at present .... a gauge and Amp transmitter and determine their signal requirements. Do not guess ... get the spec or you may damage the devices. ________________________________ From: EV <ev-boun...@lists.evdl.org> on behalf of Bill Collins via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2016 11:33 AM To: ev@lists.evdl.org Subject: Re: [EVDL] Electronics help anyone The PCM probably had a resistor to a regulated voltage source, so that the tank sender produced a varying voltage instead of just a resistance. Bill _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org EV -- Electric Vehicle Discussion List - lists.evdl.org ...<http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org> lists.evdl.org The Electric Vehicle Discussion List is a forum for discussing the current state of the art and future direction of electric vehicles (EVs). We define an EV as a ... Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ EVDL EV News Archive - Electric Vehicle Discussion List<http://evdl.org/evln/> evdl.org EVLN - EV News Archive Edited by Bruce {EVangel} Parmenter: EVLN: home | help | archive | news | privacy policy | terms of service Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) [https://s1.yimg.com/dh/ap/default/130909/y_200_a.png]<http://groups.yah oo.com/group/NEDRA> Yahoo! Groups<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA> groups.yahoo.com / -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20161026/76ac c360/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
