On Mon, 28 Apr 2003, John Rodgers wrote: > However, I have been investigating a do-it-yourself scheme whereby an > indicator could be built from off the shelf electronics parts from your > local FLES (Friendly local electronics store ...yeah, yeah, yeah!) I'm > not an electronics whiz but it seems a reasonable approach. I have found > stuff on the net whereby such things are done, and LED's are used to > provide digital readouts. I think it would be cool to get a fairly > accurate and rapid readout on temperature to compare to the official > temperature guage. On my '75, I had a home-made digital temp gauge. I used an LM34 "Precision Fahrenheit Temperature Sender", which costs a few bucks. The great thing about this sender is that its output voltage is simply the temperature in degrees F times 0.01V. It's accurate to +/- 0.5 degree. For a readout I used a digital LCD panel voltmeter, with the decimal point wired to be two places to the right of where it normally would be -- this gave a direct readout in degrees F. The sender comes in several formats; I used the version that's in a TO-92 transistor case. This was an aircooled engine, so I glued the sender between the fins at the bottom of the oil sump. It worked pretty well. I'm not sure how you'd adapt this kind of thing to a watercooled engine, but it gives you an idea of what's out there. For quick spot checks, an infrared temperature "gun" is a good option. You can get them for around $60. Hard to use while driving, though. ;)
David Brodbeck, N8SRE '82 Diesel Westfalia '94 Honda Civic Si |
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