Date:         Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:33:50 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: Truck Fridge / Pilot light indicator
Comments: To: Stephen Cebula <sfcebula@YAHOO.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <868121.58207.qm@web111404.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 09:45 AM 6/29/2010 Tuesday, Stephen Cebula wrote:
>noticed in the Bently Manual that the original pilot sensor switch
>opens and closes a ground

It's actually a good bit trickier than that.  It involves amplifying
and inverting the thermocouple signal which just happens to be the
only voltage in the van that's negative to chassis ground.

>  which makes it tricky since my switch for the fridge is wired to
> the positive.  I'm guessing that a double pole switch might
> work.  Has anyone tried this before?

If you want a 12v pilot light, the easiest way is to use the existing
LED position below the three battery lights, and drill a hole in the
panel to match.  You may need to cut a circuit trace or two, but the
only components needed should be an LED, a resistor and some wires to
a connector.  If you want to do this I can help; but I'll need a good
sharp closeup photo of the back of the board since I neglected to
take one when I had a Westy.  You can see the mounting holes for the
LED on my picture of the front of the board at
http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/ledpanl.jpg .  The bottom-right
LED marked with an X is the one I'm talking about.  If you go up one
level you can see a schematic of the flame detector, if you're interested.

Yours,
David