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Date:         Tue, 29 May 2012 09:06:57 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: the mysterious flash of the coolant light
Comments: To: pickle vanagon <greenvanagon@GMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <CA+n284NhdcnLkcJND=8Q4SxXNY1rSJ+a-jxid4O2Gtvd0AxPZg@mail.g
              mail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 08:09 AM 5/29/2012, pickle vanagon wrote: >tank level sensor can't make the light blink for just a few seconds, even >if the sensor is malfunctioning? I.e., that even on a 1.9, the light would >have to blink for close to 20 seconds before turning off?

I used to know every detail of the level controller internal circuit (the old one, the new ones are single chips). Been a long time though, and my memory has gotten hazy; and I seem to have mislaid the schematic I drew. I *think* that the controller should unlock almost immediately. But you can test it yourself: unplug the sender, wait until it starts blinking, plug it back in and see how long it takes to stop. The total flash time will be the controller lock time plus the internal gauge delay time. The gauge is supposed to blink for three seconds every time it's triggered, but as the internal capacitor deteriorates that time becomes longer and variable.

I'm pretty confident that neither old nor new controller will trigger without a continuous fault condition lasting a few seconds.

The gauge on the other hand will flash if its input power is interrupted even momentarily, as that's its bulb-check function. I've also seen gauges that will flash continuously if their input voltage is even slightly below 9.5 V.

If the panel power is flaky I'd expect to probably see a tach drop just before the flashing started, but it could be very slight (or not happen at all if the power wasn't completely interrupted). The tach doesn't go through the panel voltage regulator, so a momentary problem there would only show on the temp blinker; as the gauges respond too slowly to see something like that.

Yrs, d


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