After market temp gauge ?

Lance, I am just looking at their web site. Did you buy it all direct from them:

Wazza, yep i received it on Friday, it was the $48 gauge and the $36 thermocouple.

cheers,

Lance

Excellent. How much was postage Lance? .. I am just looking for a suitable probe to use for block/head temp sensor as an alternative to the Engine Watchdog (I already have an EGT Gauge)

Wazza, postage was $19.30 for both, but if you are only ordering the thermocouple it will be alot cheaper, there is a zone rate, when ordering, type in country , postcode etc and your delivery price will come up.

cheers,

Lance

Lance, I've looked up the site you have written about, but can't see if you must use only their products for the extra guages, eg. oil, water etc. Have you asked or found the answers to these questions in your dealings with Auber?

thanks

Troy

I have also just received an egt gauge and probe from Auber Insturments, but I ordered mine off their ebay store $US107.99 delivered. Took about a week.

Chris

Troy, I think the type K, J, etc probes are an industry standard. I am going to look at getting a couple of these ones and try them out with the Auber head unit anyway:

http://www.omega.com/ppt/pptsc.asp?ref=WT&Nav=tema03

Scroll down to the bottom and using the part number builder I will get a K-8-60-blank-blank. Clkick on get price and comes to $12 each. I will order 2 of them, one as spare, or maybe try and rig one up to the gearbox, one to motor.

I am not sure if you can run a number of sensors on the one unit, I think it may be just the one sensor, but it can handle many different types of sensors and you just set it up once for a particular sensor. Clear as mud?

Wazza, I can't see why you couldn't have several sensors going through a rotary switch or similar to switch between sensors. As long as they are all of the same type it shouldnt be a problem.
Chris

Hey Chris, I was thinking the same. You would want to make sure there is no voltage drop over your switch i guess?

Wazza, you should not get any drop across the switch but you would have to make sure the switch was as close as possible to the gauge as the probe leads are a set length and should not be varied, thats how I understand it anyway.

Guys, I just got the following reply to a couple of questions from Auber. :

First, you need to understant the difference between resolution and accuracy. Accuracy of 0.5 C over 100 C range can be quiet expensive. Here is the options for sensor
1) K type thermocouple sensor. Resolution, 1 C, accuracy, 2-3C. It is cheap for short calbe. Less than $15 for 2 meter cable. But longer cable become expensive. It needs special cable.
2) Pt100 RTD sensor. Resolution, 0.1C. Accuracy <1C without calibration. <0.3C with calibration. Minimum price about $15-20. It is easy to get a longer cable (it use regular copper wire, three conductor).
3) Thermistor sensor. Resolution, 0.1C, Accuracy 1-2C. It can be made very accurate. But right now, our meter can only read one type for 50C to 150C only. It can be very cheap or very expensive depending on the qty. The reliability is not as good as 1) and 2).

I think option 2 is more close to your requirement. Do you know what type sensor is used on the meter of that link?

You can use a switch to select different sensors. However, that will introduce some error. The thermocouple is most tricky for that. For the RTD, you need to have a switch with good conductivity and being able to switch three wire at a time. It is doable.

G'day all,

After speaking with Auber an number of times about there gauges etc, they told me that the gauges are set up for a number of different pressures, gauges only, other bits and pieces, vaccum hose etc, you will have to buy elsewhere. The gauge has minimun warning and maximun warning light/buzzer.

You can use one gauge for all.
However, you can only read one at a time.
It will take you at least 2 minutes to reset all the settings for a different sensor.

That reply above was from Auber in the last couple of minutes.

cheers

Lance

Hi All,

A bit of information on using multiple thermocouple sensors with one digital temperature gauge:

. A type-K thermocouple can give adequate accuracy for coolant/engine block temperatures around 100 C. The specified accuracy for industial Class II type-K thermocouples complying with international standard ITS-90 is +/- 2.2 C or 0.75%, whichever is greater (pretty much what Auber have said).

However, most T/Cs are much better than this and it is usually possible with digital gauges to 'trim' the reading, to calibrate it to a particular thermocouple. That is, put the thermocouple into vigorously boiling clean water (~100 C at sea level) and trim the gauge to read exactly 100 C. This should give you a long-term accuracy of about +/- 0.5 C in this temp range.

. You can display multiple type-K inputs (say, EGT and coolant) on one display unit if it's done properly. Terminate the ends of each thermcouple onto a small terminal strip AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE to the input terminals of the digital gauge - preferrably touching the case of the gauge. This is necessary, as the gauge will have a "cold junction compensation" sensor very near its input terminals. As long as all the thermocouple wires are terminated very close to (and hopefully at the same temperature as) this CJC sensor, no measurement errors will be introduced.

From this terminal strip you can then run ordinary light-duty copper wires to and from you selector switch elsewhere on the dashboard.

. You may find the digital gauge has a lot of inherent damping and it takes quite a long time for the reading to 'ramp' from, say, EGT at ~500 C down to coolant at ~95 C when you switch inputs. If so, you may have to wire the 12V supply for the gauge via your selector switch so that the power supply is momentarily interrupted when switching inputs. This way the gauge will re-start and immediately display the new input.

Email me if you'd like more details.

PS: I can't buy Australian-made thermocouples, even in bulk, at anywhere near the Auber sell price. Hope they don't last very long (only kidding...)

Ditto
I fitted mine last week + it has an additional oil light warning also. Easy to fit and gives an audible warning. All of this for $149 for the full kit. Also a nice guy to deal with.

Engine Watchdog