judgetread

After designing the boards, I searched around and found a absolute great deal to have to pcb's made for me, I sent the Gerber files ( files the pcb board making place needs) to a board manufacturer and for a massive $9.90usd including postage have 10 pcb's boards made to the designs.

The only down side with getting these made so cheap, was the wait time. From sending the gerber's in to receiving the boards was just on 4 weeks wait but for $9.90 I cant complain. The boards come etched, silk screened, padded, and solder masked, really trying to do this myself would of been just a nightmare, the boards only meassure 5cm x 2.7cm to start with , then trying to etched the smd pads on the op amp would never of happened, so Im a happy chap.

Now, I admit my first time using SMD's components and well it wasn't that much fun soldering them to the board, using 0805's was bad enough soldering, the stupid op-amp pin pitch was crazy to solder, but in the end I got through it

Sorry about the bad pictures, camera on phone has crapped it and well these components are so friggin small.

With the board together time for a test.

Hooked it up to a DMM and a bread board and after playing around with the trim pot to fine tune out any tolerance in components all seems pretty good.

Hooked up with 3 ohms resistance, give out a 0.2 volts result

Hooked up to 90 ohms resistance puts out 4.21 volts

By adjusting the trim pot, was able to get 7-97 ohms resistors working as well, so a sender with 7-97ohm should work too.

So firstly I'm no electrical engineer or whatever, so if anyone see's any obvious issues, problem or possible explosive results please let me know

OK, so I didn't really look around so I have no idea if there is ant commercial  product out there that would suit this project already, but hey electronics had been a hobby for a fair while when I was young so I thought I have a crack at this myself, keep myself active and out of trouble. So yes it could be a waste of time if something already exists but I find it interesting to play and learn (and fail often)

I'm planning on adding a fuel cell to my xf ghia, getting rid of the standard tank and replacing it with a 60 or so litre fuel cell so it will suit my future plans.

Problem is, most aftermarket fuel cells come with either a 0-90ohm or 7-97ohm resistance fuel sender. The problem is this will not work for the xf fuel gauge as it uses a volt system 0.2 to 4.2 volts to display the fuel level. So the project begins, make a conversion from the resistance type fuel senders for a voltage based display gauge

The goals are:

* Gauge requires input of Volts: [ empty = 0.2 volts, full = 4.2 volts ]
* The sender, sends in ohms. [ empty = 0 ohms, full = 90 ohms ]

* Any power must be from the 12 volt DC system the car current uses, no external power or crap.

I drew up a schematic using a op-amp/comparator setup and a voltage divider. Added in a 5 volt regulator to the schematic from 12 volt to supply the currect volt and current needed for op-amp and resistor ratings.

I also adding in a variable trim pot, so within the same ratio other senders should work as well, such as 7-97ohm sender.

Using altium designer, converted the schematic to a pcb layout, adding in silk screens, overlays etc. Taking into account I didnt have any stuff available to make my own pcbs, the costs to buy all the stuff was not viable and I was planning on using SMD's, I designed to have them made.

Wouldnt be too hard to make something up the same but longer if needed

tbh it changes all the time on what we use. We just ring one or two of our suppliers and grab whatever they suggest for whatever we are doing.

ME, id just spray some sort of self priming rust remover that doesnt need removing then fish oil it, or even just fish oil it. When I did my xf some 89 years ago I just fish oiled inside every panel still not a spot of rust after all this time.

there is a real simple way to spray in there witha cavity hos e attached to a spray gun like, look at the hose in the picture

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BODY-DEADENER-GUN-UNDERBODY-COATING-GUN-AIR-OPERATED-WITH-CAVITY-SPRAY-TUBE-/251560971817?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3a9233ce29

the hose is basicallt blocked at the end, and has afew holes on the sides towards the end where it sprays out in a pattern all the way around. We use them all the time at work, and basically just spam the crap in there till it drips out everywhere

I suppose the water pump runs backs wards to normal Windsors, else id say just stick a stock crank and pump pully on it to get home.

But ud have to change the water pump too

have you checke/replaced thermostat? Usually when that conditions occurs, hot in town/cool at speed its because thermostats been removed (water flowing to fast, and not having time to cool) or not enough air flow from fans.

the el thermo fans will help alot, we'll I used them a few times and really like them.

they barely fit under. but they are 60 series tyres so they are 28" tall

convo's 15 x 8.5 with 5inch BS, running 275x60x15 MT street's.

Actually going to put them up for sale, done 400-500kms in as new condition, never seen water/rain, $1900

2pac over acrylic works fine as long as you give the acrylic time to let all the solvents dry out first,issue is the 2pac clear is a chemical process which doesnt allow the solvent to evporate from the acrylic, then all the shit hits the fan when it can dry out right.. But saying that there is really really no need these days to do that. Base isnt that expensive unless your going grp 3 or some crazy mica/peal stuff in it.

acrylic is more forgiving for the novice and I have nothing against it, but then I used it for 20 years before switching to 2pac 8-9 years ago so im a little bias

septone paint, hmmm never used it and doubt id do it even in your case. When I think of septone i think of underbody black or some crap not finish paint. Try get something a little better even concept or duxon, dupont something. Sure you can get it from feebay or somewhere.