REFLECTOR: fuel sight gauge

[Joe Ewen]

I too ordered mine from velocity.  The instructions I received were 4 pages.  Except from page 3
"For lighted fuel gauges................. The LED can go on the top or bottom.  Because of limited aircraft room I have bent the LED wires 90 degrees so they will tuck in along the bottom or top, of the gauge.  There is a diode and resistor in there so please don't bend them different than they are or I will feed you to the sharks!"

As said mine is hooked to the 12V dimmed lighting bus (diodes tested to 15V)  and mine work fine at that voltage so the resistor was installed.

If yours started to light at 4.5V: a. the polarity is correct, b. a dropping resistor must be installed.  Most diodes would be toast with 4.5 v applied.  Most colored LEDs are rated for about 2v forward voltage, whites tend to require a bit higher but usually no more than 3 v.  If yours is just starting to light at 4.5V, the dropping resistor must be installed.  

Hope this helps,
Joe


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Grigore Rosu 
  To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list 
  Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 6:58 PM
  Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: fuel sight gauge


  I ordered mine from Velocity and they came with a 3-page installation instructions.  Nothing else.

  Despite being rather expensive ($126!), the gauge's instructions were poorly written.

  page 1: says where to install them and gives a way to do it, even though page 3 shows two other possibilities, one for Vari Ez and another for Cozy, which are NOT consistent with what page 1 shows; only the Velocity installation is consistent with it.  Anyway, I liked the Cozy approach and that's what I did.

  page 2: says how to glue the two parts together, showing a "full-size gauge" pattern which is actually significantly smaller than the actual gauge; nothing about the LED.

  page 3: shows three possible installations from the top.

  Mine did not work at 3V at all.  Then I increased it to 4.5 V and the LED started to lit (a bit).  I do not see any resistor on the wires in mine.

  Does anybody know how to contact Vance?

  Thank you,
  Grigore

  On Feb 13, 2008 5:41 PM, Joe Ewen <Jewen at comporium.net> wrote:

    Grigore,

    Recheck the instructions that came with the units. Mine had the required resistor already installed.  Mine is connected to 12V (dimmed) and remember diodes are polarity sensitive, Red=positive and Black=negative.

    Joe
      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: Grigore Rosu 
      To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list 
      Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 6:12 PM
      Subject: REFLECTOR: fuel sight gauge


      Does anybody know how to electrically install the Atkinson sight fuel gauges?  In other words, can one just connect the little LED to 12V?  I tried to connect it to 1.5V, then 3V and did not lit; I'm a bit affraid to expose it directly to 12V.  If resistors are supposed to be serialized with the LED, does anybody know what resistors and where this info can be found?

      Thank you,
      Grigore


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