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Van's gauges

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PeterHunt1(at)aol.com
Guest

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:51 am Post subject: Van's gauges

In 420 house over three plus years a number of Van's gauges have failed (fuel quantity, volts, amps, oil pressure).  Now I must install the third volt meter.  I like the look of Van's gauges and the fact that they match, but don't like the failure rate.  What have your experiences been?

  

 Pete in Clearwater

 RV-6 - Reserve Grand Champion, S 'n F 2006 and other awards

 

  [quote][b]

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peter(at)sportingaero.com
Guest

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 2:18 pm Post subject: Van's gauges

Similar, my pressure and temperature gauges failed at around 400 hours. So all of the Van’s gauges, save for fuel gauges, were pull out and replaced with a GRT EIS 4000. Now approaching 700 hours I’m going to replace the fuel gauges with a dual UMA 2 ¼.  

   

Peter  

   

--

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jdubner(at)yahoo.com
Guest

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 4:23 pm Post subject: Van's gauges

Similar to your and Peter Penquilly's poor experiences, my oil pressure 

gauge (the only Van's gauge in my Long-EZ) can charitably be described 

as "flaky".  The basic gauge itself is not reliable as proven on a bench 

test with a fixed resistance to replace the sender.



--

Joe

Independence, OR

Aircraft Position:  http://www.mail2600.com/position

PeterHunt1(at)aol.com wrote:

 	  Quote: 	
		   In 420 house over three plus years a number of Van's gauges have failed 

 (fuel quantity, volts, amps, oil pressure).  Now I must install the third volt 

 meter.  I like the look of Van's gauges and the fact that they match, but 

 don't like the failure rate.  What have your experiences been?

  

 Pete in Clearwater

 RV-6 - Reserve Grand Champion, S 'n F 2006 and other awards

- The Matronics AeroElectric-List Email Forum -

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nuckolls.bob(at)aeroelect
Guest

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 6:14 pm Post subject: Van's gauges

 	  Quote: 	
		  Voltage display is about 11v most of the time (I have a digital 

voltmeter hooked up to the bus showing a true 13.5 volts)


	


   Under what conditions? With the engine running and the

   alternator supporting all the ship's electrical loads,

   one would expect 14.2 to 14.6 volts on the bus.

        Bob . . .



         ---------------------------------------

        ( . . .  a long habit of not thinking   )

        ( a thing wrong, gives it a superficial )

        ( appearance of being right . . .       )

        (                                       )

        (                  -Thomas Paine 1776-  )

         ---------------------------------------

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harvey4(at)earthlink.net
Guest

Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 4:17 am Post subject: Van's gauges

It's never 14+v. Since it's a pusher, I had assumed there's a voltage 

drop between the alternator and where I'm sampling the voltage behind 

the panel - about 8 feet away.

Sounds like it's something I need to look into. The alternator is new.



Neil

At 10:09 PM 9/14/2009, Robert L. Nuckolls, III wrote:

 	  Quote: 	
		  

<nuckolls.bob(at)aeroelectric.com>

>Voltage display is about 11v most of the time (I have a digital 

>voltmeter hooked up to the bus showing a true 13.5 volts)



   Under what conditions? With the engine running and the

   alternator supporting all the ship's electrical loads,

   one would expect 14.2 to 14.6 volts on the bus.

        Bob . . .



         ---------------------------------------

        ( . . .  a long habit of not thinking   )

        ( a thing wrong, gives it a superficial )

        ( appearance of being right . . .       )

        (                                       )

        (                  -Thomas Paine 1776-  )

         ---------------------------------------

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nuckolls.bob(at)aeroelect
Guest

Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 5:08 am Post subject: Van's gauges

At 07:04 AM 9/16/2009, you wrote:

 	  Quote: 	
		  



It's never 14+v. Since it's a pusher, I had assumed there's a 

voltage drop between the alternator and where I'm sampling the 

voltage behind the panel - about 8 feet away.

Sounds like it's something I need to look into. The alternator is new.


	


    Hmmmm . . . yeah, you might take some readings

    at both the alternator b-lead terminal and the

    battery . . . but 0.7v drop is too much. If

    your measurements confirm that much drop, then

    you need to upsize the b-lead wire.



    For example, a 6AWG wire is .00025 ohms per

    foot. 10 feet will drop only 0.1 volt at

    40Amps. Check the ground path drop between

    crankcase and battery (-) too.

        Bob . . .



         ---------------------------------------

        ( . . .  a long habit of not thinking   )

        ( a thing wrong, gives it a superficial )

        ( appearance of being right . . .       )

        (                                       )

        (                  -Thomas Paine 1776-  )

         ---------------------------------------

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nuckolls.bob(at)aeroelect
Guest

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 12:09 pm Post subject: Van's gauges

At 12:46 PM 9/14/2009, you wrote:

  	  Quote: 	
		  In 420 house over three plus years a number of Van's gauges have failed (fuel quantity, volts, amps, oil pressure).  Now I must install the third volt meter.  I like the look of Van's gauges and the fact that they match, but don't like the failure rate.  What have your experiences been?

  

 Pete in Clearwater

 RV-6 - Reserve Grand Champion, S 'n F 2006 and other awards

  	


   Peter,



   Sorry to hear about this . . . I've got a Van's ammeter

   on the bench which I disassembled to look at. Hand-

   assembled, thru-hole components (not necessarily

   a 'bad' thing, especially in TC aviation!). However,

   the ammeter proved to  be exceptionally vulnerable

   to radio-frequency fields (hand held).



   It's a line-item on my things-to-do list to see what

   sort of filter/shielding would reduce the effects to

   acceptable levels.



   My discovery raises a perplexing question . . .

   How much of the technology and design goals for

   the ammeter are common to the rest of the product

   line? Of course, my question only goes to system

   integration . . . a question which is moot if the

   critters have an unacceptable failure rate.



   Your question is the first I've heard of it. I'd

   be pleased to have updates from the rest of List

   membership.



   P.S. Sorry we didn't get together while attending

   to Dr. Dee at the convention last winter. It was

   an interesting and opportunity-packed event. I don't

   think we got out of the hotel more than a half dozen

   trips to local eateries!



 

        Bob . . .



         ---------------------------------------

        ( . . .  a long habit of not thinking   )

        ( a thing wrong, gives it a superficial )

        ( appearance of being right . . .       )

        (                                       )

        (                  -Thomas Paine 1776-  )

         ---------------------------------------



     [quote][b]

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Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:

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johnd(at)wlcwyo.com
Guest

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 2:45 pm Post subject: Van's gauges

I also used Van’s Gauges.  

I had trouble with the ammeter also. Never did get it to work quite right. It worked OK until you transmitted.  

The oil pressure gauge only worked when the engine oil was cold. After the temperature climbed to normal temps, the pressure would drop to 20 of 30 psi, sometimes to 0.  

The rest of my Vans gauges (fuel quant, fuel pressure, tachometer, volt meter, manifold pressure) worked great after 300 hrs.  

John Danielson  

         

  

From: owner-aeroelectric-list-server(at)matronics.com [mailto:owner-aeroelectric-list-server(at)matronics.com] On Behalf Of Robert L. Nuckolls, III

 Sent: Monday, September 21, 2009 2:08 PM

 To: aeroelectric-list(at)matronics.com

 Subject: Re: AeroElectric-List: Van's gauges  

  

   

At 12:46 PM 9/14/2009, you wrote:

 

   

In 420 house over three plus years a number of Van's gauges have failed (fuel quantity, volts, amps, oil pressure).  Now I must install the third volt meter.  I like the look of Van's gauges and the fact that they match, but don't like the failure rate.  What have your experiences been?

  

 Pete in Clearwater

 RV-6 - Reserve Grand Champion, S 'n F 2006 and other awards      

  



   Peter,

 

   Sorry to hear about this . . . I've got a Van's ammeter

   on the bench which I disassembled to look at. Hand-

   assembled, thru-hole components (not necessarily

   a 'bad' thing, especially in TC aviation!). However,

   the ammeter proved to  be exceptionally vulnerable

   to radio-frequency fields (hand held).

 

   It's a line-item on my things-to-do list to see what

   sort of filter/shielding would reduce the effects to

   acceptable levels.

 

   My discovery raises a perplexing question . . .

   How much of the technology and design goals for

   the ammeter are common to the rest of the product

   line? Of course, my question only goes to system

   integration . . . a question which is moot if the

   critters have an unacceptable failure rate.

 

   Your question is the first I've heard of it. I'd

   be pleased to have updates from the rest of List

   membership.

 

   P.S. Sorry we didn't get together while attending

   to Dr. Dee at the convention last winter. It was

   an interesting and opportunity-packed event. I don't

   think we got out of the hotel more than a half dozen

   trips to local eateries!

 

 

     

       Bob . . .

 

         ---------------------------------------

        ( . . .  a long habit of not thinking   )

        ( a thing wrong, gives it a superficial )

        ( appearance of being right . . .       )

        (                                       )

        (                  -Thomas Paine 1776-  )

         ---------------------------------------   	  Quote: 	
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      [quote][b]

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