I found your video when researching to do my job... BTW the reason for your false triggering is because you have the float orientation incorrect. For low level triggering the float should fall - you have it set to detect high fluid level, a changeover relay is required to manage the switching but its all too late now that the tank is drilled. Thank you for taking the time to do a video.
Thanks for your input. It does work however, the false triggering is cornering forces moving the water to one side. The sensor could be turned upside down with a suitable inversion to the circuit also but I’m doubtful that it would eliminate false triggers. Soon I’ll do another video using more uptodate expansion tanks with a two wire sensor in built. I found a lot of modern cars use an electronic module in conjunction with the two wires to do the level sensing. (Part 9646902580 - see on. Ebay uk). Just got to work out for myself which wire is which on the sensor as I’m finding it a devil of a job to get a datasheet for it! If you come across it in your job let me know.
I'm going to use a SEN0204 capacitive level sensor to do this on my K-powered Caterham which will save me drilling the expansion tank. In that case the system is quite small and does not need much expansion space in the tank so I fill it much closer to the top to give me a bit more reserve. From the many reports from the Caterham owners club it seems head gasket failures are almost always precipitated by a coolant leak, a thermostat failure or a fan switch failure except for the few caused by owners of fairly tuned K series that give them full beans before being warmed up. In such a noisy car I think light + horn + boxing glove on spring is needed to make sure I don't miss it.
Good luck with your project. A couple of thoughts: it’s easier and cheaper to buy a second hand coolant tank that has the level sense ability. It will also have been tested to work well. The problem with add on level sensing is it can be prone to false alarms when cornering or braking when the water moves a lot.
@@comeinhandynow Many thanks for the reply. I'll have a look at that. I tend to run so that the header is almost full when the engine is hot (partially as, in a Caterham the header is much lower relative to the engine than in the Rover and LR installations) and I'm thinking that if its situated at the front of the header it might trigger if full acceleration is used while the engine is not fully warmed up - not a bad reminder to have as a byproduct. I think your idea of putting a little processor in is quite sensible especially if I'm going to have an over temperature alarm/ fan switch failure alarm etc.
@@comeinhandynow I discovered an interesting snag with the SEN0204 sensor - that it can be fooled into thinking its looking at a full tank by a very thin layer of water between the sensor and the outer wall of the tank so bonding of the sensor to the tank would be critical (and pretty much uncheckable). In the end I decided I couldn't trust it and I'm going down much the same route as you but will fit the switch so it's in the closed position when the level is OK. I'm using an Arduino Nano driving a 128 x 32 OLED display and a piezo sounder to display/alarm the level along with the temperature of the top tank from a 100k thermistor.
@@ColinMill1 Sounds like a fun project. For interest, my latest level sensor uses a tried and tested main manufacturer tank and electronic water sensor. These are very cheap. The advantage is it has already been tested to work under all conditions and has inbuilt filtering to remove false alarms. See this ruclips.net/video/Bgyy-ds7nNw/видео.html
I have fitted a coolant level sensor the same as this to my 1991 Rover Metro and I was hoping that as the expansion tank is quite small it would be ok, but when I have had to move it around the driveway (I can't drive yet) even at low speeds the buzzer goes off. So I was wondering what the easiest way of fitting a timer (or something with the same effect) is, so that it will only go off after 15-20 seconds of low level?
I thought that I would put this on here to possibly help others. In the end I decided to buy one of these. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162957346989?var=162957346989 It is an adjustable timer that was quite easy to wire up once I found a wiring diagram from another ebay listing. It gives a delay of upto 10 seconds which appears to be plenty as it hasn't gone off since.
@@ryanwilliams6526 Thanks for your input. BTW That more current design at ruclips.net/video/Bgyy-ds7nNw/видео.html incorporates a delay circuit inside the module.
ALL cars should have this from new; only evil spirited manufs do not do it....they KNOW that lots of engines will be lost when the car gets aged and a leak develops; I wire it to a light,not a buzzer,and i LIKE the early flashing on turns, lets me MONITOR, precisely, the level by the frequency of the flashes; love it.
I found your video when researching to do my job... BTW the reason for your false triggering is because you have the float orientation incorrect. For low level triggering the float should fall - you have it set to detect high fluid level, a changeover relay is required to manage the switching but its all too late now that the tank is drilled. Thank you for taking the time to do a video.
Thanks for your input. It does work however, the false triggering is cornering forces moving the water to one side. The sensor could be turned upside down with a suitable inversion to the circuit also but I’m doubtful that it would eliminate false triggers.
Soon I’ll do another video using more uptodate expansion tanks with a two wire sensor in built. I found a lot of modern cars use an electronic module in conjunction with the two wires to do the level sensing. (Part 9646902580 - see on. Ebay uk). Just got to work out for myself which wire is which on the sensor as I’m finding it a devil of a job to get a datasheet for it! If you come across it in your job let me know.
I'm going to use a SEN0204 capacitive level sensor to do this on my K-powered Caterham which will save me drilling the expansion tank. In that case the system is quite small and does not need much expansion space in the tank so I fill it much closer to the top to give me a bit more reserve. From the many reports from the Caterham owners club it seems head gasket failures are almost always precipitated by a coolant leak, a thermostat failure or a fan switch failure except for the few caused by owners of fairly tuned K series that give them full beans before being warmed up. In such a noisy car I think light + horn + boxing glove on spring is needed to make sure I don't miss it.
Good luck with your project. A couple of thoughts: it’s easier and cheaper to buy a second hand coolant tank that has the level sense ability. It will also have been tested to work well. The problem with add on level sensing is it can be prone to false alarms when cornering or braking when the water moves a lot.
@@comeinhandynow Many thanks for the reply. I'll have a look at that. I tend to run so that the header is almost full when the engine is hot (partially as, in a Caterham the header is much lower relative to the engine than in the Rover and LR installations) and I'm thinking that if its situated at the front of the header it might trigger if full acceleration is used while the engine is not fully warmed up - not a bad reminder to have as a byproduct. I think your idea of putting a little processor in is quite sensible especially if I'm going to have an over temperature alarm/ fan switch failure alarm etc.
@@ColinMill1 Cheers.
@@comeinhandynow I discovered an interesting snag with the SEN0204 sensor - that it can be fooled into thinking its looking at a full tank by a very thin layer of water between the sensor and the outer wall of the tank so bonding of the sensor to the tank would be critical (and pretty much uncheckable). In the end I decided I couldn't trust it and I'm going down much the same route as you but will fit the switch so it's in the closed position when the level is OK. I'm using an Arduino Nano driving a 128 x 32 OLED display and a piezo sounder to display/alarm the level along with the temperature of the top tank from a 100k thermistor.
@@ColinMill1 Sounds like a fun project. For interest, my latest level sensor uses a tried and tested main manufacturer tank and electronic water sensor. These are very cheap. The advantage is it has already been tested to work under all conditions and has inbuilt filtering to remove false alarms. See this ruclips.net/video/Bgyy-ds7nNw/видео.html
I have fitted a coolant level sensor the same as this to my 1991 Rover Metro and I was hoping that as the expansion tank is quite small it would be ok, but when I have had to move it around the driveway (I can't drive yet) even at low speeds the buzzer goes off. So I was wondering what the easiest way of fitting a timer (or something with the same effect) is, so that it will only go off after 15-20 seconds of low level?
Watch more of the video, I talk about a filtering circuit and also read the video description section with more mention of this issue.
Also there is a more recent coolant level design here for interest: ruclips.net/video/Bgyy-ds7nNw/видео.html
@@comeinhandynow Thanks. I'll watch through the videos.
I thought that I would put this on here to possibly help others.
In the end I decided to buy one of these. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162957346989?var=162957346989
It is an adjustable timer that was quite easy to wire up once I found a wiring diagram from another ebay listing. It gives a delay of upto 10 seconds which appears to be plenty as it hasn't gone off since.
@@ryanwilliams6526 Thanks for your input. BTW That more current design at ruclips.net/video/Bgyy-ds7nNw/видео.html incorporates a delay circuit inside the module.
ALL cars should have this from new; only evil spirited manufs do not do it....they KNOW that lots of engines will be lost when the car gets aged and a leak develops;
I wire it to a light,not a buzzer,and i LIKE the early flashing on turns, lets me MONITOR, precisely, the level by the frequency of the flashes; love it.
Agree. A light is less annoying.
does this come with a sexy female robot voice
There must be some software and cheap hardware out there somewhere to do that. It would be nice!