Skyview SE- fuel senders

[edclark50]

Any recommendations for either resistive or capacitive fuel senders?
Thanks
Ed

 

[airguy]

Resistive are easier and faster to install and pretty much bulletproof. Capacitive are more accurate but can be "finicky" to set up correctly.

 

[Raymo]

Also, as Airguy knows, if you want to use different fuels (100LL and MOGAS), you need the float/resistive type. The capacitive type have to be re-calibrated for different fuels.

I have capacitive and still working to get the calibration right, which is partly my fault. The calibration process leads you to believe the values are not changing enough; ignore the "too little change" warnings and keep pouring and punching buttons until full.

 

[edclark50]

Ray, Which sender are you using?

 

[Raymo]

Ray, Which sender are you using?

Capacitive plates with Dynon sending units. Some have used another vendors sending units that apparently show more difference between pours. I think mine will be fine once I recalibrate.

 

[BMW_X6M]

I seriously don't understand why anyone would not use the resistive float sensors. They are as accurate as you need to be, and easy to set up. With the Red Cube you are getting the quantity of fuel used, the tank sensors are just to give you an idea of how much is in each tank. Once the Red Cube is calibrated to your particular fuel flow, it is accurate from fill up to the next fill up as to how much you have used. I for one do not feel comfortable flying with a small quantity left, and have never ran a tank dry, but know that is a possibility if necessary, when maximum range is required. The float type resistive sensors work very well.

 

[BobD]

Once the Red Cube is calibrated to your particular fuel flow, it is accurate from fill up to the next fill up as to how much you have used

I would agree with the above. The sender I have in my Europa is useless at measuring how much fuel I have in the tank, but I have found the "fuel remaining" to be very accurate after calibrating the Red Cube. I made a small spreadsheet to fine tune the calibration over several flights, and have left the setting to show slightly more usage than actual to be on the safe side (see attached).

You can read about the trials and tribulations of the original attempt to get the sender to read correctly here.

http://dynonavionics.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1513513801/13#13

 

[Raymo]

I seriously don't understand why anyone would not use the resistive float sensors.

A: I didn't build my tanks and don't plan to run anything but 100LL

Float senders work great, depending on the application. In an RV with dihedral wings, the float senders will read full until down to about 15 gallons (from 21 in my plane). The capacitive type read quite accurately from full to empty, once properly calibrated.

That said, Vans no longer sells the capacitive type sensors, which must be installed during tank build, so most are now using float type. A few others have pulled their tanks and added the float type so running multiple types of fuel isn't an issue.

 

[mmarien]

I installed a capacitive sender in the main tank of my Glasair II. The float sender wouldn't read the bottom 40 litres. 40 litres is about 1.5 hours flying time. That is a long time to be flying not knowing how much fuel is remaining.

The capacitive sender reads down to zero litres I expect. I once landed showing six litres in the main tank and was able to drain five. I'm good with that.