Also, just so everyone has it, I am posting my full email string I had with Joel at Centroid. It has part numbers, etc. This is a bit of a report from earlier but there is still confustion over part numbers, who to contact, etc.
Joel at Centroid (rr) <joel7@cfl.rr.com>
Jan 5
to me
David:
Call Mary at
386-423-3574 between 8a-2p EST Mon/THU with the 395088 part number. Tell her its for gasoline you'd like to buy a programmable version of that sender so you'll have Full Detection.
Joel
----- Original Message -----
From: David
To: Joel at Centroid (rr)
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2015 4:12 PM
Subject: Re: Tech Support
Joel,
Thanks for the prompt reply.
To your question above, on my tank approaching empty, you are correct in that I am probably at 2-3 inches in the tank. I knew the capacitance of the E (x) fuels varied but not by that much so your explanation makes great sense especially since I have been expanding my boating range in the past few years and have "contaminated" my tank with various E(x) fuels.
With most of my boating at my local lake, I can easily let my tank fall below half before I refuel. Do you have a new sender that I can purchase? Can you send me proper information for my tank? What I have is essentially unusable in it's current state.
Thanks for your help,
David
On Mon, Jan 5, 2015 at 4:00 PM, Joel at Centroid (rr) <
joel7@cfl.rr.com> wrote:
David:
When you recalibrate, you're getting an E reading already with the sender out of the tank to simulate empty. That implies to me that when you are getting the 5/8 reading, there must be at least 2-3 inches of fuel left on the 12 inch sender. Is that what you mean by the fuel level approaching empty?____________
Gasoline without ethanol (E0) has only half the capacitance of gasoline with 10% ethanol (E10), and the percent ethanol can be anywhere from 0 to 10%. So if you calibrated for Full with E0, than E10 would read 200% (ie pegged) at 100%, 100% at 50%, 20% at 10%, and 0% at 0%. Conversely, if you calibrated for E10, then E0 would read 50% at 100%, 25% at 50%, 5% at 10%, and 0% at 0%. The new programmable senders have a feature called Full Detection which arms itself when the fuel reading is below 1/2 at powerup and then recalibrates the Full when the FD is armed and the sender powers up with fuel on its FD "stinger" in the top couple inches of the sender. A weakness I've found with this for boats is that boat owners often only fill part way, such that the FD doesnt get a chance to do its thing.
I think the reason you've done well in the past is that I've found the percent ethanol in a given area is surprisingly dependable. For example, the percent ethanol every time I've measured it in our Daytona Beach, FL area has been close to 5%. But now that you switch between E<"your area"> and E0, there isnt a way to get a manual cal that will work for both of those.
Joel
----- Original Message -----
From: David
To: help@centroidproducts.com
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2015 8:47 AM
Subject: Tech Support
Good morning. I need tech support and/or information on ordering a new sender.
I have a 2007 Yamaha boat with a Centroid sender, model number 395088, 3 wire sender with a 5 hole mount. Up until recently, this has been by far, the best sender I have ever had on a boat.
It currently will read FULL correctly but will only drop to about 5/8 tank when the tank is actually approaching EMPTY. I have done multiple "calibrations" per your procedure online. Removing the probe to verify EMPTY (no adjustments necessary) and only very slight adjustments needed for proper FULL reading when reinstalled into a full tank.
The problem seemed to appear when switching (and mixing) ethanol and non-ethanol fuel. The problem will not clear up with repeated use of one fuel or another. For most of the life of the boat, I have used ethanol fuel and have never had any issues with this.
Can you help with the current sender? I am also very interested in the new "auto-calibrating" version you now have and would like to consider an upgrade. Please provide information on the upgrade.
On the current sender, the tube length is 11.5" (for the tube) with a 12" total length from the "base plate" to the end of the tube.
Thanks for your help and please let me know if you need further information.
David
