So my wife and I have a 2008 Mazda3 HB. My wife is 4"11 and she has a hard time seeing the gas gauge because the steering wheel no matter what position it's in is always in the way. The car does have a low fuel light but no dinger that goes off when the light comes on.
Thats the wire or connection I am seeking. The wire that sends the signal or ground to the LED on the gauges that makes the low fuel light turn on.
I plan to program a PIC controller to detect when the light is on and turn on a piezo dinger for about 3 seconds, then turn it on every 15 minutes for 3 seconds until the light fuel light is off. Anyhelp would be great as I have not been able to find that anywhere on the web or schematics.
most low fuel lights circuits are built right into the gauge. theyre responces are a by-product of the resistance that the gauge is receiving.
i bet if you just went out and bought her a gas can she would find a way to pay some attention to the exsisting gauge...hehe
as for your real question ... finiding the gauge wires and adding something that would alert her to a particular ohmage throshhold is what you might need to do. maybe a wheatstone(?) bridge circuit.... i think thats what they do.
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yuk
quiet rural missouri, near KC.
If your system moves you physically and not emotionally, you have wasted your money.
itsyuk wrote:
most low fuel lights circuits are built right into the gauge. theyre responces are a by-product of the resistance that the gauge is receiving.
i bet if you just went out and bought her a gas can she would find a way to pay some attention to the exsisting gauge...hehe
as for your real question ... finiding the gauge wires and adding something that would alert her to a particular ohmage throshhold is what you might need to do. maybe a wheatstone(?) bridge circuit.... i think thats what they do.
Thanks for the input. It's what I was thinking also. It's got to be somehow microcontroller based from the ECU. I could always remove the gauge cluster and solder 2 wires coming from the LED but then I would have to remove the needles and all that and its a real pain in the arse. Still looking into it, hopefully I'll find a solution.
my grandad always said ..."if you take care of the top half, the bottom half will take care of itself."
the hidden meaning in that statemant was, if you buy a full tank of bad gas you are stuck with a full tank of bad gas. but if you always fill before half is gone at least a bad fill will mix with good leftover fuel making the it all still usable.
you could be like my uncle Jay was ... he got home from work everyday and and if my aunt Betty had driven her car that day, he would take it to the station down the block and fill it.
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yuk
quiet rural missouri, near KC.
If your system moves you physically and not emotionally, you have wasted your money.