Capacitive fuel senders, and problems with them

[rocketman1988]

For those of you building new tanks, tha capacitive senders are nice because the fuel gauge works from the very top to the very bottom. the traditional senders dont start reading until 3 gallons down.
But if one puts a conventional sensor in the tip of the tank, along with in the bottom, then the EFIS can be calibrated to give accurate readings from the very top to the very bottom.

Actually, that is true ONLY if the capacitive sensors run from the bottom to the top; if they are bent to go from the wing root bottom skin to the wing root top skin, the sensor will only read the bottom 40-60% of the tank and show full above. The other way to be able to measure from full to empty is to use two sensors, like the Cies brand, in each wing.

 

[RV7A Flyer]

Actually, that is true ONLY if the capacitive sensors run from the bottom to the top; if they are bent to go from the wing root bottom skin to the wing root top skin, the sensor will only read the bottom 40-60% of the tank and show full above. The other way to be able to measure from full to empty is to use two sensors, like the Cies brand, in each wing.

What are you talking about, "bent"? They're two identical flat plates:

 

[chaskuss]

Best kit or plans for capacitor fuel sender system?

Hi VAF,

I want to install cap fuel senders in my RV-7 SB kit however I've discovered that Vans doesn't sell them any more. I've looked at the Princestons from Air Spruce but I'm not sold on them.

Does anyone know of any Vans-like kits supplied elsewhere or have some plans I can get a copy of?

Cheers,
Gav

Replying to this old post. Don't use Vans capacitance sender kit. He didn't design the kit, and did not follow the engineer's recommendations regarding materials to be used. You can easily make your own and save money to boot! If interested, send me a PM for more info. I have drawings and even CAD drawings for this stuff, as well as who and how these senders were originally created. I posted about this several times over the years. See

Vans Capacitive senders

Guys.... I've decided to go with the Dynon FliteDek (I think this is the final panel configuration... :) ...) ... so I can now use capacitive senders instead of the mechanical ones that can't read the upper 25% or so of the tank. I can't seem to find the kit on Vans web site... so... A. Can...

vansairforce.net

 

[rocketman1988]

What are you talking about, "bent"? They're two identical flat plates:

View attachment 65306
View attachment 65307

Those aren’t the ONLY capacitance senders available. Princeton made one that was bent in a U shape, and another was run diagonally from bottom to top. That’s what I am talking about.

 

[bakercdb]

Doesn’t sound like anyone had a similar experience to mine. I’m leaning towards “off” gas- maybe it’s heavy on ethanol, etc.
Strange. I’ve had this system for 15ys and have used fuel from a dozen states. Next time I’ll avoid the Quickverse and use a national brand.