Analog Gauges / Air-core meter

[garfield at pilgrimhouse.com]

On Thu, 28 May 98 02:00:28 -0700, Andrew Ghali <andrewg at netcom.com>
wrote:

>I think the single-coil design is called D'Arsenal (I'm sure I got that
>wrong).

Hee hee, I really appreciated this tickle (after having a grumpy night)
and laughed out loud when I read it. That's a grand slip (reminds me of
my favor, where the guy says "that's above and beyond the call of
dirty". Hee. The movement guy's name was D'Arsenval; my what a diff. one
tiny letter can make, eh?

>It's funny that you bring this up because I have been thinking
>the EXACT same thing.  I wouldn't recommend movements out of dashboards
>because they have no protection - no can, no crystal, nuthin (I have a
>console  out of a '93 Rx7 in front of me and I'm trying to figure out
>what to do with it).  If you get the application notes for the LM1819
>(from the National Semi web site) they reccomend a movement from Faria
>Precision Instruments, the MT-203.  Faria has a minimally useful web site
>(use this as an example of how NOT to set up a corporate web site) at:
>http://www.faria-instrumenst.com.
>A better choice than the LM1819 for a ucontroller-based instruments is
>the Phillips SA5775 Air Core Meter Driver.  This little beauty has a
>serial digital interface and two 10-bit DACs that use a piece-wise linear
>approximation to the quadrature drive required for the meter.  This page
>lists the data sheets, application notes, and an application including
>source-code with an 8051: 
>http://cosmo.tky.hut.fi/~kosonen/prod/philips/philips.html
>
>I'm still waiting on information from Faria, and I haven't tried getting
>the SA5775 yet.
>
><editorial mode on>
>I can't see why AutoMeter, Stewart-Warner, VDO, etc. are still trying to
>sell crappy 90 degree D'Arsenal meters when it's just not that tough to
>make REALLY good 270 - 305 sweep gauges.  It seems that the Japanese tuners
>like HKS, Blitz, and Greddy are the only ones producing full sweep gauges,
>so they charge $200-$300 each!  In AutoMeter's defense, they have introduced
>one 270 sweep meter but it is a low temp coolant gauge - it only goes to
>210F, which is nearly worthless for anything but maybe quarter mile trailer
>queens.
><editorial mode off>
>
>I hope this helps.

Thanks for the Keeper post, full of good stuff. I also was only aware of
the LM1819, so have really appreciated you and the other chap's intel on
the Philips parts.  I also needed just now to look up some other Philips
stuff, so it's a real help on both counts.

Gar