O2 Volts

[Bruce Plecan]

Now, to me rather than go on,, with further testing while it might settle a
curiousity, it doesn't help with what my goal is.
  If you think about it, there are so many variables that on any one day,
you can ask, where are things?.  ie O2 level, in the atmosphere varies day
to day, along with other "rare" chemicals. that might contaminate the
results.
  In the oem applications they supply a reference voltage which as to effect
the ionization, and performance of the O2 v generating strategy.

  The useful facts as I see them are:
  In cold weather, a none heated O2 sensor can go open loop. due to the O2
sensor being too cold.  A heated O2 develops enough heat so that it can
"properly sense" the needed gases to operate.
  The O2 sensor, as tested responds to HC rather than O2.
  While you might be able to change things, or define other operating modes,
I know that if I mount the sensor far enough away from the engine that being
heated is neseccary, then I know what gases matter, and thus what the sensor
is seeing.
Grumpy

> Varying the amounts of HC, CO,
> >CO2, and NOx don't affect the sensor. Only O2 quantity in relation to
> >the sensor's reference changes voltage.  TPS senses TP whether output
> >voltage increases or decreases with increased throttle angle.  Why do
> >you think an "inverted" output from the O2 sensor makes it a Not O2
> >sensor?
>     A TPS has a supply voltage that can be modulated in either increasing
or
> decreasing fashion with increasing throttle angle, but the O2 sensor has
to
> make its own voltage.  My simple logic led me to the conclusion that the
> compound that is being actually being sensed must be the one that provides
> this positive voltage.
> Then I remembered that the O2 sensor is actually a differential sensor,
like
> you said: it provides voltage based on the differential between the
outside
> reference air and the gases in the exhaust.  So my new hypothesis is that
> the sensor is sensing O2, but it actually produces voltage from the
> reference oxygen; when it is compared to an oxygen-poor environment in an
> exhaust stream, there is a voltage differential across the ion-sensing
> electrodes, and the voltage produced at the reference side goes up the
> signal wire.  When the O2 is even on both sides, no voltage is produced.
>     Of course, this would only apply to the zirconium type O2 sensors, the
> titanium dioxide ones do actually use a reference voltage and act as a
> variable resistor.
>     So now what I want to see is someone test a sensor using sealed
chambers
> for both reference and exhaust sides, using O2, HCs, an inert gas such as
> argon, and another gas containing negative ions (maybe one of the
halogens)
> as a control. :-p
> Soren