Fuel flow meter

M

mil1194

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Gower / West Wales / Black Sea
www.myitmatters.com
Hi all, I am looking for a way to put something in my fuel lines so that I can keep a beady eye on fuel comsumption. This is basically straight forward enough but I want to plug this into a laptop/PC of sort so than I know how much they are using, and I can create a sort of instant consumption/average consumption/ and range like you'd find on a car. Any thoughts?
 
Thats the sort of thing but I ideally wanted to be able to be able to plug it into a PC/Laptop so that I could monitor it against instant economy (OR NOT!) and also average over a day/week etc and also it would tell me what range there is left in tanks.
 
navman did a diesel one.

gave accurate rpm, litres or gallons per hour and with a gps input MPG.

It as a PITA to fit but I thought it would be worth it but it isn't because it is hopelessly unreliable. No wonder they stopped making it.
 
Navman is still available now called Northstar, I just bought one from jgtech.com in the UK, does all the functions you want and I use it with the trip function on my chartplotter to see what my mpg is.
 
jgtech.com in Weymouth have a range of diesel and petrol with the functions you are looking for I think, type 'fuel flow' in the search box and you will see them all.
 
Elessar said:
It as a PITA to fit but I thought it would be worth it but it isn't because it is hopelessly unreliable. No wonder they stopped making it.
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The complete opposite to my experience with one on my petrol engined boat; it has proven to be extremely reliable, accurate, was so "out of the box" but even more so when calibrated. I use it with my Navman 5600 chartplotter.

Graham
 
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GrahamHR said:
The complete opposite to my experience with one on my petrol engined boat; it has proven to be extremely reliable, accurate, was so "out of the box" but even more so when calibrated. I use it with my Navman 5600 chartplotter.

Graham
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they still make the petrol as far as I know and I made no comment about the petrol unit.

Petrol is easy - just measure the fuel going into the engine.

With diesel you need 2 sensors per engine, to measure flow and return.
The maths bit should be easy for modern electronics, the sensors should be easier than petrol as the fuel is a natural lubricant. But they block regularly and leak. Yes they are after the fuel filter. Primary only, admittedly, but the return sensor blocks too which is after all filtration.

The flowscan one looks high quality, is expensive, and does flow only not MPG.
 
spannerman said:
Navman is still available now called Northstar, I just bought one from jgtech.com in the UK, does all the functions you want and I use it with the trip function on my chartplotter to see what my mpg is.
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These have still been discontinued, although JG tech do still have odds and ends listed on there website and as of a few weeks ago are known to have some old stock.
 
Northstar's website (northstarnav.com) still show the petrol units to be current; maybe the UK/ Europe inporters have stopped importing them. Lowrance also make units for petrol only (LMF-200 or 400 display, EP60-R transducer) and Floscan also list a number of units suitable for use with petrol or diesel, some of which indicate litres or gallons /nautical mile when connected to a GPS.


Graham
 
Silly thought, but by the time you have bought it, accounted for the time/ cost to fit it etc would it not be a faulse economy.

Your engine manufacturer should be a ble to tell you the optimum running rev's for consumption v's distance.
 
It's quite surprising how much mpg goes up the faster you go (up to a certain point of course). I've used the boat so little in the last 3 seasons, I can't remember the actual figures, but economy was something like 30% better at 3500 rpm than it was at 2500 rpm ! Yes, GPH was higher (worse), but the speed is higher. I worked out in 2006 and 2007 it pretty much paid for itself in less than one season ( 50 engine hours, those were the days!), something American boat owners seem to have picked up on quite enthusiastically since fuel costs increased markedly there.

Graham
 
Sundowner Portofino said:
Silly thought, but by the time you have bought it, accounted for the time/ cost to fit it etc would it not be a faulse economy.

Your engine manufacturer should be a ble to tell you the optimum running rev's for consumption v's distance.
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nope.

it varies with wind, sea state and trim.

and a good meter will help diagnose faults and tell you when to clean your bum.

as well as accurately telling you how many litres you've used out of a full tank - a good safety measure.
 
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