Gas gauge accuracy

[FISHBREATH]

This is something I have wondered about for years. Gas tanks are of irregular design. The sending unit is basically a float attached to a variable resistor. We are all well aware of the inaccuracies of our factory gas gauges. When I worked at Grumman, out calibration equipment was regularly tested by hanging known weights off the item and taking a reading at that point. This was done throughout the range of movement of the item. This determines the historesis of the sensors.

Would it be possible to have a computer chip-based unit that could be calibrated like a piece of test equipment? I imagine that this type of system could read the tank in gallons as opposed to a rough visualization. (You know how a full tank might take a week days to get to half tank, but will drop from there to empty in a few days).

I am a self-described electron moron. So, I ask, would it be feasible to build such an accurate gauge system?

 

[howco4]

Since the sender in the tank is a resistance based unit, that gives the relative amount of fuel in the tank, a alternate measuring device would do the same thing. One could re-lable the fuel guage, and calibrate it in gallons, thus giving it a more viable reading. Just my take. Howard