Does anybody did this before? And which sensor did you use? Maybe do you also have a wiring example and some code? It would be pitty if i bought such an expensive one and could not use it.
I'm in the process of building a test set for SCUBA regulators, which recquires 2 pressure transducers, one +/- 5" of water the other 250 psi. I got mine from www.element14.com, they have a large range of pressures.
I'm just an armature at electronics design but I'll give my bit of knowledge.
I've been working on a system to monitor the engine sensors on my boat. Its sensors (gm throttle body injection) usually range from 20 - 400 ohms. I've started off with a simple voltage divider to utilize the signal from the engine sensor as the ground. This gives me a suitable voltage for the arduino to monitor.
However there are some obsticals to overcome that I haven't worked out yet although I believe a zenner diode may be the fix after some research. And this may not be relevant to your application but the gauge will send a rogue voltage of ~8vdc if the sensor is out of range or disconnected.
jazzygerard:
I'm looking for a sensor to measure the oil pressure in my engine.
What kind of engine? What size? Automobile? If so, what make, model, year?
Basically - for something like this, you'd probably want to post the question on a site dedicated to the engine, type of engine, or vehicle.
For instance, if I was looking for an oil pressure sensor (if I needed one) for my 1979 Bronco with a 400ci M-block, I would ask on a Bronco forum, or a forum dedicated to the Ford 400ci/6.6L M-block, or on some other similar forum. Same if I was looking for something for a smaller engine. In other words, ask the gearheads for advice, and they'll be able to tell you, more often than not. They'll be able to tell you the electrical specifics, where to mount it, what threading it uses, etc. Heck, one of them may have the part from an old project and they'll give it to you. Or tell you what kind of car to pull it from at a pick-ur-part place...
Those guys are as big of geeks as we are, just in a slightly different domain (then again, there is a bunch of crossover - but it is best to ask in the appropriate forum).
Now - remember this would be for a certain application; once you knew the specs, and had it mounted on your engine and knew it was spitting out the voltages or resistance or whatever - then you come back here and say "yeah, I have this sensor that's output 0-10 volts, how do I read that with an analog input?" or something like that...
