having recently melted the engine bronze bearing of my vintage car of 70+ years old,
I wish to have in future 2 temperatures monitored (engine oil and engine water coolant) on a simple LCD or a digit display.
Exists a way for doing this easily with Arduino?
Or exist an even better and simpler programming environment (i.e. Nano) and related hardware?
Of course, some fanatics are using vintage capillary thermometers (far to be reliable), but I and some enthusiast in my club wish to have an electronic and more sophisticated solution for implement in future more useful features in order to drive safer such of vintage cars, e.g. battery voltage and humidity and temperature in the car.
All devices must be easily removed during concourse (apart thermocouples), but this is another story...
Temperatures are easily monitored using a thermocouple or NTC (thermistor). Which one to choose depends mostly on the temperatures and how you can place them; thermocouples can go much higher in temperature and are more chemically resistant so can go directly in the oil/water.
For your project a Nano sounds suitable: sufficient number of i/o pins and breadboard friendly so you can solder it on a breadboard. A simple 1602 LCD would provide the display you need.
You can then later quite easily expand it with other sensors, such as indeed the battery voltage and atmospheric conditions.
Hi,
As @wnmarle has said a nano would do the job, and you would have enough I/O left over for some warning indicators or alarms.
A good power supply with filtering and good regulation would also be needed to filter against alternator or generator/regulator noise and ignition spikes.
To keep the look of the age of the vehicle authentic, the monitor could reside in the glove box if you have an audible alarm connected.
This one of those ideal projects that can be extended to other vehicles and stationary combustion motors.
I can remember many many years ago there was a dipstick that you could fit that had a temp sensor in it to get crankcase oil temperature.
Water and oil temperature monitoring in a vintage car are most useful, although when you melt a bearing, this is certainly because there was a big issue with the cooling circuit.
The water channels are clogged in the housing or in the radiator or an oil circulation pipe is pinched somewhere. It is no use to remove the faulty bronze bearings for new ones and install temp sensors unless all water channels in radiator and motor housing have been cleaned up and oil pipes checked.
Might pay to be aware of a well known fact in auto mechanics circles that warning lights are far more likely to be noticed in a fault condition as opposed to a gauge. Might save you another crank regrind and a set of white metal lined slippers.
My condolences on your engine! Ouch!! Was it primarily a cooling problem? Oil??
Several people have used DS18B20 temperature sensors and a small LCD display as an add-on for their cars.
You could display coolant (Radiator IN and Radiator OUT gives you good information).
You could display Oil Temperature.
You could display Outdoor Air temperature.
INSTALLING SENSORS:
Some people have drilled out the original temperature sensor and epoxied a waterproof DS18B20 into it. Also, many standard auto temperature sensors have a standard pipe thread. Drilling a hole partway through a brass pipe plug and adding the sensor is another solution.
People have epoxied those waterproof type sensors to the oil pan, the oil cooler lines, the transmission cooler lines, the transmission oil pan, the rear differential etc etc. Google around and you'll find many examples. Car people are inventive!
As far as the sensors go, the best course might be to use actual sensors designed for a car and use them with the arduino. That gives you weatherproof connectors, housings that can withstand the environment, and many of them operate on 5v. It would also give a more "finished" look.
For who had asked: the car suffered of low oli flow due to a clogged circuit hole in the casted iron engine block. Notice that job was (theoretically) done by the shop and regularly listed in the bill and payed, but in 2007. Sadly, due to the low mileage, such problem appears only years after and now any refund is just a lost of time.
The only satisfaction is to show the original bill and the photos taken from the engine to all my (vintage cars) enthusiast. That repair shop will not be anymore in consideration by us.
Since I am the age of your vintage car, or older, let me suggest your bearing problem will have little or no effect on oil temperature. If there was little or no oil going to the bearing, there will be no heat transferred to the oil in the crank case. The bearing is NOT submerged in the oil. So monitoring that temperature will not identify the problem.
The real test for your problem is metal particles in the oil. Only a visual test will identify that.
Also, you cannot melt the bronze in the bearing inserts, called "shells". The inserts may also be steel. The bearing material itself is really soft material, perhaps Babbit metal, and that will perhaps melt, but more than likely was just ripped out because of lack of oil. Hope the crank journals are not damaged beyond repair.
Your wish to monitor the temperature of oil and water are both good, but be sure the results are calibrated to give you real numbers.
If you want good mechanical work done, learn to do it yourself!
Best of luck getting your old machine back on the road.
Paul_KD7HB:
Hope the crank journals are not damaged beyond repair.
Your wish to monitor the temperature of oil and water are both good, but be sure the results are calibrated to give you real numbers.
If you want good mechanical work done, learn to do it yourself!
Best of luck getting your old machine back on the road.
Paul
Thanks Paul, I appreciate a lot your experienced suggestions. Crank journal is damaged. Now it is under repair. Nitrurisation and so on...
I want update you about the project: apologise me, but I will use a device already developed for monitoring aircraft engines: MGL avionics E3, who knows if inside it has Arduino?
But for my usage, it seems reliable and cost effective. I'll postpone the developing by DIY of such of cockpit for a while.
