DIY electronic K plane indicators? pondering making my own
 

I am redoing the dash in my baja sport 250 and there is no good way to get mechanical k plane indicators installed to my liking so I started looking into the electronic sending units for the k planes, they are not cheap to say the least. so I got to thinking, why not make my own sending unit? why couldn’t I grab an extra 2 trim gauges, some 25 dollar a piece sending units that come on mercury outboards, a couple of 3 foot control cables and fab some brackets to mount onto my inside transom to hold it all together? I am picturing a piece of plate aluminum with an arm of some sort attached to the sending unit with the cable attached to the arm and the plate. I am pretty sure I can do this and make it look very clean and make it so that I have just regular gauges to install on the dash with no cables being a pain. I already located the matching trim gauges I need for 60 shipped, 50 for 2 cables and 50 for 2 new sending units so 150 for all new parts, figure another 20 bucks, even 40 on the high side in hardware and I can do this all for 200 bucks. mechanical indicators would be around 200 bucks for a used setup anyways. has anyone attempted this before?? am I crazy for thinking this??

check out the electronics forum on here -- there is a thread started there

thanks!

this is what I have in mind

http://s8.postimg.org/w7vdaw8gl/K_plane.jpg
image hosting no register

How about trim sticks? The Mercruiser sending units never held up for me in the past. Mechanical is set it and forget it.

http://underdogracing.com/

Why not do something like this??

http://www.cpperformance.com/p-14402...ndicators.aspx

http://www.cpperformance.com/images/...05-9988838.jpg

Replied to your other thread but thought I would mention that along with installing the K-planes on my 250 ES, I installed a set of Stainless Marine LED indicators to the right of the helm on the top of the gunwale. The installation was straight forward and they were well situated and highly visible. Overall they were highly reliable and effective.

I think that may have been another guys post. here is my dash, its not possible to go on the side

http://s30.postimg.org/qlsn2wnq5/20140523_171411.jpg

i bet you could fit a set of trim sticks on that little shelf next to where your can is sitting in that picture.

is there something similar to fuel sending units that would stand up to being in water?

When I replace mine I'm going with these. Had them on my old 28 saber. Extremely accurate however as I age I tend fly by feel it seems like...

I have the trim stiks and love em'!

When I get around to it I'm just going to use a slide potentiometer with an arduino. Should be about $15/drive/tab.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py26vaHFMZM&app=desktop

Or, you could go with a slide potentiometer and a segmented LED bar with the electronics on the bar eliminating the arduino for $15 more.

if were going to get a short cable inside the boat you could use a steering rudder indicator sender, looks like what you have drawn, have one on my gibson, made by teleflex

I have a brand new set of the merc electronic k plane actuators that I took off of my new k planes as I went with a cable. Not sure if they work for you but you can have them for free99. The wires were cut alittle short (still plenty of a pig tail hanging off them) by some jerk (me) before he realized he could have just taken them out of the thru hull. If you want them shoot me An address and Afew bucks shipping and they're yours.

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