Dakota Digital FP gauge installed

[jpeterson]

You didn't hook the power up to the power for your brake controller did you? I did that to mine (not thinking) and it did the same thing, I think I ended up using the power for one of the accessory plugs.



Jeremy

 

[rono]

The guage itself should have 12v at all times when the key is turned on. There are 3 inputs to the guage. One is 12v, one is from the sender and the other is to be connected so that power is there when you turn your lights on, if you want the guage light to dim automatically. The sender should have one leg with 12v and the other side going to the guage. I had this same problem when hooking up mine and I called Dakota Digital and I did not have the sender grounded. I grounded the sender body to a good body ground, and the problem went away. Dakota Digital has always been very helpful when I called them. Hope this helps.

Ron

 

[o_mccarroll]

The sender should have one leg with 12v and one leg to the "snd" terminal on the gauge? If that's the case, then I know my problem! I have one pole of the sender to the snd terminal on the gauge and the other pole grounded. I must have read the directions wrong...

 

[rono]

Their directions aren't very good! That's when I called Dakota and they told me to ground the case of the sender. Oh well.

Ron

 

[Big White Beast]

No No No.......

Unless there's something I don't know, one side of the sender goes to ground not 12V. Almost all senders create a resistance to ground. That's how the gauge interperates what's going on.



I would look at the other suggestion of the case on the gauge not being properly grounded. That is where it would also draw a reference from.



Garrett

 

[rono]

I also thought one side was ground. But the case is the ground. I just put a screw type hose clamp around the case and put a stripped end of a wire under the clamp and tightened down. The other end I put a terminal on and went to the screw on the firewall that already had a ground wire on it.

Ron

 

[o_mccarroll]

Talked to Dakota Digital today... sender is supposed to have sender connected to one pole and ground connected to the other pole, NOT 12V. This depends on which sender you have though... I have the 30 psi sender, which gets the sender wire on one pole and ground on the other. I think the other two senders (with higher ranges, I forget what the are; 60 and 100 maybe?) have a different setup.



I was told to check the sender with multimeter. It should read 10 ohms across the two poles. I will check it when I get home tonight and see where we are. If that checks out, I will check the resistance across the sender and ground wires in the cab with the sender connected to see if it is consistent with the reading across the sender. I suspect that I may have a nicked sender wire that is grounding itself, although I was very careful when routing it. I will post results later.



Thanks for your help!

 

[o_mccarroll]

OK. It was a bad sending unit. Got it replaced by Dakota Digital. No sweat.



Now. I've got the gauge installed, everything is working properly. But the gauge itself runs extremely warm. Almost too hot to touch. I know it would be normal to generate a little heat, but this doesn't seem right.



Anyone have an opinion? (I know there are a few around here!! )

 

[mikel]

I run mine dimmed all the time because it's bright enough for me and it gets fairly warm. I would imagine that it would get pretty warm if I ran it at full brightness.



Hope this helps,

Mike

 

[rono]

Mine also run pretty hot. I called Dakota Digital and they said that yes they do get hot but it is ok. So, I have been using mine for the last 6 months and no problems.

Ron

 

[Johnny5]

I mentioned the same thing with the gages running a little hot a few posts back, glad to hear I am not the only one.