General Category > General Discussion
Fuel Strips (Film type fuel sensor)
bruzer38:
southport superbikes took my bm in for the recall part to be done foc spoke about fuel strips and agro have had previous strips witout a part warranty, bottom line bought a new one all fitted for £195.00 with 2 year warranty from them happy days.
Inspector Gadget:
Some good & some bad news on this specific topic;
There is a guy in The Netherlands who had researched the issue of the infamous Fuel Strip vs Floater.
The Good News;
It turns out that the GS(A)'s ZFE has the capability for either the Floater or FuelStrip already built-in.
The connections to the specific pins on the ZFE for both the Floater as well as the FuelStrip are there and not, unlike the 1200RT, shared to other functions when you use one or the other.
Meaning, the same ZFE (on the GS-series) can used for either.
How it is with the specific connector to the fuel pump is a different story (3-pin versus 4-pin respectively).
From what I was told by a BMW Engineer, it was (also) to accommodate those riders who "rigorously" do adventure-riding.
If the existing wiring-harness can accommodate those two versions (read: connectors) I do not know.
One would examine the ZFE and see if these specific pins would be wired (too), for example.
But then I do not have a shop, I'm a hobbyist.
Ok, back to this fellow-Dutchman;
He created a plug-in "blackbox" for the GS(A) that would allow the ZFE for the Fuel-Strip (4-pin connector) to be hooked up to a Floater.
Because, kudos for him, he found out that replacing the existing Fuel Strip on the existing(!) Fuel Pump with the Floater mechanics(!) is quite a simple task, on the GS(A).
All the mechanics, mounting-points etc, are there, it is just a matter of removing the Fuel Strip and clicking-on the Floater mechanism.
Rather then trying to fool around with the ZFE wiring, his black-box then converts the signal from the (new) Floater into a Fuel Strip-type signal that the ZFE would understand.
He has been working on this for several years, but is small-scale.
Main issue is the 4-pin male connector, apparently not an easy connector to come by or every expensive.
So he 3D printed (amongst other techniques) that connector himself.
And that solution has been working quite well, he sold them to many GS(A) users who "converted" from Fuel Strip to the Floater successfully.
I'm currently investigating (read: mock-up connecting a Floater) to a R1200RT.
There it is a wee bit more elaborate;
The 1200RT Fuel Pump is an either-version; or for the Fuel Strip or for the Floater, and not "prepared" for retro-fitting the other version.
However, see my previous response, I had already obtained a R1200RT 2010 Fuel Pump which contained the Floater.
So, when a R1200RT has the Fuel Strip and you want the Floater, it would be a matter of replacing the (complete) Fuel Pump assembly. And his black-box (for the GS).
He & I both expect this should work electronically, read, the connection(s).
Which I will try to do later, chemo's are a bitch when you want to do intricate work.
I will update this thread once done.
Then the Bad News;
He decided to cease operation for the moment because this was not enough to make a living from and it interferes with his regular job.
He is currently looking for somebody to take over the operation, the tools and intellectual properties (I guess money would need to be involved) and bring it to a more production-level.
So he is currently closed down, sold all the existing stock of black-boxes and is on holiday.
Should their be more development on that arena, I will also update this thread.
I already suggested to him to go more mainstream and announce it to the world, e.g. BMW dealers, forums and such, but he was hesitant as he does not have the production-level that would potentially require it, should it really fly-off big-time.
It is unfortunate that such a good initiative boggles down for that reason, but fully understandable. If you have a regular day-job it should not interfere with that regular job.
I recall the infamous Road Rocketeer, excellent LED read-light replacement products (in my experiences) but very bad business-practices.
Maybe HexCode is interested in buying the rights to this black-box. :)
I will update this thread as soon as I can but wanted to share the above at least ...
robo1973:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0gyeLF1VdcpUWt6WUVJRkFaMzQ
Order by mail: robo1973@vp.pl
Price 100 euros
Inspector Gadget:
And some more updates on this subject;
First, the website, in case you do not want to read-back 5 pages;
https://hposkam.nl/en/projecten/
(and for those who can read & understand Dutch: https://hposkam.nl/projecten/)
Ok, he has decided to spin-up a (former) BMW-dealer in the Netherlands to resell his units, instead.
This dealer is quite reputable, I know from personal experiences, btw.
(He still does sell the Tank Strip Emulator, which takes away the whole function of the fuel strip all together but resolves that annoying yellow warning light and you will need to drive on your odo-meters instead as fuel level will be permanently fixed at full level all the time, no matter what)
The reason for his choice is as aforementioned, the amount of work required, especially with the after-sales (reads: loads of questions about replacing the fuel-strip version fuel-pump with the level-type fuel-pump et cetera) was just taking away a lot of time, interfering with his regular job.
Next to the fact that replacing the fuel-pump is not an easy nor simple task, where some customers underestimated that task, causing a lot of support.
So, the product and solution is still fully alive but then via a reseller.
If you're fed-up with the infamous Fell Strip Failures, you're options are; )(some ment to be somewhat comical, pls do not shoot!)
- Get a newer bike that uses the level-float instead of the fuel strip version (yes, that is ment to be a comical remark)
- Visiting the BMW dealer for the defective fuel-strip replacement and hope to get a warranty-replacement. (fingers crossed every time)
- Using the aforementioned Piezo Zap method. It may work but I also got responses that eventually it will no longer work?
- Use the Fuel Strip Emulator or make one yourself (see page 4 go this thread for a simple schematic) accepting you will need to ride on the daily milage counter instead from then onwards. Fuel-level will always be in maximum full.
- Replace the fuel pump assembly with one that uses the level-float assembly and the Fuel Strip Convertor
Joe-T:
I've also had had a fuel strip problem with my R1200GS 2007 - fixed it the piezzo way after two years - and working (giving no errors/warnings) for two years now.
If mine fails again I'm very inclined to go swap the fuel strip against a lever type.
I went into analyzing the sensor operation closer and found an issue with the realtime values for the fuel sensor heating voltage. I'm currently analyzing this with HEX Code but we could use your help on a small issue.
Can you help and post the maximum realtime value for the "Fuel strip heater voltage" as reported via the GS-911 for your bike?
How to get there : ZFE > Realtime Values > Fuel strip heater voltage
Do you see any value above 2 V within an observation time of 1 .. 2 minutes ? I'll appriciate any fedback positiv and negative !!
Note:
You should monitor the displayed value over a period of approximately one minute or slightly longer as the heater is activated intermittently and at three levels.
/Joe
P.S.
Anyone interested in (technical) details please refer to this thread I've created: https://forum.hexcode.co.za/forum/index.php/topic,2266.msg8642.html
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