Low fuel light

[sailor_chic]

I disagree with you. I have the fuel light eliminator and I love having the capability of seeing my usable range for the last gallon on gas.
The range option doesn't work off of measuring the volume in the tank.  The computer basis the range off of the fuel used in the past on an average.  So with the the tank being narrower on the bottom has nothing to do with volume. In fact, by the tank not being linear, and narrow at the bottom, it holds the lesser amount of fuel into a small space instead of spreading it out over a larger surface.

[maxtog]

Yep.  The shape of the tank shouldn't affect range at all, just the usability of the last of the gas.... which is a constant.  It will affect the linearity (or not) of the fuel level sensor (but again, it is a known measurement, so the ECU can easily use a formula or map).

The problem with the range indicator is that it can jump all over the place depending on how you are driving at the moment (if live) or recently (if average).  This is probably the main reason that Kawasaki disables the range indicator at low fuel state..... it can (will, and does) give a false sense of security that you have more range than you actually do.

Of course, the solution is to take the reading with a grain of salt and err on the safe side.

[sailor_chic]

Max, thank you for adding into what I was trying to express.

[farrider2]

Thanks Brian for the low fuel warning eliminator. Running an auxiliary tank and this bit of magic solved the problem of calculating distance remaining with a non-standard tank. Easy to install (as you promised) and does exactly what it is suppose to. Great addition.

[B.D.F.]

Good post and exactly right IMO and IME: the range indicator displays what is happening at that exact moment and will bounce all over the place if the conditions the bike is running through are changing. The best example of this is accelerating and up-shifting, the range indicator may display 35 miles one second and then 8 miles the next. Back off the throttle for a stop sign or red light and it may suddenly show 60 miles remaining. Just the nature of the beast and it means the user has to put in a little more thought into what it is reading in stop- and- go riding for example. As I always suggest, and tried to convey in the instructions, under these conditions it is best to look at the range remaining readout several times and use the lowest reading until the bike can settle into a constant speed, and then the reading will be much more accurate although it is always an estimate.

The thing is though that when riding in traffic, there is usually a fuel station around anyway. The range indicator works best on the highway at a steady speed, and that is exactly when I personally rely on it mostly anyway; there is no  need to stop for fuel is there are fuel stations, say, 20 miles away and the range indicator says the bike has ~40 miles of range left. But I would not try for the 20 mile distant fuel station if the range was reading 23.5 miles- that is just 'asking for it' IMO.

Brian

Yep.  The shape of the tank shouldn't affect range at all, just the usability of the last of the gas.... which is a constant.  It will affect the linearity (or not) of the fuel level sensor (but again, it is a known measurement, so the ECU can easily use a formula or map).

The problem with the range indicator is that it can jump all over the place depending on how you are driving at the moment (if live) or recently (if average).  This is probably the main reason that Kawasaki disables the range indicator at low fuel state..... it can (will, and does) give a false sense of security that you have more range than you actually do.

Of course, the solution is to take the reading with a grain of salt and err on the safe side.

[B.D.F.]

Thanks for the kind words and glad you like it.

Brian

Thanks Brian for the low fuel warning eliminator. Running an auxiliary tank and this bit of magic solved the problem of calculating distance remaining with a non-standard tank. Easy to install (as you promised) and does exactly what it is suppose to. Great addition.

[Diablo6v]

I love BDF's low fuel light eliminator. I've run the tank down to 5.7 gallons. I think I was at 8miles on the range..hahhahaha I won't do that again 

[martin_14]

The problem with the range indicator is that it can jump all over the place depending on how you are driving at the moment (if live) or recently (if average).  This is probably the main reason that Kawasaki disables the range indicator at low fuel state..... it can (will, and does) give a false sense of security that you have more range than you actually do.

Of course, the solution is to take the reading with a grain of salt and err on the safe side.

Sad, but true. I wish we could get that stupid floater system out of the bike and put one of those strips (more expensive, prone tu failure, but accurate) in the inside of the tank, like in F1 and a couple of BMWs. We could use the last 0.2 lt (that's 0.05 gallons!) with that system, and the floater itself takes more volume than you'd imagine.

Regarding BDF's low fuel light eliminator, it works alright most of the time but once the floater must have gotten stuck or something because the dash showed 30 miles left for quite a while and I kept going, until the engine finally stopped. I met a great guy who took me not only to the next gas station, but also back to the bike. Nice anecdotes come up when bad things happen and nice people step up to lend a hand.

[just gone]

Regarding BDF's low fuel light eliminator, it works alright most of the time but once the floater must have gotten stuck or something because the dash showed 30 miles left for quite a while and I kept going, until the engine finally stopped.

I don't think you can blame Brian's device for this. If the low fuel warning didn't come on then Brian's device worked perfectly.
The error was elsewhere.

[Rhino]

I also think it makes a difference if you ride the bike continuously down to the last oz or if you stop with a few quarts and turn off the bike then start again. Not 100% sure about that but I remember having a discussion with Brian about that. The first time I tested the limits, my bike was in the garage and when I started, range said 30 something miles. I had about 28 miles to meet some friends at a gas station or I could go 6 miles out of the way, get gas and go on to the meet. I decided to live dangerously and headed straight to meet up. With 8 miles showing in the range and the gas station 1/4 mile down the hill the bike ran out of gas. I was able to coast it in but lesson learned. Now I subtract 15 miles from what ever is showing in range. Still not bad to be able to run it down to that. Better then I could ever do using trip odometer on my Valkyrie. That bike mileage would vary from 25 to 40 mpg and to be safe I would always get gas before the odometer would hit 100.

[B.D.F.]

What you experienced was not due to my product- that was entirely the bike itself and its sensors / computers. My system does not do any estimating or cause any estimating, it just stops the warning system from engaging in the first place; what you are left with (the range indicator for example, as well as the fuel level displayed) is purely what Kawasaki built into the bike.

Not sure what happened to your bike but I do not believe the range function does not use the fuel level float to do any calculations. Once in the 'low fuel' range, whether you have my low fuel warning eliminator or not, the range calculations are done based on the fuel used by the ECU since the float hit its lowest point. The bouncing around of the range indicator is just the result of the instantaneous mileage at the exact moment you happen to look at the range.... back off the throttle and watch the range climb (although it is internally (Easy Boys!) limited to a max. of 70 MPG so if you are coasting down a mountain road at 90 MPH, it cannot read something ridiculous such as 750 miles remaining).

Brian

Sad, but true. I wish we could get that stupid floater system out of the bike and put one of those strips (more expensive, prone tu failure, but accurate) in the inside of the tank, like in F1 and a couple of BMWs. We could use the last 0.2 lt (that's 0.05 gallons!) with that system, and the floater itself takes more volume than you'd imagine.

Regarding BDF's low fuel light eliminator, it works alright most of the time but once the floater must have gotten stuck or something because the dash showed 30 miles left for quite a while and I kept going, until the engine finally stopped. I met a great guy who took me not only to the next gas station, but also back to the bike. Nice anecdotes come up when bad things happen and nice people step up to lend a hand.

[Rhino]

What you experienced was not due to my product- that was entirely the bike itself and its sensors / computers. My system does not do any estimating or cause any estimating, it just stops the warning system from engaging in the first place; what you are left with (the range indicator for example, as well as the fuel level displayed) is purely what Kawasaki built into the bike.

Not sure what happened to your bike but I do not believe the range function does not use the fuel level float to do any calculations. Once in the 'low fuel' range, whether you have my low fuel warning eliminator or not, the range calculations are done based on the fuel used by the ECU since the float hit its lowest point. The bouncing around of the range indicator is just the result of the instantaneous mileage at the exact moment you happen to look at the range.... back off the throttle and watch the range climb (although it is internally (Easy Boys!) limited to a max. of 70 MPG so if you are coasting down a mountain road at 90 MPH, it cannot read something ridiculous such as 750 miles remaining).

Brian

I don't know if it would have significantly cost more but I would have done an MPG averaging for the last 20 min instead of using the instantaneous fuel flow. Slightly more memory and software in the ECU would have done the trick. I does look like they are doing some averaging for the last few seconds any way. It doesn't blip from 20 mile range to 50 with the flick of the wrist. It takes 30 seconds or so. Even using the total MPG average since the last reset would be better then instantaneous mileage to calculate range IMHO.

[MAN OF BLUES]

just adding a comment about the AVG MPG data storage...
its great if you reset it every tank full, and ride consistant, but once you run 500 miles without a reset, it doesn't mean a lot...
racking up miles, and keeping track of your fuel consumtion means a lot more, when you can use judgement and interpolate the riding conditions and distance travelled...

[Rhino]

just adding a comment about the AVG MPG data storage...
its great if you reset it every tank full, and ride consistant, but once you run 500 miles without a reset, it doesn't mean a lot...
racking up miles, and keeping track of your fuel consumtion means a lot more, when you can use judgement and interpolate the riding conditions and distance travelled...

Agree completely. Exactly why I think it would have been better to have a moving average of the last 20-30 minutes or miles.