Hi Guys,

Just installed the Informer gas gauge/volt meter and am following the calibration procedure. The LED is supposed to turn off after covering the light sensor the second time, but all it does is go back to the normal mode. Anybody have any experience with this. I'm following the instructions carefully...but no go.

Thanks

 

Curious to know the answer to that one myself!

 

Well, I finally got it to work, although I'm not sure why. I kept trying over and over (the instructions are specific, so not a matter of trying different things). The only thing I can think of is that the first step says to cover the photocell for EXACTLY 3 seconds. I didn't use a stopwatch...can't imagine it would be that sensitive. Anyway, the gauge calibrates to empty, so install/calibrate with the tank almost empty, leaving whatever reserve you want. I calibrated mine with just over 1/8 tank (just above the half-way point in the red zone on the original gauge. So, the resolution seemed to be persistance. Rode it this morning and filled it up - the gauge is nice. The volt meter is nice also - kinda reassuring to see the green led indicating the charging system is working properly.

 

You think you have problems, try running a tmax and having one of them. This is what I've learned and what works for me. Keep in mind I have a fairly bright phloresent light above my bike. Whenever I linked to the ecm it would calibrate to empty , even with a full tank. I started to use a calibrated siphon tube I made up and drained the fuel each time and it would set itselt to that. Later on I realized the light was resetting the informer and now just place tape over the sensor, do my tmax thing and it never changes.
My normal calibration is as follows. Drain fuel to about 1 gallon left. You need this to cool the pump or it will overheat.
Attach a trickle charger to the battery to make sure it's fully charged as it also calibrates battery voltage at the same time as fuel empty level.
Turn switch on and use a bright flashlight over the light sensor until the leds get bright. Do it inside and forget that sunlight bs. While keeping the light over the light sensor place finger over sensor for 3 seconds and remove. One green led will show up and then go out. Do the flashlight thing one more time the same way and as soon as you see the green led put your finger back on the sensor before it goes out on it's own. This is somewhat different than the directions but the damn thing will almost calibrate itself as long as you set your own fuel level and have a full battery. The dimming feature at night has never given me grief as it must somehow set itself with the above flashlight proceedure. Even though sometimes you will see the calibration light , as long as you don't put your finger over the sensor the calibration won't change and will remain where you set it. The informer voltage part at times will show a blinking 14 volt led, usually on the first start of the day with a slightly weaker battery. Most later starts during the day it seems to recalibrate and the 14v led is most times constant. It seems to be a really good unit and very accurate. If you screwed up and feel you have too much gas when it hits the blinking red, either burn more off or siphon it to a lower level and bring out the flashlight and recalibrate it to a new empty level.
Ron

 

Hi Ron,

Thanks for the info on the Informer calibration. Your procedure is a bit different than the instructions, but I can see how I could have done it your way without actually knowing what made the difference, as I stood there trying over and over until it finally worked. I read every thread and review I could find before purchasing, and didn't see anything about the calibration issue...now I see your response and another post in this forum on how it recalibrated itself on a sunny day when driving through a tree-lined area that caused multiple changes in the light level. I like it anyway and will just have to be aware of the calibration issue. I'm interested in more information on your calibrated siphon tube. Did you simply mark the tube in 5 increments (roughly 5 gal. tank) to determine when there is one gallon in the tank? Let me know how you did that. I printed your post for future reference in case mine does recalibrate. Would be nice to have an accurate way to re-calibrate with a known quantity of fuel. Thanks for the help.

Kevin

 

I struggled forever trying to get the dam thing to calibrate to pont at which I was about to send it back thinking it was faulty.

I finally cracked it using a very bright torch in my garage at night with the lights off. What you gotta do do is first off forget about the 3 seconds thing - so turn the torch on and shine it on the sensor until the display brightens up and then make sure you keep the torch shining directly on the sensor at all times and cover the sensor and then count to roughly three (you may have to do this a few times to get the middle green calibration light to come on).

This is the bit where you have to be real quick - as soon as the middle green light comes on immeadiately cover the sensor till it goes out, then immeadiately uncover the sensor till it comes back on again and then immeadiately cover it again and so on till you'ver done this three times and hey presto it cycles throught the red yellow gren light sequence and you are all done!

I also managed to do it in bright sunlight by doing all of the above by using the finger tip of my leather glove to cover / uncover the sensor.

You may find that the middle green calibration light occaisionally comes on whilst you are riding - ignore this as it seems to be a known fault by Kury. I had my unit re-calibrate itself whilst riding down a tree lined road on a sunny morning where I kept going from light to shade so watch out for that one too.

If you get really pissed off with it I found that if you calibate it a couple of times and then pull the bike's master fuse it resets the guage to its factory settings and uses that previous calibration as the current one. It also seems to stop the problem of the middle green calibration light activating and coming on by itself.

Hope this helps.............

 

Like they said above use a BRIGHT light. I tried calibrating for about a half hour then instead of the 3 second thing only block the light sensor for about 2-2.5 seconds then the middle green light comes on. at this point you have to be FAST, cover the light sensor till the green goes out then uncover quickly then cover and uncover again, after that all the lights will go crazy and your done.
The important thing is 2-2.5 seconds with a BRIGHT light and the green light will go out on it's own if you are not quick.
Now that I have done it once I tried it several more times and it is easy, just takes time to get the trick learned.

 

interested in knowing kuryakyn part number for the informer..glad you got it figured out

 

Kevin: I just made up a copper tube with a flange to sit square to the top of the fill opening. Plasitic hose from there to the gas can, siphoning while on the jiffy stand I leave about 1.5 gallon in the tank to keep the pump cool. At that point I calibrate it. It's a trial and error thing but once you have what level you want, it will always give the exact miles on the odemeter before blinking empty. For me that's about 250 kilometers. The middle green calibration light will at times come on with the bright phlourestent light in my shop, but unless you cover the sensor it will not recalibrate. I did make the mistake once of leaning over it when the calilbration light was on and the sob recalibrated to empty on a full tank. Solution was to put masking tape over the sensor whenever it is running in the shop with the overhead light on, just in case.
Ron

 

never mind just found it ...thanks though