The guages in a f-body, they get there info from a sensor, right? So my question is, how does it exactly work?? The sensor reads as a certain resistance, computer applies a voltage and reads a voltage drop, then transfers the signal to the guage. Is this somewhat how it works??

If so, what readings do the Oil pressure, Temp, Battery give off?? I would like to try and make my own program up to read all this info from the car on my laptop. (I know you can buy programs out there, but I wanna test all that stuff I learned in school)

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Godti
'89 Trans Am (Red)
305 TBI 5spd

 

The gauges use different senders than the ECM does. The oil pressure & fuel level gauge senders are 90 ohm rheostats - (0 ohms @ minimum fuel level and minimum oil pressure), and the temperature gauge sender is a thermistor, whose resistance varies in inversely proportion to temperature. The gauges are powered by +12 volt ign power. Check out the '85 schematics on line at:
http://www.geocities.com/vtcamaro/Wire-Diagrams.html

The ECM sensors (except for the O2 sensor) use a +5VDC reference & a variable voltage output that is A to D converted for processor interpretation.

Tim