I have a LCD thermostat unit that was originally designed to display CPU/component temperatures.

It has a small probe area, and then a 2 wire lead to the circuit / LCD.

The wire lead is about 36".

I plan on mounting the LCD display in the glove box, and extending the wires to reach the spare tire well. I want to mount the probe between the bottle heater & the nitrous bottle. I'm wanting to do this that way I know for *sure* when my heater is on & off. (NX automatic) And also.. It would look cool seeing 400* displayed on the LCD.

The thing that has me thinking.. is that the wire leads transmit the temperature to the circuit which interprets them.. So extending the leads would affect the signal, correct?


What if I was to match resistance in the wires? Or maybe even make a little less resitance in the extension.. I'm not looking for dead accuracy, just a ball park..


I don't want to cut up a nice LCD unit unless there's a good chance it will work...

 

it should work, the wires are just wire, temp probe is at the end, go ahead, it shoud be pretty accurate

 

Well wires are just wires... but long wires have resistance. The probe at the end is most then likely a thermistor. A resistor that changes its resistance with temperature. But adding a couple of ohms by making the wires longer shouldnt make a difference. Maybe a 1/4 of a degree or so. I dont think it would even be that much. But if you're just going to use it an idicator that it's on or off, then it will work just fine!

 

I decided to go gung ho on it..

Got the LCD flush mounted in the center console back by the ashtray. (where the lid contacts the top of the console) It turned out nicely.


I added about 6' of wire to it.. I didnt bother checking resistance, as a friend is "borrowing" my Fluke.. But, at 98* (probe stuck under tongue ) it was reading 108* 10* isn't too bad for 10*, so I figure it may be off around 30* or so at the 400* it will see..


Not precise, but more than capable to handle what I want it to do.