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I do have an Android phone. So the obvious question is How much is it? And how much is the cable to attach it to the bike? I assume it will have usb plug at one end to plug into the Android phone ? This is why I hate this endless technology which keeps breaking down. Fuel floats did not do that.
Please stop for a moment and read this carefully: Worth noting the comment in the first post: “I don't recommend doing this work unless you are pretty good with mechanics and electronics, however.”

You can bitch and piss a moan about the shitty fuel strip design all you want but it will not fix your bike. You need to slowly and carefully read this thread and decide if you have the technical skills and emotional fortitude to take it on. If not, you have three options:
  1. find a buddy with the skills and patience to help you through conversion to float (this forum cannot replace someone in your garage)
  2. Get a replacement fuel strip at a BMW dealership and hope it will last the length of your ownership experience.
  3. Sell the bike as-is and finish your pain and frustration
Sorry to be a little terse but agonizing over this won’t help you or anyone on the forum.
 
Thank you. I am getting a headache looking at all these expensive prices in Euros in the link you sent me, then add the shipping and figure out which adapter is the correct one....blue tooth, black tooth....etc.

I'll take mechanical things any day over all this app nonsense. I have a problem, I really HATE cell phones.
I believe you just said, “this fuel float conversion isn’t for me”.

No shame in walking away at times, we all have our limits.
 
Please stop for a moment and read this carefully: Worth noting the comment in the first post: “I don't recommend doing this work unless you are pretty good with mechanics and electronics, however.”

You ban bitch and piss a moan about the shitty fuel strip design all you want but it will not fix your bike. You need to slowly and carefully read this thread and decide if you have the technical skills and emotional fortitude to take it on. If not, you have three options:
  1. find a buddy with the skills and patience to help you through conversion to float (this forum cannot replace someone in your garage)
  2. Get a replacement fuel strip at a BMW dealership and hope it will last the length of your ownership experience.
  3. Sell the bike as-is and finish your pain and frustration
Sorry to be a little terse but agonizing over this won’t help you or anyone on the forum.
I understand.

I've replaced 5 speed manual transmission on a classic BMW car before and did many other repairs. Did my own repairs for 25 yrs now.

It is NOT the electrical or mechanical things that try my patience, it is all this APP and phone stuff which no matter how much I try I can't stand. I was without a cell phone till few years ago and I was fine with it.

Sorry. I was hoping it would be something where you replace the float, calibrate it without all this app....etc.business. Then when all said and done, it doesn't sound as if it is accurate. Thanks.
 
Discussion starter · #26 · (Edited)
From what I read, there is no float conversation that actually works and gives accurate gas level measurement.
I would beg to differ. I am getting accurate readings which I verified electrically and mechanically. Due to an apparent difference in tank shape, it was necessary to bend the float arm for my R1200GSA, but it is now as accurate as any float.

There isn't any magic here, the float is a potentiometer that reads between about 88 and 16 ohms and the bike directly translates that to a fuel level when the arm moves up and down.
 
Hi all and thanks for all the tips in this thread.
I have just converted my R1200GSA (early 2010) to float and with instructions from
here and on the ukgser forum and everything worked great. My motorcycle lacks coding for "INDUCTIVE FUEL SENSOR" but it doesn't seem to matter. I just changed the Thermo Coupler FLS 08 to "Potentiometer", swop the pins in ZFE and everything worked. But I had to recalibrate the sensor as it only gave 73 ohms with an empty tank. So I re-angled the sensor (and twist it) the same way LosAlamosGS did and now I have 88 ohms on full tank and 4 ohms on empty. The float no longer catches the transfer hose like it did at first.
 
Hi all and thanks for all the tips in this thread.
I have just converted my R1200GSA (early 2010) to float and with instructions from
here and on the ukgser forum and everything worked great. My motorcycle lacks coding for "INDUCTIVE FUEL SENSOR" but it doesn't seem to matter. I just changed the Thermo Coupler FLS 08 to "Potentiometer", swop the pins in ZFE and everything worked. But I had to recalibrate the sensor as it only gave 73 ohms with an empty tank. So I re-angled the sensor (and twist it) the same way LosAlamosGS did and now I have 88 ohms on full tank and 4 ohms on empty. The float no longer catches the transfer hose like it did at first.
4 ohms on full tank and 88 ohms on empty!!
 
Hi all, I'm midway through attempting this conversion now


Float is installed, ZFEs swapped, and tank is mock-mounted back onto the bike.

I put 5gal in the tank and fired the bike up to check if the fuel warning goes away; no joy.

The only thing I left out was not using resistors to clear the fuel strip fault code.
Does anyone have experience clearing it after having swapped to float already(?)

Any help is much appreciated, thanks!

Edited 6/24/23: RESOLVED

  • Bought a new fuel strip from BMW → Cleared Fuel Fault
  • Installed Fuel Float, Swapped ZFE pins, & reprogrammed via MotoScan
  • Findings satisfactory.
 
Dear brains trust,
I have a K25 2012 R1200GS that has a fuel level sensor fault A2E9, and has the potentiometer fuel level sensor from factory.
So far I have checked the following and unable to rectify the problem.
1. Fuel level sensor resistance 6 to 76 ohms no open circuit and tested at the fuel pump cover terminals
2 . Wiring continuity from fuel level sensor terminals back to ZFE terminals 21 & 37
3. Tested continuity from fuel level sensor terminal with a 10 ohm resistor back to terminals 21 & 37 = 10 Ohms
Motoscan ZFE fuel level set to potentiometer and not fuel strip
So I believe that the fuel level sensor and associated wiring is OK.
Is there anything else that will prevent the ZFE from reading the fuel level sensor , is there a setting in the Motoscan app coding perhaps?
Or can I turn the low fuel warning off?
 
Hello everyone,

I understand that many of you have faced issues with the fuel strip and have considered switching to a float. I want to introduce you to an alternative solution that we have developed, which is both reliable and more affordable than the original.

Personally, I have experienced the frustration of running out of fuel twice on my K1200s before deciding to take matters into my own hands.

To learn more about our solution, you can find us on Google by searching for "fuelsensortech" (I apologize for not being able to post direct links in my first post).

I'm thrilled to share that our fuel sensor has already been installed in over 500 bikes, and we are currently working on a version that requires no calibration. This feature is highly requested by several customers who do not have a scanner.

Thank you for your attention,

Carlos
 
Hello everyone,

I understand that many of you have faced issues with the fuel strip and have considered switching to a float. I want to introduce you to an alternative solution that we have developed, which is both reliable and more affordable than the original.

Personally, I have experienced the frustration of running out of fuel twice on my K1200s before deciding to take matters into my own hands.

To learn more about our solution, you can find us on Google by searching for "fuelsensortech" (I apologize for not being able to post direct links in my first post).

I'm thrilled to share that our fuel sensor has already been installed in over 500 bikes, and we are currently working on a version that requires no calibration. This feature is highly requested by several customers who do not have a scanner.

Thank you for your attention,

Carlos
Hi Carlos,

Took a look at your website. This sensor does not look much different than the one BMW has inside the tank. And at $150 plus shipping with no known reliability is rather high in my opinion.

Also, I read the directions and they are not very clear, you may want to get better english translation.

I would be interested if you have one that requires no calibration as I don't have the scanner tool, that is fairly accurate at a good price.

Otherwise I just fill up my tank and go about 270 miles each time before I fill up again and not worry about the fuel gauge, this has worked so far.
 
Hello everyone,

I understand that many of you have faced issues with the fuel strip and have considered switching to a float. I want to introduce you to an alternative solution that we have developed, which is both reliable and more affordable than the original.

Personally, I have experienced the frustration of running out of fuel twice on my K1200s before deciding to take matters into my own hands.

To learn more about our solution, you can find us on Google by searching for "fuelsensortech" (I apologize for not being able to post direct links in my first post).

I'm thrilled to share that our fuel sensor has already been installed in over 500 bikes, and we are currently working on a version that requires no calibration. This feature is highly requested by several customers who do not have a scanner.

Thank you for your attention,

Carlos
Carlos,
This product has been mentioned on the forum before. Like BMW Pains I would recommend a professional translation of the website to make English speaking customers more comfortable. And your payment site needs to be in English, extremely hard for someone to navigate. I couldn’t even get to the shipping page to determine shipping cost.

While the YouTube video appears well done, nowhere does the website (in English) recommend to turn on closed caption/CC and setting captions to English—a recommendation for you. I need to watch it with the English subtitles again.

Lastly—I’d strongly recommend a US based distributor like Ted Porters Beemershop or Beemer Boneyard to retail your product. This adds additional credibility and comfort regarding warranty and reliability. Your payment page not being in English will stop nearly all USA customers. The profit margin you’d give up would like pay for itself with additional sales. While I like supporting small businesses the reality is no on this site likely knows one of your 500 customers. Credibility is tough to build on a new product, I’m sure we have some established members willing to give a complimentary unit a try to help your marketing efforts.
—Krons
 
Hi Carlos,

Took a look at your website. This sensor does not look much different than the one BMW has inside the tank. And at $150 plus shipping with no known reliability is rather high in my opinion.

Also, I read the directions and they are not very clear, you may want to get better english translation.

I would be interested if you have one that requires no calibration as I don't have the scanner tool, that is fairly accurate at a good price.

Otherwise I just fill up my tank and go about 270 miles each time before I fill up again and not worry about the fuel gauge, this has worked so far.

Hello Krons, first of all, thank you for your observation regarding English; we will improve in this aspect. I am Argentinean, and I make my best effort to improve my English every day.

I will respond to each of your points.

Regarding how similar the sensor is to the original, I would start by saying that things that appear very similar often turn out to be quite different. The original sensor is entirely passive and is built with 400 thermocouples that are soldered to copper tracks on the printed circuit board (the thermocouples and copper have different coefficients of expansion). When this assembly is subjected to constant temperature variations, the solder joints end up breaking (which some people temporarily solve with a spark plug). So, there is a design flaw in this aspect.

Our sensor, despite its similarity, is completely different. Instead of using 400 thermocouples, we use thermistors and resistors. Inside the capsule, there is a microprocessor that monitors the behavior and interpolates the data, generating over 2000 data points. This is then translated into an equivalent voltage to what the original sensor would deliver (the motorcycle's ECU understands that an original sensor is installed).

The use of SMD thermistors allows for solder pads that are about 200 times larger than the originals, and there is also no difference in the coefficients of expansion.

Thanks for your comments.
 
Thanks
Carlos,
This product has been mentioned on the forum before. Like BMW Pains I would recommend a professional translation of the website to make English speaking customers more comfortable.

While the YouTube video appears well done, nowhere does the website (in English) recommend to turn on closed caption/CC and setting captions to English—a recommendation for you. I need to watch it with the English subtitles again.

Lastly—I’d strongly recommend a US based distributor like Ted Porters Beemershop or Beemer Boneyard to retail your product. This adds additional credibility and comfort regarding warranty and reliability. Your payment page not being in English will stop nearly all USA customers. The profit margin you’d give up would like pay for itself with additional sales. While I like supporting small businesses the reality is no on this site likely knows one of your 500 customers. Credibility is tough to build on a new product, I’m sure we have some established members willing to give a complimentary unit a try to help your marketing efforts.
—Krons
for your advise, we will reach both of this US based distributors you mentioned, and we will also work on an english version of the video or at least the captions! I would also like to mention that already some US based distributors are using our sensor in the US as:

Motohank in Texas
Rk Parts LLC Miami Fl

Both of them with more than 10 sensors each!

Thanks.

Carlos.
 
You can also consider selling your product on eBay or Amazon to make it easier for customers and generate publicly visible reviews.
 
Carlos,
This product has been mentioned on the forum before. Like BMW Pains I would recommend a professional translation of the website to make English speaking customers more comfortable. And your payment site needs to be in English, extremely hard for someone to navigate. I couldn’t even get to the shipping page to determine shipping cost.

While the YouTube video appears well done, nowhere does the website (in English) recommend to turn on closed caption/CC and setting captions to English—a recommendation for you. I need to watch it with the English subtitles again.

Lastly—I’d strongly recommend a US based distributor like Ted Porters Beemershop or Beemer Boneyard to retail your product. This adds additional credibility and comfort regarding warranty and reliability. Your payment page not being in English will stop nearly all USA customers. The profit margin you’d give up would like pay for itself with additional sales. While I like supporting small businesses the reality is no on this site likely knows one of your 500 customers. Credibility is tough to build on a new product, I’m sure we have some established members willing to give a complimentary unit a try to help your marketing efforts.
—Krons
Yes I agree.

For me at least, if you can make one that does not require this complicated calibration where one has to buy adapters, install apps with software upgrades, buy 911 units,....etc. that would be great. Personally, I think companies are getting carried away with this endless technology where it ends up making things more complicated and more expensive to deal with. In the long run, mechanical things are more reliable.

Anyway, I sell on ebay with 100% rating and I am based out of California. I can carry & sell your product for you if you're interested. I also sell or was selling on Amazon till recently. Like Krons said, some sort of warranty on reliability should be offered to give people some assurance. And having some of us perhaps test your product is a good idea.

Cheers.
 
Yes I agree.

For me at least, if you can make one that does not require this complicated calibration where one has to buy adapters, install apps with software upgrades, buy 911 units,....etc. that would be great. Personally, I think companies are getting carried away with this endless technology where it ends up making things more complicated and more expensive to deal with. In the long run, mechanical things are more reliable.

Anyway, I sell on ebay with 100% rating and I am based out of California. I can carry & sell your product for you if you're interested. I also sell or was selling on Amazon till recently. Like Krons said, some sort of warranty on reliability should be offered to give people some assurance. And having some of us perhaps test your product is a good idea.

Cheers.
Calibration is not complicated quite the contrary. All you do is after you install the fuel strip and before you put gasoline in it connect a GS911 to the bike and go to calibrate fuel strip and click it, done. Exit out of the GS911 and dosconnect it. Top up with fuel and ride. The calibration takes less time than it does to top up the tank,

With that while not complicated it is necessary to get the most accuracy out of whatever fuel strip OEM or aftermarket.

FWIW I have never used a MotoScan tool so I do not know if it is more involved.

calibration is necissary no matter
 
Hi. Great infomation on this topic. I am on my third fuel strip and going to convert to float. Does anyone know it you can reprogram the bike to accept the float with a gs-911 unit once the wiring has been changed.
 
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