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I have an electric oil pressure gauge that reads 10-16 volts DC input. The oil pressure sensors available produce a 0-5 volt DC output signal. If I connect a constant 10 volt wire along with the variable 0-5 volt signal output wire of the oil pressure sensor to the gauge, will that work?

This is for a 12 volt system.

I have been trying to get a link for the gauge but couldn't get more info. The gauge was made in Australia by Autron in a limited quantity for one of Holden Motor Co. 2006 car models.

Autron no longer makes gauges and they don't have info on that anymore. The oil pressure sensor is from a eBay listing so all the info I have is

Gauge parameters:
0-16 VDC input
30 mA input
0-75 PSI dial

Oil pressure transducer:
12-16 VDC input
0-5 VDC output
0-75 PSI
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    Links to specifications for the gauge and sensor would be very helpful. Also, is this in a motor vehicle or? What other voltages are available. How is the system grounded? I have no doubt you will get answers without providing this information. But there is a good chance they will be wrong, because we will be trying to guess what your application is.
    – mkeith
    Commented Nov 14, 2015 at 1:32
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    Possible duplicate of Analog voltage level conversion (level shift)
    – cde
    Commented Nov 14, 2015 at 4:15
  • Does the pressure gauge take 10-16 V or 0-16 V DC input? You mention two ranges in separate places
    – Zaid
    Commented Nov 19, 2015 at 19:04
  • I feel your pain. Then sensor for my coolant temp gauge went bad and it's not possible to get replacements with the same voltage levels anymore...
    – Brian Knoblauch
    Commented Nov 19, 2015 at 21:16

1 Answer 1

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I don't think there is a voltage mismatch. Both the sensor and the gauge appear to use a supply of 10-16 VDC. The mismatch is between the output of the sensor and the input of the gauge. The sensor is producing voltage and the gauge wants current. You can convert between the two with a resistor.

The way I read those specs the gauge requires a power supply of 10-16 VDC and a signal input of 30 mA full scale. You can test this by connecting the gauge to a 12 VDC supply through a 470Ω resistor, it should read close to full scale. Without looking at the gauge I can't tell if it (probably) needs the 10-16 VDC supply for lighting or if the gauge actually needs that to run on. It could be that the gauge is just an ammeter with an oil pressure scale.

The sensor is (probably) powered by 10-16 VDC and produces a DC voltage of 0-5 V that is proportional to the pressure. You could convert that to current by wiring the gauge in series with the sensor output and a resistor of about 166Ω. If you got a variable resistor or "trim pot" that included that range you could use it to adjust the full scale reading on the meter. For to protect against turning the variable resistor down to low and potentially damaging the gauge you could wire a smaller variable resistor in series with a fixed resistor of around 150Ω or so.

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