I bought a fuel control panel from Wayne Lanza in the late 1990's.  Wayne still does business as "Composite Design Inc" but does not seem to offer this product anymore.  It's pretty simple, using a Skysports capacitance probe in the header tank to turn the transfer pumps on when the header tank is partially empty and turn them off when the tank is mostly full. The precise on/off points are user adjustable.  There are indicator lights for when the fuel pump relays are on.  The three switches at bottom center control the pmps.  The center one is AUTO/MANUAL and when in AUTO the system works as I described.  In MANUAL, the pilot can turn each pump on or off, bypassing the logic transistors.  (This became significant when I blew out the transistors by screwing up a bench test.)

 

The left side is an LED bar graph showing fuel quantity in each of the three tanks.

The right side holds the landing gear switch, the "gear down and locked" lights, and the "hydraulic pump operating" light.

 

There is nothing magic about this panel but it does make a nice, compact installation.  You could easily reproduce it, but if you call Wayne he might make one for you.

 

One other thing -- I have Pillar Point optical fuel sensors in the fuel transfer lines.  When a wing tank is empty my annunciator system tells me with an amber indication, so I can shut off the transfer pump manually.  Otherwse it would run forever.  There is also a Pillar Point sensor in the header tank set slighly lower than the "turn the pumps on" level.  This LO FUEL indication goes to a red light on the annunciator system.

This gives my two independent ways to determine whether there is fuel in the header tank, with the "I'm really low" sensor attached to both a visual and audible warning.

 

- Rob Wolf