12 Volt guages

Jeff's quite right.
I've got one of the Jaycar units and it's not too bad.....

I got sick of it beeping at me for no apparent reason, so pulled it apart and cut the wires to the speaker. I also found the clock was a bit like Janette Howard in bed at night (ie: next to useless...). It runs off a couple of button batteries, so I pulled them out and don't worry about that feature. I cut the 12v cigi plug off and hard wired it to my 2nd battery. It is supposed to have a blue back light on, whenever power is present, but mine has a mind of it's own and isn't usually on even though it has full time power.
Sometimes the screen goes berserk for a while (could be seconds, minutes, hours or days) whereby the it will show all 8888888's etc.
I may have just got a dud, but I leave it there cos it does work okay MOST of the time and the voltmeter seems to be okay too.....measures to 1 tenth of a volt.

Geez Bill,

I'd take it back for a replacement, (even though you have modified it:-)

Mine is stock standard and works well.

I left the plug on so that I can swap between Primary and Secondary batteries, mearly by plugging it in to the appropriate socket.

The outside temperature sensor is also handy to shove in the fridge to monitor its temperature.

Hi Jeff

they look like a good unit, best i get myself one.

cheers

Crazie

Yeah Rochaie, yours sounds munted! :-) Get another, they are really good.

The clock works fine on mine, never changed the batteries on it and it keep in sycn with the GPS.

I cut the end off mine and wired it through a switch to the batteries. I can flick the switch and it switches between bat A. and bat B. Normally I leaveit on Bat B. though as the volt meter on the dash of the surf shows a rough idea of bat A.

Mine only beeps when under 11.5V but if you don't have it connected directly to the battery, ie you have other things running of the same cable you'll find that voltage drop will trigger the alarm prematually. ie if you transmit on your HF it may drop the voltage and trigger the alarm, or if you fridge cuts in etc etc etc.

The 8888888 on the display happens on mine also, but only when it's a 35c plus day and the cars been sitting in the sun, seems to be when the ambiant temp get's over 60c or so. Once the air con's been running for 10 minutes or so it comes back good. I have the outside temp sensor siliconed to the underneath of the air ram on the snorkel. Nice and shaded from the sun, plenty of fresh air and away from the engine heat for an accurate temp. I find the inside temp is pretty inaccurate though because its mounted just above my stereo and the stereo get's hot while playing MP3s and seems to through it out a bit.

My backlight is always on when the unit is on.ie If I'm monitoring aux bat it's on, if I'm monitoring Bat A it's on when the keys are in.

Andrew

I had a very similar project in mind. LCD 200mV meter from Oatley for $9 reading directly from a shunt from one of the solar shops. I would like to see how you put it together - any chance of passing on your design?

Anoldbuddy

Wish I was that clever with electronics!
I would also be very keen to see your design.

Hi Guys,

I've had a few enquiries about my cheap and cheerful volt & ammeter design so I'll draw it out tonite & post a link for it. Standby.

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Sounds good ... standing by

Ok everyone,

I've drawn up the design for my cheap & cheerful Volt & Ammeter and put a link to it on my website. You can find the link here under Andrew's Volt & Ammeter.

If you need any more info, feel free to email me direct at info@trektable.com.au.

Happy tinkering!

Andrew