digital 12 volt meter

I am looking for the same thing and posted on this forum asking the same question the other day.

I have narrowed it down to either this one from Ebay,

Site Link

or this one, Site Link

There is also one from Arrid, but it doesnt show up on their product page although it does exist and is available from Arrid. It costs $59.99 plus $6 postage.

Jaycar have a little LED display for volts, time for about $35.00.

They also used to have a postive battery clamp with a LED voltage display built in.

I use one in my ute from Jaycar. Think it was around $35 and it works great. Has extra stuff like backlighting when lights are on and 3 LEDs for low normal and high voltage, plus a stop watch.

Bunnings have had several small digital multimeters for about $10. I have used a couple in hardwired spots and they work fine. Give the same numbers as my Fluke which gives me confidence.

alastair

I bought one from "TANDY" for about $30 and put a three way swithch on it. It does more than just volts...inside and outside temp...clock and a couple of other things I cant even remember and never use.
Its been in my car for about 2 years and never had a problem with it.

Cheers

You can get a full blown multimeter for about 20 bucks from Kmart. Benefit of sitting that in a cradle or velcroed to the side of the battery box is that you could actually remove it to use on faultfinding elsewhere, ie, tracing blown fuses, short circuits, measuring car voltages, even testing camera batteries and so on.

If you're worried about reliability, buy two of them, you still end up $60 better off than your original planned spend....

Hi Cobes,
As someone mentioned we tend to have stuff with which we don't know about or use all its functions. Made me think, I have a GPS which I can do a split screen which gives me long/lat; speeed over ground and battery voltage.
There may be other makes out there with the same features. My is a Lowrance Global Nav Sport.
Steve

I've intsalled the "needle type volt meter that Derek sells, got sick of the digital readout's loosing a bar here and there in the displays' after a while.

Chris

In my opinion you are better with an analogue meter for permanent installations. They don't draw as much current as a digital meter.

There are some good expanded scale ones around that will certainly give you an accurate reading

Noel

Try this maybe....

Needing accurate Amp and Volt readouts is a must with any DC system but unfortunately there are not many displays around that can do this without costing an arm and a leg. I was not interested in the voltage displays with clocks and thermometers as they are both inaccurate and tacky so for the same amount of money I made my own. All up cost was around $37 and little bit of time to assemble.
The setup consists of 2 LCD displays from Dick Smith (part no. Q2220 cost $9.98 ea), a 50A current shunt from Jaycar (part no. QP5412 cost $9.95 ea), a switch, resistors (to setup the displays), wire, terminals, a box and a 9V battery. The shunt is located in the battery compartment and is secured with a dob of silicon to
reduce holes in the tub. The negative leads of all accessories go to one side and the batteries negative lead is connected to the other side. All accessories have their negative lead terminated at the shunt with nothing being grounded to the chassis. The LCD is then connected to the shunt to display Amps. You can then see current going into and out of the batteries (displays a negative sign when current going out). Both readouts are powered by a 9V battery and I put a switch in to turn them on and off as a battery was only lasting a couple of weeks when they were always powered on. I am extremely happy with the setup and can see what current each accessory is drawing and what the chargers are putting in.

Hope this helps...

Grrr!!!

What I have used in a couple of instances is Kit plus an LCD display from the same vendor.

cost for both was $18 plus a few dollars freight. Works well and with a shunt and switch can be used to show Amps as well. The kit is very easy to put together.

Cheers

Peter

Hi Chris,
I have built a voltage indicator from tricky dicky. I had to also make an enclosue to house the LEDS and board.
I'm no gun at this stuff but it was fairly simple - mounting was the hardest.

Battery Monitor Kit Monitor your car battery.
K4611 $14.92

As it is LED's, it is no a precision instrument, but I get a very good idea on what is going on. I have found a bad (Auto Elect. installed) 2nd batery earth and a faulty 2nd batt isolator using the device. You just start to get a picture on what is normal and know when things require attention. It aslo told me I had not completed any maintenace on the battery and the electolye got low - bat droped excessive chage in 24hrs.

I have my unit plugged in at the back of the car, at the same point the fridge is. So you can see what is happening after current induced voltage drop on the way to the fridge. i.e. I know when the Kids dvd is on, the voltage at the back sockets drops.

I have 3 power plugs at the bak. 12v for the kids, voltage monitor and GPS in one, fridge in one, one spare / lighting in the third.
I have made up a plug / lead set to connect my multi meter into the plugs with out messing around with the probs. This enables accurate vlotage measurement near the fridge. - You can see the impact of the fridge startiong / stopping etc.

Over time I have found I dont use the meter as the rough indicator is telling me sufficient info.

I think the 2nd bat voltage is worth a continuous monitor - what ever way you go. I also think its v. good to monitor as close to the fridge as possible.

Paul.

Voltmeters have many shapes and sizes.

Have a look at the pictures on my site.

Meters

I have also included a graph for basic information of battery condition.

Regards Derek.

Chris
Have a look at Post ID 37474. It may give you a few more ideas.
Good luck.
Ian

Ive got one of the LCD ones, from Dick smith, they are 12 dollars i think. Set up to read to 15.00 volts so its got two decimal places, (not that you need that accuracy) and its powered by a 9volt battery, all inside a small black plastic box. I then put in a two way switch, wired with three wires coming out of it. Two positive wires (one for each battery) and an earth. This way I can press a button (powers up the voltmeter) select which battery I want to look at and see the voltage, then let the press button go and it turns off.
This way, I can see the voltage of either battery and the whole thing still works, if either battery goes totally flat. Means you can still accuratly measure the voltage of iether battery even if the worst happens.

Jaycar XC0116 Jaycar XC0116

I use 2 analogue voltmetres from Dick Smith ($20 each), one wired to a switched circuit in the dashboard (tells me what the alternator is putting out when I'm driving), and the other wired to the accessory circuit near the fridge, so I can see the charge in the deepcycle battery less any voltage drop in the cables.
Not hightech, but it works for me.
Alex.