Solar power Amp gauge?

Hi Mark,
Thanks for the reply buddy - just a little steep in the price department for me. $150 is a bit Rolls Royce for an electrical gauge - not rocket science.
Appreciate your time though.

All i use is an analoguge Amp meter permanently wired 10Amp as my panell is 100W. $17.95 QP5015 Jaycar.

dbish,
Sounds good for your purpose. I have 2x135 watts panels. Do they have a bigger one? I have also used my clamp meter to check the starting amps on the truck. it is just horses for courses - what applications do plan on using it for. Golden rule, it should have more than one use.

Cheers,
Bill

A link to the instruction booklet

instructions

Ian

These are also popular. I have one for quick measurements of charging currents. Just clip the jaws over one wire and it will read the current. Can also use as a multimeter for measuring Volts and Ohms.
There are cheaper places on Ebay than this link, if you look around.

ut 203

Ian

Hi Ian,
This looks perfect! - just what I want. Does it just connect in-line, ie... red wire to red wire and black to black? I tried the instructions link, but it wont load the page.
Cheers, Paul

Yep, just connect in line, red to red, black to black.
Source side goes to the unit supplying the power (panel in your case) and load side to battery. I put Andersen plugs on both sides so I can plug into any power line to check the current, Ahrs, Volts etc. Use to measure total Ahrs drawn by fridge in 24hrs etc, or total Ahrs drawn from battery overnight etc
Has many uses !

Ian

Same thing, different name, cheaper from HK

meter

Ian

Great!! - had already grabbed one from Ebay from your link. Only 10 odd dollars more and it is in my home state, so wont have to wait the 2-5 weeks they quote to shio from Hong Kong.
Thanks for the useful info - you have been very helpful.
Paul.

Yep, horses for courses is also true for the UT clamp meter.
Bought one a year ago, and after quite some use, it refuses to show volts, and recently it's started to playing up on the amps range as well.
I suppose it's the wiper contacts scratching away more of the copper, every time you switch it on. I also dislike the auto range function especially in the resistance setting because unless you've got microscopic eye sight, the ohms/kohms indicator is hard to see on the small readout which would benefit from a backlight function.

cheers, Peter

Hi
Clamp meters have their uses but hanging on a cable continuosly is not one of them

You would be better with a Jaycar QP5588 50amp digital panel meter.
correctlywired & fixed mounted
Peter

The Turnigy Power meter is a digital panel meter, I guess, but it will measure and display anything you are likely to want to know. Why buy a seperate meter for this and another for something else and yet another for something else again. This one does it all.

Ian

Quoting Peter (3 FUs above) "after quite some use"; When I buy something for $30 from HK, I would not expect it to satisfy a professional user. As an ex professional electronics tech, no longer practising the profession, my clamp meter does exactly what I expect it to do. It provides the occasional measurement, with accuracy and repeatability with ease and convenience whenever I ask it to. If I was still a practising professional I would have bought a Fluke. As Peter says, "Horses for courses".

Ian