[LoneStrom]

I just did a car battery upgrade on my 07 V ( I have a sidecar installed) and I now want to add a voltmeter but I'm unsure on how to wire it in??.With the car battery it's now possible to run for a longer time with the bike NOT charging,which means I could get farther out in the sticks BEFORE the problem would be noticed,so I want a voltmeter to keep a eye on things.ANY help with this would be great..:thumbup:

Alan..

 

[OydnaR]

I pulled my voltage off my auxillary power supply, that way it shuts off and turns on with the bike. I don't see how your battery setup makes wireing the voltmeter any different than normal, connect it to a switched sircuit



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[LoneStrom]

It's no different,I just have never done one before.

 

[chicago]

I used the 'heated grips connector' for my voltage monitor. I did have to order the connector from Eastern Beaver. Once you find it you can access it from the left side of the bike with the side panel removed.

 

[Jimding]

Might

Might want to check the specs on your voltmeter to see how much current it draws. Some are in the milliamp range. If that's the case, you can wire it direct (with fuse) to the battery. Yes, over a period of months, it can discharge the battery, but if the bike is sitting idle for months it should be on a trickle charger anyway. If you wire it into some other circuit, depending on the resistance in the circuit and the amount of current being drawn, the voltage indicated may be less than the actual battery voltage. Which is OK, as long as you remember that the reading is artificially low. If the idea of having the voltmeter always on bothers you, you can put a switch in the circuit.

 

[Lesman]

I'm running a Color LED setup. I have aux fuse box. I connected it to the box. The box is only hot with the key turned on.




Les

 

[LoneStrom]

Thanks guys.
I'm installing a aux fuse box today so I will probably go to that.

 

[greywolf]

The final step will be using a good hand held meter connected to the battery for a comparison. My old setup had a small difference I adjusted for in my head. Going to heavier wire brought a match.

 

[realshelby]

I bought one of the color changing LED voltmeters from the guy that sells the MOSFET R/R's. I really like an "idiot" light for this function. I don't have the link to it in front of me. It should let you know when the system fails and maybe more importantly when you are drawing more than the system is producing. All without having to watch a gauge.

On another note I am working on an external alternator that should eliminate the worry about running out of power!

 

[LoneStrom]

At 13,000 miles I fried a stator,left me stranded on I 90 for HOURS !!.A bigger alt would be AWSOME !!,let me know how that go's !!.:thumbup:

 

[chicago]

At 13,000 miles I fried a stator,left me stranded on I 90 for HOURS !!.A bigger alt would be AWSOME !!,let me know how that go's !!.:thumbup:

Stranded by your stator at 13,000 miles is not very encouraging.

 

[LoneStrom]

Burnt to a crisp!!!,$500.00 later I was up and running again!!!!!!!!!

 

[JPK]

The final step will be using a good hand held meter connected to the battery for a comparison. My old setup had a small difference I adjusted for in my head. Going to heavier wire brought a match.

Greywolf- what gauge wire did you find you needed in order to eliminate the difference in reading between the voltmeter and the reading at the battery? I'm planning to mount a Datel voltmeter on a Richland Rick aux shelf on the triple, so I'll need a ~3 ft run of wire (I'm guessing) back to the PC-8 under the seat. Is 16 gauge heavy enough, or should I go with something heavier?

Thanks,
John

 

[greywolf]

I ran 10ga wire from the relay and battery to a fuse block in the fairing. The voltmeter to the fuse block uses maybe a foot of 18ga.

 

[Jimding]

Curious

I ran 10ga wire from the relay and battery to a fuse block in the fairing. The voltmeter to the fuse block uses maybe a foot of 18ga.

How much current does that draw? Most hand-held meters are in the megohm range, meaning that 10 ohms in the wiring (grossly overstated) would still drop the sensed voltage something like 10E-5 volts, pretty much imperceptible. I'd think the bigger problems would be making connections that wouldn't build up resistance over time with only milliamps of current being passed. I suppose if the 'meter' uses LED's, you're probably talking several tenths of an amp, which is a different story. Be interesting to check the voltage drop from point to point in the wiring circuit to see where you're losing the voltage.

 

[greywolf]

The voltmeter I have also has a clock and thermometer so maybe had a slightly higher draw. The included wires were something like 22ga.

 

[GT_Hawk]

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what I have

took a link off of the line for accessories up front, used a nice small wire thats is 12v rated. since the line has no read draw the volt meter works great in this configuration. It