LED Voltmeter

[mcgovern61]

When I originally got my '82 on the road (with the '81 engine), I had battery issues when I first started out with the bike as a result of restoration failures, being a noob to 1100's and not realizing some of the electrical issues should have been easy to resolve. A few dead battery issues after riding caused me to add an analog voltmeter to my bike to keep track of the voltage...determined not to get stuck on the side of the road again. The voltmeter was able to be easily installed to my Vetter faring (inside to the bottom left of the faring):

It worked great! After swapping out the '81 engine with an '83, I ended up with a real good stator and decent wiring. Soldered the stator wires and could watch my voltages real easily on long trips. Never a problem with this meter or the charging system!

Last year, I removed my Vetter faring and with it went my analog voltmeter. I had no more real estate left for it now and it wasn't actually in a waterproof pod.

After reading Ansimp's posts about his LED voltmeter installed in a 12 VDC outlet, I went searching and came up with an inexpensive Chinese made unit that is a 2", all chrome, waterproof housing with red LED for $9.79 with free shipping! :shock: (How bad can it be??)

https://www.banggood.com/Motorcycle-Red- ... 39475.html

 

[mcgovern61]

The unit arrived today and it is exactly like the pictures. :yes:

I looked around my dash for the best spot, out of the way but easy to reference and found that it mounted right up on the top bolt of the front master cylinder.

Thought I would try it out before running a permanent wire to the ACC poles in the fuse box (which is where I had the original analog one wired in so that it would go off and on with the key).

Worked like a charm! I tested the voltage at the battery and it was spot on. I tested it again at the ACC fuse and there is about a .5 to .8 voltage drop (again, the same as I experienced with the analog meter). I tested it with the engine running while I put my good Fluke digital multimeter on the battery to compare voltages while running. The LED meter stayed fairly consistently more than a half a volt lower than the battery voltage. I can live with that!

 

[dan filipi]

Sounds good but dang, it looks huge for what it is.

 

[Ansimp]

Here are a couple of other options if anyone else is looking for digital voltmeters
https://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vi ... 0712978267

Voltmeters

• Ansimp
• May 11, 2015

https://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vi ... 1072799065

Voltmeters

• Ansimp
• May 11, 2015

I prefered my temp/volt usb charger one over this really compact one that would of mounted in the hole left by my cig lighter socket, as I still have the option to use the socket for other things. :yes:

image

• Ansimp
• Apr 11, 2015

I have since used the round one with the bezel in a motor home, I think I find the blue leds easier to read than the red.

 

[zman]

Sure be nice if one day that had a heads up display you could mount to a windshield to measure volts,temp,ambient temp,even speed and other functions, something thin and maybe even flexible, who knows ..these days it might be just around the corner.
Looks good Gerry.

 

[mcgovern61]

dan filipi » Mon May 11, 2015 9:17 pm[/url]":3kflur0r]
Sounds good but dang, it looks huge for what it is.

It is not as big as it looks in the pics; I was taking close up shots and zooming in. It is only a 2" meter.

 

[mcgovern61]

I have since used the round one with the bezel in a motor home, I think I find the blue leds easier to read than the red.

I like the blue verses the red also, but my Radio remote readout on the other side of the handlebars is also red LED. I thought it would at least make a decent match. The jury is still out on the location of the unit, but it may stay there for my Florida run.

 

[canuckxxxx]

Here is another option for monitoring your battery voltage...an LED that changes colour depending on voltage. :shock: At about 13.2 voltage or higher it glows green. Below that it glows red. I must confess that I put this on about 3 years ago and have lost all the literature that came with it I'm just going by memory (bad) on the numbers. :headscratch: :head bang: Anyway it takes up very little room and it tells me if the battery is being charged or not. If you google "LED battery monitor" you will get lots of ideas.

Here it is just to right of choke.

IMG-20150512-02647

• canuckxxxx
• May 12, 2015

Also, it you want to mount one of those rectangular volt meters, here is how I mounted my plenum temperature display. Used a piece of lexan and zip tied it to the handlebars.

IMG-20150512-02650

• canuckxxxx
• May 12, 2015

 

[canuckxxxx]

OK, did some searching. This is the one I have.
https://www.sparkbright.co.uk/sparkright ... onitor.php