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Question: Which Voltage Meter Do You Have?


tinyminds

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I'm finally getting around to hooking up a voltage meter on my bike considering the butt-load of accessories I have on my bike with no way of monitoring voltage. The old thread on this is gone, so I figured I would ask again. I've been putting this off for no reason, but need to get this done before I take my 2 week long Tmac trip. So I'm looking for pictures of different peoples meters, and where they got them. I would love to have two seperate meters, matching, one amp, one voltage, but I've looked around a lot with the only luck being the one HS listed ( http://www.kisantech.com/index.php?cat_id=5 ) in a different thread, which is neat, but I can't justify the $$$ for it. I'm pretty stuck on the flush mount LED setup like I show below, but all pictures are welcome. Thanks.

SP100_large.gif

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I retrofitted a Kriss Amp-u-Tron I found off ebay. It is made for a wing dinger, but I cut it into the fairing and it looks nice. It has voltage and Amperage readings. Quite handy, and I only paid $25.

I'll snap A picture tonight of the unit.

Ebay Linky to the Amp-u-Tron

That one has the temp feature, mine doesn't and my buttons look much better. Check back tonight, I'll have some pics.

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I retrofitted a Kriss Amp-u-Tron I found off ebay. It is made for a wing dinger, but I cut it into the fairing and it looks nice. It has voltage and Amperage readings. Quite handy, and I only paid $25.

I'll snap A picture tonight of the unit.

Ebay Linky to the Amp-u-Tron

That one has the temp feature, mine doesn't and my buttons look much better. Check back tonight, I'll have some pics.

Looks interesting, thanks will check back later.

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I retrofitted a Kriss Amp-u-Tron I found off ebay. It is made for a wing dinger, but I cut it into the fairing and it looks nice. It has voltage and Amperage readings. Quite handy, and I only paid $25.

I'll snap A picture tonight of the unit.

.

Looks like it has a Buy It Now price of 85.00 as the only way to bid on it. :pissed:

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Yes, that auction was just to show what the unit looked like. I looked for about 6 months before I found a good deal on one.

Here is mine:

gallery_4338_1246_258328.jpg

Kriss Amp-U-Tron Here you see the bottom side of the display and the brain for the unit.

gallery_4338_1246_57264.jpg

Kriss Amp-U-Tron Here you can see the display. Not sure why it looks like 32.3, it actually is reading 3.23. Guess it's the flash?

To mount it I just scuffed up the bottom side of the trim panel and epoxied on 3 elevator bolts, then made a loop out of speaker wire and tightened it down. Works like a charm. It looks really good, just make sure to take your precious time cutting the hole for it to mount in. I don't have the temp option, so only one button on the front of the unit, and it switches between volts and amps. Default is amps, and it is a momentary switch to check voltage, press it down and it shows volts, let it go and it is back to amps. There is one more piece to the puzzle, and that is the in-line (actual) amp meter. It is like a terminal block that you have to cut the power wire between the battery and the main fuse block and land the wires on the block so that the electricity can flow through the unit to monitor amperage. Splicing the unit in this location prevents an amperage spike when you hit the starter. It is kinda large, and a pain to install it all, but it sure is nice to monitor both amperage and voltage.

P.S. You need to see it when it is clean, looks like crap right now because everything is dusty, when things are clean and shiny, it looks factory.

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  • 1 month later...

Sorry if I'm shifting the topic on this slightly, but have you guys ever notice, on ads and images in packaging for most voltmeter type devices for bikes or cars, like on this "Amputron" voltmeter, the reading show ranges mostly from 13.2 to 13.5 volts. Is that a hint that normal charging voltage for most 12 volt vehicles really falls within that range??

Are most of us expecting too much charging voltage from our VFR's system (14+volts?)????

My 4th gen has been showing me 13.3 to 13.5 constant charging voltage at 70+ MPH while cruising for long durations on the highway. Never had problems for years at that voltage range (I'm only on my second battery which I changed only because I had to update my obviously failing original, unfinned version RR a few years ago when it started giving me only 10.8 volts after a few miles on the road.).

I also notice that a lot of people report this same 13.2-13.5 voltage range coming from their VFRs, and unfortunately most of them start panicking, and tear into their charging systems looking for 14+ volts. Can someone on this forum with multiple bikes go test all of them to establish an average acceptable voltage range between manufacturers and finally figure out if we are just uneccessarily paranoid about all of this :unsure: ???

Beck

95 VFR

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The least expensive option $25.00) for a panel meter is the Lascar EMV1200. Works great except that it is not backlit and is not water proof. I have "waterproofed" mine with a simple piece of cellophane tape, has worked fine for 60,000+ miles.

I bought it from allied Electric online. I will post a pic if there is interest. The interesting thing about this meter is the very fast refresh rate compared to most others.I like it because I think it gives me some added insight into whats going on with the charging system. Others may find the constant fluctuation annoying.

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I retrofitted a Kriss Amp-u-Tron I found off ebay. It is made for a wing dinger, but I cut it into the fairing and it looks nice. It has voltage and Amperage readings. Quite handy, and I only paid $25.

I'll snap A picture tonight of the unit.

.

Looks like it has a Buy It Now price of 85.00 as the only way to bid on it. :unsure:

There's a "best offer" option, if you look down a bit.

I guess they accepted 25 bucks for a best offer before. wouldn't hurt to try.

Beck

95 VFR

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The least expensive option $25.00) for a panel meter is the Lascar EMV1200. Works great except that it is not backlit and is not water proof. I have "waterproofed" mine with a simple piece of cellophane tape, has worked fine for 60,000+ miles.

I bought it from allied Electric online. I will post a pic if there is interest. The interesting thing about this meter is the very fast refresh rate compared to most others.I like it because I think it gives me some added insight into whats going on with the charging system. Others may find the constant fluctuation annoying.

If you don't mind, I'd like to see how you mounted it! I have a 4th Gen VFR, which doesn't have the "shelf space" that the 5+ Gens do for mounting one of these. This seems like the best/cheapest volt meter option out there. There aren't many, that's for sure.

Thanks,

Rob

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The least expensive option $25.00) for a panel meter is the Lascar EMV1200. Works great except that it is not backlit and is not water proof. I have "waterproofed" mine with a simple piece of cellophane tape, has worked fine for 60,000+ miles.

I bought it from allied Electric online. I will post a pic if there is interest. The interesting thing about this meter is the very fast refresh rate compared to most others.I like it because I think it gives me some added insight into whats going on with the charging system. Others may find the constant fluctuation annoying.

If you don't mind, I'd like to see how you mounted it! I have a 4th Gen VFR, which doesn't have the "shelf space" that the 5+ Gens do for mounting one of these. This seems like the best/cheapest volt meter option out there. There aren't many, that's for sure.

Thanks,

Rob

Here you go, Lascar EMV1200

lascaremv1200.jpg

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