Monk Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 It was suggested not to wire directly to battery. I just bought a volt gauge, and it has 20" wire's (red/black)........ Where is a good place to connect (solder) them?........... Monk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Mac Posted June 3, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted June 3, 2009 It was suggested not to wire directly to battery. I just bought a volt gauge, and it has 20" wire's (red/black)........ Where is a good place to connect (solder) them?........... Monk Howdy Mr. Monk, The tail light wire is easiest to get to. If it was me, I would just tap it with a water resistant plug. I run my volt meter off the wiring harness I built for my radar detector, so it is switched by hand. I did that instead of hacking the bikes wiring harness. Remember, there is more than one way to skin a cat... Mac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Peto Posted June 4, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted June 4, 2009 Anyplace you have 12V power is fine. You may wire it to ignition switched power, e.g. tailight, or license plate light which will turn off with your key, or, you may wire it directly to the battery with your own switch inline on either the power or ground wire. The second way would allow you to see the voltage before turning the bike on, very handy, but it also allows you to make a mistake and leave it on, it uses very little power and would take a long time to prevent the bike from starting. Ground it anywhere on the frame or any ground wire. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer ki-speed Posted June 4, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted June 4, 2009 If it's an LED gauge I would wire it up to a switched circuit (only on when bike is on). If it's an LCD guage you could wire it up to either a switched or unswitched (hot all the time) circuit (LCD draws very little). The advantage of an LCD meter wired to a unswitched circuit is you can monitor at any time, the bikes battery voltage (even when it's charging). This will help give you a heads up when your battery maintainer is going bad. Also, gauge really needs to be at least water resistant or better yet water proof. Good luck. ki-speed (Mark) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beck Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Would wiring it directly to the battery give a slightly different reading from if you wire it dowstream trough the wiring harnesses, ignition switch and maybe even relays, which the tailight wires might be. Would there be a little bit of voltage loss through the wiring??? Beck 95 VFR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Ryanme17 Posted June 4, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted June 4, 2009 It was suggested not to wire directly to battery. Why not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer 03vfrrider Posted June 4, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted June 4, 2009 Would wiring it directly to the battery give a slightly different reading from if you wire it dowstream trough the wiring harnesses, ignition switch and maybe even relays, which the tailight wires might be. Would there be a little bit of voltage loss through the wiring???Beck 95 VFR My opinion is it really doesn't matter, since you will be using it for comparison (one ride to another) rather than diagnostics. Provided your system is up to snuff, what the meter actually displays is not as important as the differences it displays over time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tightwad Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Would wiring it directly to the battery give a slightly different reading from if you wire it dowstream trough the wiring harnesses, ignition switch and maybe even relays, which the tailight wires might be. Would there be a little bit of voltage loss through the wiring???Beck 95 VFR My opinion is it really doesn't matter, since you will be using it for comparison (one ride to another) rather than diagnostics. Provided your system is up to snuff, what the meter actually displays is not as important as the differences it displays over time. This is similar to the Speedo....yes the reading will remain steady, but doing the conversion isn't always easy. I would suggest running it from a relayed source to the battery. The Taillight can have 1.5 volts of loss by the time power gets there, as I found when I wired in LED's for my Trunk, and configured them for 13.5 volts not 12....they don't come on unless the engine is running now. Tapping into the Red/Black wire from the ignition switch directly would give a better reading, and would be easier for those 20" wires to reach. What kind of meter did you buy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Peto Posted June 4, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted June 4, 2009 Would wiring it directly to the battery give a slightly different reading from if you wire it dowstream trough the wiring harnesses, ignition switch and maybe even relays, which the tailight wires might be. Would there be a little bit of voltage loss through the wiring???Beck 95 VFR A slight voltage loss and a current loss will occur due to increased resistance (think friction) in a particular length of wire at some point "downstream" of the battery. With our bikes though, it will be extremely little. The wires' gauge is too low and the length of wires are not long enough. IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Peto Posted June 4, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted June 4, 2009 The Taillight can have 1.5 volts of loss by the time power gets there, as I found when I wired in LED's for my Trunk, and configured them for 13.5 volts not 12.... 1.5 Volts? Thats over 12% loss. Something doesn't seem right with that. Even taking into account the vast amount of cheap connectors honda uses that seems way outta whack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monk Posted June 4, 2009 Author Share Posted June 4, 2009 Would wiring it directly to the battery give a slightly different reading from if you wire it dowstream trough the wiring harnesses, ignition switch and maybe even relays, which the tailight wires might be. Would there be a little bit of voltage loss through the wiring???Beck 95 VFR My opinion is it really doesn't matter, since you will be using it for comparison (one ride to another) rather than diagnostics. Provided your system is up to snuff, what the meter actually displays is not as important as the differences it displays over time. This is similar to the Speedo....yes the reading will remain steady, but doing the conversion isn't always easy. I would suggest running it from a relayed source to the battery. The Taillight can have 1.5 volts of loss by the time power gets there, as I found when I wired in LED's for my Trunk, and configured them for 13.5 volts not 12....they don't come on unless the engine is running now. Tapping into the Red/Black wire from the ignition switch directly would give a better reading, and would be easier for those 20" wires to reach. What kind of meter did you buy? Kuryakyn LED Battery Gauge http://www.customdynamics.com/LED_battery_...s_and_Chargers_ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer CrazyInNYC Posted June 4, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted June 4, 2009 If it's an LED gauge I would wire it up to a switched circuit (only on when bike is on). If it's an LCD guage you could wire it up to either a switched or unswitched (hot all the time) circuit (LCD draws very little). The advantage of an LCD meter wired to a unswitched circuit is you can monitor at any time, the bikes battery voltage (even when it's charging). This will help give you a heads up when your battery maintainer is going bad.Also, gauge really needs to be at least water resistant or better yet water proof. Good luck. ki-speed (Mark) Isn't that backwards? I thought LED draws far less power than LCD. If you look at today's TVs the new ones are going LED and touting the reduction in power usage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monk Posted June 4, 2009 Author Share Posted June 4, 2009 Tapping into the Red/Black wire from the ignition switch directly would give a better reading, and would be easier for those 20" wires to reach.What kind of meter did you buy? So if I tap directly to the (R/B wires) ignition switch...... Will I be good to go without relays and other such stuff?..... If so, should I, solder, or use some kind of wire-to-wire connecter?...... Monk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer FotoMoto Posted June 4, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted June 4, 2009 It was suggested not to wire directly to battery. Why not? Let the bike sit for a week and you'll know why. Attach the + lead to a hot wire (duh) but many of them in the upper wiring harness near or around the gauges will typically give you a flickering reading when you activate the turnsignals. If that matters to you. Also, it will read about .5 to .7 volts lower, in my experience, than when read from the battery. You can attach to the battery with a keyed relay, avoid the drain, and get a more accurate reading. You can get the relays (typically 20amp or so) at radioshack or similar. Currently I have a marine analog unit hooked up to the wiring harness (seen here): but I'll be switching to a datel digital meter with relay wired to the battery. IMO: a voltmeter is the best single mod you can do on a VFR/bike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Peto Posted June 4, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted June 4, 2009 Tapping into the Red/Black wire from the ignition switch directly would give a better reading, and would be easier for those 20" wires to reach.What kind of meter did you buy? So if I tap directly to the (R/B wires) ignition switch...... Will I be good to go without relays and other such stuff?..... If so, should I, solder, or use some kind of wire-to-wire connecter?...... Monk Monk, don't tap your actual ignition wire, it will work, but you don't want to introduce potential problems on that wire. Instead tap an ignition switched wire. If you don't want to be able to turn it on with the bike off, then the best way is to do as fotomoto suggests. Use a standard 20 amp 12V relay. Wire the relay to the battery (+ to +) (- to - or the frame) Then tap into your license plate light for the signal wire to turn the relay on. Then wire the voltmeter to the relay (1 wire on the switched output of the relay, the other wire will share either power or ground of the relay depending on if you wired switched ground or switched power). Wire tie the relay somewhere nice and covered. Personally, I solder all wire to wire connections... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monk Posted June 19, 2009 Author Share Posted June 19, 2009 Kuryakyn LED Battery Gauge http://www.customdynamics.com/LED_battery_...s_and_Chargers_ DSC00147.JPG DSC00146.JPG OK....... Battery gauge installed, And by the way it's waterproof and has a dimmer eye to auto dim in the dark. I kept all the mods in one area (as in pic next to water bottle).... I used the power wire from the cluster plug going to my hot wire leading to my left handlebar elec.'s as my switch wire with relay and spliced into my gps power wire to battery..... So now my gps and my battery gauge are hot when key's on, but not when off. Everything was done with the shortest amount of wiring all in one area. Thank you all for getting me going in the right direction. I used your information to tell the "Audio tech" I took my bike to what I'd like done............... I did not do this install project "He did"..... With all the electric crap I hear about, I didn't want to risk causing an electric hazard that I didn't have in the first place......... Monk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monk Posted June 22, 2009 Author Share Posted June 22, 2009 Correction to my last post.... The volt gauge is water resistance, not proof...... but a little silicone will fix that...I ran some silicone around the only edge that has a seam so now it's water proof..... DSC00150.JPG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer BonusVFR Posted June 22, 2009 Member Contributer Share Posted June 22, 2009 I wired my idiot light up to the aux fuse box (relay cont). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veefer800Canuck Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 I have an LCD voltmeter, it's wired directly to the battery, never had a flat bettery ever. The voltmeter draws about the same as the clock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
checksix Posted June 23, 2009 Share Posted June 23, 2009 I have an LCD voltmeter, it's wired directly to the battery, never had a flat bettery ever. The voltmeter draws about the same as the clock. +1 I like being able to watch the battery voltage when the bike is turned off and has been sitting for awhile in the garage. Especially in the winter. The downside is that you can't see the display at night (no backlighting). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 I have an LCD voltmeter, it's wired directly to the battery, never had a flat bettery ever. The voltmeter draws about the same as the clock. A voltmeter has very high input impedance (>1Meg Ohm) and will only put a very small load on the system. Think about it. If the voltmeter was drawing a lot of current it would be load on the system and would cause a large voltage drop across it and thus turning a instrument into a load. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DIMford Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 If you wire it through and auxiliary fuse box is there any reason you would get inaccurate readings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer AnikMankar Posted November 10, 2010 Member Contributer Share Posted November 10, 2010 If you wire it through and auxiliary fuse box is there any reason you would get inaccurate readings? You should connect it over a relay to get more accurate reading. Here is a diagram. VFR800 Aux Fuse Box.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Bumping back to life: Monk, How is your voltmeter holding up to the elements after you "water proofed" it? Also, how did you mount the guage - did you use velcro, 3M Dual Lock or the like? Would you buy the same gauge again? I definitely need a voltmeter and saw this same unit at a local shop this weekend. Lots to choose from out there, but this doesn't have to cross the border to get here. Thanks for your help - from a displaced Virginia boy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spud786 Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 That looks real nice Monk, you did good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.