Replacing my battery guage

[dougster]

My Starcraft 2007 came with a battery gauge. It never seemed very accurate, but now it is dead. I put my portable voltage meter on the back and the voltage read fine.
Shall I try to replace it with an identical meter (there are no dealers near me), or replace it with something more useful?

[Almot]

dougster wrote:
Here is what I would like to have,

I think I see a pattern here 🙂

A really accurate AH meter of this type costs $40-60. Check Watts-Up or GT Power. Turnigy for $25 would be a good one step below, with 10-15% error in WH. The one in your picture? Don't know.

[Almot]

dougster wrote:
Here is what I ended up buying.

As long as it measures better than those +/- 0.2V meters that Mex described.

If it doesn't read the 4th digit, the chances of the 3rd one being correct are... (fill the blanks with whatever your imagination would suggest).

[Harvey51]

dougster wrote:
Here is what I would like to have, but not sure I would know how to hook it up. Where would I run the wires labeled "load?"

That monitor goes between the battery and what the battery was connected to. All current out of the battery must flow through it to be measured. Unhook the battery leads and connect them to the "load" side instead. Connect the "power" side to the battery.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Still cant get over that 66-lead central processor in the Drok meter.

[dougster]

I'll try to make those pictures smaller next time.

[dougster]

Here is what I would like to have, but not sure I would know how to hook it up. Where would I run the wires labeled "load?"

[dougster]

Here is what I ended up buying. Seems easy enough--mounts in same hole, two wires to hook up.

[time2roll]

And for all you techies, a pic of my battery monitor.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Back in the eighties I visited a storage garage in Van Nuys where they were making FOX branded meters. From the circuit boards on up. The traces were globby threads and they had two workers assigned to troubleshoot and repair new boards that didn't work. Their power supply was set at 13.0 volts and meters that measured one decimal point over or under were "good". I noticed several that reached 13.0 the slumped or jumped two or three tenths. Some tiny capacitor smoke. I left shaking my head.

[dougster]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Or you could do it the South Of The Border way...

Connect two wires, one to each post. Bare an inch on the ends...

Strike the two together.

If a big blue arc results the wires glow and your skin blisters...

"You're good to go"

I kind of did that by mistake--everything works, except the meter itself.

[Almot]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
It must change. The meter is a DROK unit.

How does it know the %? if this is just a prorated scale from 12=50% to 12.6=100%, for both open circuit and under load, flooded/gel/AGM - hey, who cares, right?

[MEXICOWANDERER]

It must change. The meter is a DROK unit.

[Almot]

Mex - is this number 84 printed there permanently, or does it randomly change? 🙂

[red31]

dougster wrote:
replace it with something more useful?

yes