Voltage Meter

S

stevesmitty79

New Member
Greetings. First post. This is a great site. You guys have inspired me to start doing some things. I'll post on those later.

About a voltage meter. I've seen the typical analog type that have no gradiants to measure just where you're at power wise. I'm not too enthusiatic about those.

I've also seen the digital ones with LEDs, but again, you have to refer a particular light to a particular voltage.

Then the thought crossed my mind, why not just wire in an actual digital read-out voltage meter? This is the one I found on eBay. I'm wondering if anyone's done this or had any experience with this or similar type?
 
People on other websites have had issues with this specific meter.
IMHO this is not really made for golf cart applications but more as a panel meter with a regulated power supply for weather protected applications.
I would suggest a "State of Charge" meter which is about $50. They have 10 LED lights to tell you % of charge, available in 36v and 48v from a GC parts supplier.
 
Read the manual on the Curtis meter and the number of indicator lights do not correspond to the charge in 10% increments like I think it should. Since the last two indicators are at 80 and 70 percent charge, it doesn't make sense for the other number of lights. One too many, so I'm just wondering why I should spend fifty bucks on something that hasn't been well thought out for the money.

As you said, the meter in question isn't for exterior applications. Thanks for that input. Is that the only issue you know of? Maybe it can be sealed. If that's the only problem, I might try it.
 
That ebay meter requires a 5vdc feed to run it. A sparky cart does not have a 5vdc feed. Would it work on a 6vdc feed? Unknown.

Also, they have had many failures when installed in golf carts (6vdc feed???). Some failures were immediate, others happened in a few days or weeks.

Not gorno approved.
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BU used to sell a round dash mount digital meter that read 0-96 volts. I just looked on their site and don't see it but you could call and ask about it.
 
Good thing I asked. I found that thread and that was the exact one I was gonna get. Would have been upset to hack my dash and it failed. Thanks for the feedback. I'll follow up with BU sometime too.
 
It looks like it is temporarily out of stock but it looks like Northern Arizona Wind and Sun usually has a meter that would be a good choice. They are big in solar stuff I bought three 130w solar panels from them. The digital meter range is 11v to 65v DC.

Jim - nooby here - hello all.
 
I had correspondence with Curtis regarding this very subject and here's what they sent to me:

100% Charge is 38.22v for a 36v system and 50.96v for a 48v system.
20% Charge is 34.98v for a 36v system and 46.64v for a 48v system.
IMHO, these numbers are hard to remember and much easier to see on an LED bar meter.
 
I personally would never intentionally run a Flooded Lead-Acid battery down to 20% SOC.

They will live a lot longer if they are not run below 50% SOC. These batteries are the same as the batteries many RV's use for house batteries and over the years it has been shown that the longest battery life comes from running them from 50% to 80% SOC (state of charge) when ever possible. Many last ten years.

Jim
 
I agree as well, I was just posting a response that I got from Curtis engineering.
All of the battery manufacturers generally recommend no more than 50% discharge.
I don't think I have ever had my LEDs drop below 7 which is something like 75% of full charge.
 
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