DC or AC ammeter, or both?

Anything electric, AC or DC

Postby NightCap » Thu Sep 11, 2008 10:25 pm

Thanks all for the great information. It now makes a hell of a lot more sense. I'm going to keep the text from this thread on the ol thumb drive.
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#1 - 100% Done #2 - 100% Done Thinking about #3
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Meter Panel

Postby wlooper89 » Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:31 pm

This is a photo of my new meter panel. It fits in a keystone shaped box on the trailer tongue, in space previously occupied by a propane tank. The box will now be completely electrical except for a portable halon fire extinguisher. A pedestal of similar shape but taller will fit underneath the meter panel and house the wiring and connectors.

The switch on the right selects between battery and converter output voltage, with center off. The switch on the left turns on meter backlights and dims the voltmeter display for night use.

Together with the meter wiring, backlights for each, fuses, switches and the D/C meter shunts and A/C transducer it turned out to be a significant bit of wiring. It is a good thing this is a hobby. :thumbsup:

The meters themselves are pretty much self explanatory. The one with zero center shows battery charge/discharge while the other two indicate D/C and A/C load. The round one is for D/C volts, used earlier in another panel.

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The photo below shows the fuse panel underneath the meters. Instructions with the meters called for a 1A fuse in both the D/C ammeters' positive and negative wires. The A/C ammeter did not need a fuse. Another fuse is for the meter backlights and voltmeter dimmer wire. And the last fuse is in the voltmeter positive wire. Labels to follow. I will certainly need them for the fuses. :)

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The next photo is the meter panel pedestal, ready to sand and paint. It will house some wiring and raise the meter panel to a height for easy viewing.

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Regards, Bil
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Postby wlooper89 » Fri Nov 14, 2008 4:03 pm

Your good suggestions helped me with parts of the build in general as well as with the meters. I also very much appreciate the humorous comments. :thumbsup:

The photo below is my completed meter arrangement. It is ready to put in the electrical compartment and plug in the wires.

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Thank you again for all the good ideas and humor.

Bill
Last edited by wlooper89 on Tue Dec 09, 2008 11:21 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Postby wlooper89 » Fri Feb 13, 2009 12:31 pm

This is the way the meter panel looks in my electrical compartment. The propane tank mount to the right is also new. Many thanks to SteveT and Jeff for advising me to move the tank outside the electrical compartment.
Bill

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Postby campadk » Fri Feb 13, 2009 4:04 pm

Wow! A lot of ground covered in this thread.

Personally we never used our battery much in the teardrop, but it was always a guess whether there was much left in it, or if the little
solar panel I had was helping out at all.

Once we added the Airstream I became more concerned with power usage.
My solution was a Xantrex Link 10 monitor. It monitors everything in and out of the batteries so I know how much power I am currently
using (Amps) as well as Amp Hours, Volts etc. We I charge them up (shore power or via generator) I now know how much (AH) I have put back, recharge
rate etc... a wealth of info to know where the heck power is used and how much of it we gobble up each day.

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It came in very useful to check usage from each light, appliances etc. Turns out the most power used was from the propane fridge! Dang thing drew a good 2A for the cooling fan, thats 24AH daily during a heat wave!

The Link 10 uses a 4 wire cable and a large shunt at the battery for sampling current in/out of the batteries.

See http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/237/p/1/pt/5/product.asp

Paid about $199 if I'm not mistaken.
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