VE6AB Technical
What's My Voltage
There are times when I want an accurate read on the battery voltage in one of my multitude of batteries.
In the past I reached for one of my Fluke meters that while extremely accurate, I would not necessarily have my tool-bag available.
Recently I acquired a tiny meter that originally was part of a defective wafer fuse assembly, like this one that resides in the engine bay of my mobile.
http://www.jerryclement.ca/HamRadio/HamRadio/i-gwjskTz
Once I had removed the meter assembly from the defective fuse-block assembly, I headed over to my favorite electronics outlet where I purchased a plastic housing that would allow the meter to reside inside this housing once I made the necessary modifications to it.
With the meter mounted in its new housing, a on/off toggle switch mounted in place, and wiring with a powerpole on the end of the cable, it was done.
With a powerpole connector as part of the meter, there is no end to the batteries that I can take a reading of.
For the times that the battery may not have a powerpole connector available to connect to, I made up an adapter as seen in the insert photo being used to take a reading of the 9 volt battery.
This tiny meter is also great for checking on the charging system of your mobile when the engine is running.
I keep this meter in my radio go-box where its always available for getting an accurate reading of batteries ranging from the 1.5 volt AA cells that I use as backup batteries in my HT's, the AGM crank batteries in my mobile, or the AGM battery that powers my weather station as seen in the photo, or any other battery needing a voltage check.
Click on the photo for a closer look.....
