Installed a voltmeter

[gearhead13]

I worked on the voltmeter wiring last week. I pulled my headlight thinking of using the 12v at the headlight. Tested it at 9.5v with the key on. Fully charged battery 12v+ . Maybe I need a relay for my headlight. Connected it direct to the + batt and ran it and the readout was steady. Ended up using the coil+ wire to sense from, shows 1.5-2.0v droop. Ran the wires on top of the top frame tube away from HT leads or coils as much as possible. The readout is better, more useful, just doesnt show full bat+ voltage, might change the + to the wire coming off the relay headed to the coil. Moving the wires around near the coils made the readout go major crazy, had to experiment with routing them with the least interference.

[Agemax]

try connecting it to the orange wire coming out of the ignition switch in the headlight bucket. should get full battery voltage and no interference

[Mekanix]

Try this. Run a thick gauge wire from you batt + to the red wire on the switch and see what you get at the headlight. Then try connecting it to the output of the ignition switch and check again what you have at the headlight.

I'm guessing the voltage will go up the first time when you connect to the red and be slightly better the next time when you connect it to the orange.

I had a 2-3 volt drop in the line between the key switch and the battery before replacing the red line with a little bit larger gauge wire. After that there was very little drop between the orange wire and battery.

[matt1100]

Just finished installing mine. Looks a little strange having that LED display on my 31 year old bike, but its good insurance. I followed the schematic Posplayer uploaded and it works like a champ. It reads.7-.9 volts below what I measure with a multimeter, but as long as I know what the normal operating voltage is then I will be able to see if something fails again. Took a few hours to make it happen: chopped up the stock gauge cluster bracket, but why should this modification be any different than all the others I have done to it! Ahhhh...peace of mind

[Mekanix]

Just finished installing mine. Looks a little strange having that LED display on my 31 year old bike, but its good insurance. I followed the schematic Posplayer uploaded and it works like a champ. It reads.7-.9 volts below what I measure with a multimeter, but as long as I know what the normal operating voltage is then I will be able to see if something fails again. Took a few hours to make it happen: chopped up the stock gauge cluster bracket, but why should this modification be any different than all the others I have done to it! Ahhhh...peace of mind

Thats true.

Hey what did you use over the top of your cables ? Looks nice!

[matt1100]

Its a mylar tubing I bought from JC Whitney. I think its call show bike or something? For $25 it comes with different sizes and plenty of length to cover everything on a bike

[gert du prez]

wires seem way too thin...

Hi,

the 5-in-1 that Steve talked about, just arrived in a nice US postal package...but installing this is not going as planned...

the wires (black =GND; orange=key ON; red=POWER) are so incredibly thin,
that it has become impossible to strip these...even with my fingernails I can only break the wire and not strip the plastic...

is there a tip or trick that I'm overlooking ?

[1978gs550]

Just a thought, I'm mildly into Electronics and such, and one way of reducing Electromagnetic interference is to spin your wires together, the ground and positive become equally exposed but with the added benefit of the ground providing a shield, better even would be to ground your voltmeter as near to itself as possible and wire in another ground from that point that spins together with your input wire and grounds near the positive connection. (my thought would be that the output Direct from the R/R connection to the Ignition-On, would be the Ideal place to Wire in but if I'm going to put on a voltmeter I might just spin a shield wire onto the incoming feed line to the switch as well to cut interference beforehand.)

If I had my bike rewired and going already I'd test it myself, but I didn't see anyone else suggest it so I thought I'd chime in. I'd be interested in seeing what Kind of wire is being used as well, solder points, etc, if it's cheaply made enough, another thing to do would be to take the back off, line it with tin foil, and ground the tin foil as well. any kind of grounded shielding cuts interference tremendously and at least that way you don't have to cut your voltage readings with a Capacitor. i know the origional post is kind of old, but I thought I'd throw it out there, and if anyone gives it a shot for comparison sake it could prove to be useful information (or useless if it does nothing >.< haha, but I think it would)

and gert I would take the unit apart and solder in something thicker myself, wires that thin I wouldn't trust to carry propper voltages.

[posplayr]

Just a thought, I'm mildly into Electronics and such, and one way of reducing Electromagnetic interference is to spin your wires together, the ground and positive become equally exposed but with the added benefit of the ground providing a shield, better even would be to ground your voltmeter as near to itself as possible and wire in another ground from that point that spins together with your input wire and grounds near the positive connection. (my thought would be that the output Direct from the R/R connection to the Ignition-On, would be the Ideal place to Wire in but if I'm going to put on a voltmeter I might just spin a shield wire onto the incoming feed line to the switch as well to cut interference beforehand.)

If I had my bike rewired and going already I'd test it myself, but I didn't see anyone else suggest it so I thought I'd chime in. I'd be interested in seeing what Kind of wire is being used as well, solder points, etc, if it's cheaply made enough, another thing to do would be to take the back off, line it with tin foil, and ground the tin foil as well. any kind of grounded shielding cuts interference tremendously and at least that way you don't have to cut your voltage readings with a Capacitor. i know the origional post is kind of old, but I thought I'd throw it out there, and if anyone gives it a shot for comparison sake it could prove to be useful information (or useless if it does nothing >.< haha, but I think it would)

and gert I would take the unit apart and solder in something thicker myself, wires that thin I wouldn't trust to carry propper voltages.

I'm still fighting gauge bounce. I understand why my fuel gauge bounces but now wondering why the volt meter is bouncing.

I even went to this trouble but it did not seem to help a lot.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=161413&highlight=voltage+regulator

I think vibration is a big issue for mechanical gauges even when mounted on the handlebars. I have even had to rebuild my mechanical oil pressure gauge.

What you have described is called "twisted pair" and yes it is a standard technique to sheild wire pairs from radiated emissions. I think that any interference is more likely conducted as 250 mV noise from th R/R that I show and beyond that it is vibration. Electronic sensors with a stepper motor gauge would be best but pricey.

[Steve]

the wires (black =GND; orange=key ON; red=POWER) are so incredibly thin,
that it has become impossible to strip these...even with my fingernails I can only break the wire and not strip the plastic...

is there a tip or trick that I'm overlooking ?

Sharpen your fingernails.

.

[gert du prez]

had it installed after soldering the few copper pieces that I found in the wires to some decent connectors, but when testing the device it constantly alarmed very loud, warning me for black ice or so...don't know what it is, in Belgium the ice has never been black...


don't like this unit, build quality is nothing compared to all the decent stuff our bikes are built of...will try to install new wires when I open it up...
but that does not make me happy: you buy stuff and the first thing to
do to make it work, is to open it up and improve it ?

puts me to the most important question of this thread:
where can I find a decent, solid LED voltmeter (preferably with colors
from green over orange to red) ?

[gert du prez]

I will answer my own question:

this has nice reviews

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/8115/i/kuryakyn-led-battery-gauge

[SVSooke]

Installed one of these on my 750,got it off eBay for a few bucks.It works just fine.Reminds my I have to hook it up