Anyone use something like this to monitor voltage on 2 batteries?

[GTBRMC]

I want to run wires from my start and house batteries to a remote display somewhere near the throttles that will give me a digital readout of voltage for each bank. I would like to be able to look at either bank quickly & then be able to turn it off completely to a) avoid any power drain (however minor) and b) avoid any cockpit light pollution after dark.

Has anyone used anything like this? Looks like it would do the job. Not thrilled about the looks - I like to keep everything in the cabin looking OEM to the extent I can. I might decide to put this in the battery compartment... but would prefer to mount by the throttles.

Appears to be privately labeled for more than one selling company:

http://www.amazon.com/Amarine-made-...9048&sr=8-9&keywords=marine+digital+voltmeter

http://www.amazon.com/BANDC-Voltmet...sbs_200_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1R07BFNF7XHQXD07FHFE

 

[tdonoughue]

I haven't, but it sure beats what I was going to try to do... I got 2 of just the bottom displays and was going to hook one to each battery. Problem was I needed to add a switch or something or they would run all the time. Anyway, it was getting messy. This may not be OEM, but at least it would be neat and clean in one spot (rather than 2, as I was planning).

 

[bronze_10]

I haven't, but it sure beats what I was going to try to do... I got 2 of just the bottom displays and was going to hook one to each battery. Problem was I needed to add a switch or something or they would run all the time. Anyway, it was getting messy. This may not be OEM, but at least it would be neat and clean in one spot (rather than 2, as I was planning).

Do you have a battery selector switch? You can wire it to the engine side of the switch so when you kill the switch the meter dies too.

 

[Seadeals]

I like the look of that. I added a LED volt meter in my Elite 4 HDI install: https://jetboaters.net/threads/elite-4-hdi-install-advice-and-writeup.4222/
It is wired to the ignition so there is no power draw until the starboard switch is turned on. It is also wired to the nav lights so the back-lighting dims when lights are on at night. I can also select the color of back-lighting.

What you have looks great. You will probably only want to check when nothing is on (in the process of drawing amps and pulling down voltage) or you may panic too soon. I will say I have enjoyed having the read-out in front of my face all day on the water. I can easily see how much the loads affect voltages, check the recovery voltage after turning things off, and see that the engines are charging back when running. I have a 1/2/1+2/off selector on my two batteries, so readings depend the selected setting.

 

[Englewoodcowboy]

I like the idea... might be worth adding when I add the second battery this winter to mine.

Look at using something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Shielded-Spea...1435713252&sr=8-19&keywords=4+conductor+20awg to connect them and you can terminate right at the battery switches.

 

[tdonoughue]

Do you have a battery selector switch? You can wire it to the engine side of the switch so when you kill the switch the meter dies too.

I have an ACR, which is very nice but it complicates things like meters and chargers...

 

[PaulyB]

Here is what I did for mine... The small switch controls the meters.

 

[Julian]

@PaulyB do you have an ACR? If so, do your meters ever read anything different? I've been wondering if the charging linkage of an ACR results in similar readings....

 

[PaulyB]

No, I dont have an ACR. I have mine connected to the poles on the battery switch. Whenever I have the switch on "combine", it will always read the same reading on both meters, but if I am just running one battery at a time, it will tell me the reading of each battery independently.