Turnigy watt meter for $25

[Diamondback]

If that 48V is life, that could be your problem. The turnigy watt meter is only good for 60V maximum.

When I had one and was running a 48V ping pack, I had to dial down the voltage
On the charger just a hair so it was under 60V then the meter worked fine.

Jason.

 

[MAGICPIE3FOCUSPOWER]

Thanks for your tip.

It's strange it has been working fine for two months at 48V pack.

The voltage is always under 60V, normally the voltage is 52V.
So this woulkd still a problem? 52V?

 

[Diamondback]

No. 52v should be fine.

I was using mine on the charger between the battery and charger to monitor the charge rates.

Jason.

 

[MAGICPIE3FOCUSPOWER]

Aha thanks.

O well I will buy a new one

 

[d8veh]

When it only shows voltage, you've got it connected the wrong way round. You're pushing the current into the out side instead of the in side. It can't read current when it goes backwards because it's seeing the voltage climb instead of drop over the shunt.

 

[Diamondback]

never considered that......

Jason

 

[MAGICPIE3FOCUSPOWER]

Thanks for the tip d8veh!

But it is working fine when I disconnect the long part of wiring harness.
(wiring harness from seat saddle to steering).

When I connected the wattmeter to the short part of wiring harness it's reading current.
(wiring harness from seat saddle to battery house/rack).

So the cables are too long and this create loss?
If so it's strange it has been working fine for a long time.

 

[MAGICPIE3FOCUSPOWER]

Fixed the old one was just broken.

 

[dr_frost_dk]

does anybody know of any mods to this with an external shunt so it can read 200A+?


EDIT: Oh and was reading previous post about is it water proof, well my ciao has been out in the elements in almost all it's life as EV, and been using the 130A meter for 2.5Years+ with no errors or faults, and we are talking about rain and snow

 

[amberwolf]

If you use a shunt that is lower in value than the original, then you can read any current you like with it.

But you then must manually calculate the difference between the original shunt and the new one, and use that to determine the correct readings because they will be off by that factor.

So the best bet is to use a shunt that is 1/10th of the original, and then all you need do is mentally move the decimal point for all current and watt readings over, for them to be close enough to correct.

However, the accuracy will probably be much lower at the low end of the scale, so things like Ah and Wh will probably be significantly off if most of your usage is at that low end.

If you mostly use it at the high current levels, it should be close enough to work.


The Cycle Analyst from Grin Tech at http://ebikes.ca is designed to work with an external shunt and has stuff in it's setup menus to ensure it is accurate with those higher current applications, so it's probably a better choice if you need accuracy and are going to use an external shunt anyway. Just be aware that it could take a while for them to ship anything once you order it, depending on personnel availability.

 

[dr_frost_dk]

yes that part im all familiar with, it was more if anybody knew of any modifications to the programming/firmware so it can actually show 260A and do all the normal calculations.
And also if they could be modded to view 100V, no problem with low voltage supply for the electronics
It would be nice for my DM50 as i have 2x in the drawer of these watt meters, but for now i only have volt and amp meter in the usual LED meters because i need 200A and for future upgrade 100V

 

[amberwolf]

There are (or were?) links or posts in this thread to someone that had worked otu the programming, but I dont' know if they're still around or if they'd give out the info. Plus it didn't relaly work quite right, cant' remembe rthe issues sitll present when they stopped posting about it.

There';s another newer thread about a differnet meter that's I think open source design so you could make it do whatever youw anted to.

This one is basically a Chinese copy of the (at least originally-usa-made) Watts Up meter with some changes, so you're not likely to find the source code for the TWM or it's clones anywhere unelss you can find one of them that doesn't have a locked-memory MCU in it, and read it out on your own, or find someone that has done so already (like i think that person did before).

 

[dr_frost_dk]

ok thanks amberwolf, i would be good to use the watt meters because i like that you have the whole Wh and all the Highs and Lows, and the Wh/Ah has been spot on all the time, when charging my 8s2p Headway 16A pack from my Icharger it comes up with the same Ah as stated on the Watt Meter, and it is still amazing that almost 3 years of usage in rain and snow it still works just fine, even despite that i have not made any waterproofing or anything.

 

[MAGICPIE3FOCUSPOWER]

The second one died after raining day.
Waauww I think I should buy a reall wattmeter

 

[dnmun]

yep, they are not watterproof. they have high voltage that can short through the moisture to the low voltage parts and they die. i had one that was dead from the first, always offset @ 140A and it would not go away. the other one i shorted out across my battery, but the other cheap one for $13 is 1/3 the cost of this meter after you pay shipping from hobby king too.

but this turnigy has the backlight. uses more juice than the cheap one too. but it has the plastic case so the risk of shorts is lower.

 

[MAGICPIE3FOCUSPOWER]

Yup you are right, mine has offset of 0,3A (steady).
But I can still read out the voltage

O well I will buy another one and I hope the last one.
I should better buy Cycle...... :lol:

 

[MAGICPIE3FOCUSPOWER]

Waauw the new one has a offset of 5A

 

[corim123]

Most people are probably fine to save $10 and get the knock off one for about $13-$15. Mine has worked great for other projects so I plan on just moving it to my ebike. And it's been nice to help me see the capacity of my batteries for pairing them together.

 

[JeromeBaldino]

Does it measure it's own power draw?
If I leave my battery switched on connected only to the watt meter and I disconnect the controller, will be meter register it's own Ah usage after some hours/days ?

 

[Punx0r]

I believe it does not as power for the meter is taken from before the shunt.

 

[dnmun]

these are cheaper and free shipping: http://www.ebay.com/itm/360695107856?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

i like these better now, they do not start the meter until current flows, so better than the turnigy even though identical inside: http://www.ebay.com/itm/191010954651?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

 

[d8veh]

these are cheaper and free shipping: http://www.ebay.com/itm/360695107856?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

i like these better now, they do not start the meter until current flows, so better than the turnigy even though identical inside: http://www.ebay.com/itm/191010954651?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

The second type can be made more waterproof, and they have a back-light, so better for night time. I think I like them best out of allthe ones I've tried and converted.

Does it measure it's own power draw?
If I leave my battery switched on connected only to the watt meter and I disconnect the controller, will be meter register it's own Ah usage after some hours/days ?

Power consumption is almost zero if you have the type without a back-light, and insignificant if it does have one.

 

[crossbreak]

insignificant means: i measured about 7mA which is below what it can measure (with backligt). Without it, it draws around 1mA

 

[Joost]

Hello,

Can somebody tell me what kind of resistor R26 R29?

I want to repair my watt meter but can't read them.

 

[pdr]

How to connect the auxiliary battery? There is this three pin connector. There are markings at the back marking "+" and marking "-" and marking " U". On my instrument which is an Turnigy-alike, they are hardly visible and it took me so long to discover that I decided to spread the message. Which plug to use? Probably obvious for the RC-clan. But I work with Ebikes, so I did not find right away a good plug. So I used the standard small JST-SM male plug. It does not fit the opening, which has to be widened. Not so sure if this is good enough from point of engineering to use a slide-in plug in an edge which is a box cut out, but it works so far. In the picture: green=ground (-), red=positive(+) and Yellow="U", do not know what "U" stands for.