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Help wiring a dual volt/amp meter properly

7K views 5 replies 2 participants last post by  Darkarmyofone 
#1 ·
Hello everyone! It’s a pleasure to be here my name is Tyler, and I’m a huge BassHead ?

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now that I’m getting more deeply involved in the Car Audio world with competitions and such I have a situation that I’m having an issue solving and was hoping some experts could point me in the right direction so that I can teach my employees properly.

We’ve ordered some voltmeters, That also measure amperage so there’s two different LCD display one for the voltage which I have wired right now just directly to my main battery in the trunk for now just to see it work.that also measure amperage so there’s two different LCD displays one for the voltage which I have wired right now just directly to my main battery in the trunk for now just to see it work

But the unit has two wiring harness is one with three wires coming out of it power ground and a yellow wire (which I had to twist together with the red wire in order to get the unit to power on)

The second harness is simply one 18 gauge red wire in 18g gauge black wire.
The diagrams online are posted as follows but they do not make sense to me in my application with Car Audio...
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that is the diagram I believe I’m supposed to be following because I’m only measuring between four and 30 V.

However there is also this diagram for measuring between 1 to 100 V
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so my question is this I want to see how many volts and amps my system is pulling at full tilt, obviously so where do I wire what to and what is the proper way to do it? For instance where should I be measuring my load? Should this be connected to the battery under the trunk or under the hood my assumption was under the trunk obviously due to past teachings, closest to the a.m. as possible, i’ve wired it up to the very first battery in line

but how do I properly wireless device to show how many amps I’m pulling in how do I do it safely without destroying the unit taking risks hooking things up that I don’t actually understand

Even my boss a 31 year veteran Car Audio installer has never install a unit like this, so even as experienced as I am I am not afraid to ask others for help and knowledge. I do what I do for the love of Car Audio and nothing other than that, so if anybody would be willing to give me a few minutes of their time and help me out or possibly point me to a proper walk-through that would be amazing I just don’t know where I need to connect what... seeing as their diagrams are obviously used for a different application or so I believe. Any help is greatly appreciated and I’m looking forward to being part of the community and contributing, I’m going through a huge life crisis right now after the loss of my wife and Car Audio is My passion, it’s the only thing in the world that makes my life bearable and worth living. My home is abusive but my basshead family has never let me down! I am one of the seven founders of the western Carolina Baseheads club in Mills River NC. We are on Facebook as well. Just a community of like-minded guys who all share the same passion and we make sure that it’s not about money ever.
Anyways just wanted to introduce myself and say hello to everyone and possibly get a solution to this problem today!

cheers everyone!
 
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Discussion starter · #3 ·
I’m using it to measure under 30v. Using it to measure my high end car audio system. But I just thought of something this unit only measures up to 10 amps... And I need to use for separate 250 amp fuses for the power on my audio system so I don’t believe I’ll be able to accurately measure the amperage that I’m pullinh because I do believe I’m pulling much much much more than 10amps lol At least I have a really cool voltmeter that looks like it does extra stuff but doesn’t ha ha Ha
 
Discussion starter · #4 ·
It is currently measuring my voltage excellently and very accurately might I add
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it’s at 13.4 instead of 14.4v because it was slamming full tilt. Which means I still don’t have enough batteries in the back of my trunk because you should always try to stay at 14.4 V. That’s what most car amplifiers need to put out their actual rates wattage
 
Discussion starter · #6 ·
Yea, bit of a bummer, maybe I can make use of the 2nd lcd screen somehow. The way it’s assembled.. it’s just BEGGING to be modified. I don’t usually install my products like that either ? I was simply testing it. Functions perfectly as just a volt meter, great refresh rate!! Very accurate too. Came calibrated perfectly upon arrival

having fun with it. Curious what I COULD do with that 10amp read display... in a car. Any ideas ?
 
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