LCD Cigarette Lighter Voltage Digital Panel Meter Volt Voltmeter Monitor Car | (http://www.ebay.com/itm/LCD-Cigarette-Lighter-Voltage-Digital-Panel-Meter-Volt-Voltmeter-Monitor-Car-/290756177346?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43b26b2dc2)
I found these on Ebay and ordered 4 of them. They arrived today ( took a month ) but at about ten bucks for 4 who cares.
I put them in the cars t'day and will put one in the MH t'morrow. Pretty compact little gauge, voltage jibes with my VOM. I look at these as just a quick visual check of batteries and/or alternator, more visual than analog Volt gauge in dash.
Gary B
Cool. I just ordered one. Can't go wrong with the price!
see ya
ken
Excellent little devils. I have a couple and they work great. How can you go wrong at that price?
Pierce
These are handy for monitoring coach and chassis batteries. One of the cigarette outlets is powered from coach battery bank and one from chassis batteries.
Thanks to Dave A for this tip.
For that price I just ordered four myself. Handy Little Dudes.
I am spoiled, I only use the Fluke Digital Meters, cuz I like to know exactly the value.
not +/- 10-20%.
Yes I keep my Simpson 260 Analog as sometimes the analog movement is the best for watching many things the digital has problems displaying.
This cheapie appears to be +/- 1.2%, more than adequate for my needs ( but I will check it against a calibrated DVM before trusting it).
Thanks, good enough for my needs. Bought 4.
Even if these cheapies are off by a few percentage points you are still better off noticing an unusual drop or rise in voltage quickly rather then waiting til you note an analog gauge that may not seem right.
Gary B
Agree, for most, the. cheapest is very. good.
Like Gary says above, you are not that interested in running the voltage readings out 4 or 5 decimal places but noticing a difference from the voltage you normally see.
To settle any arguments about cheap vs. Fluke Instruments expensive, I did a voltage test on the engine batteries in our U300.
The "cheap" plug in voltmeter is reading 12.3, the installed voltmeter is reading 12.33 and my handheld voltmeter was reading between 12.1 and 12.2 as I was trying to hold it with one hand and snap a shot with the other.
The internet has brought large and small manufactures to the direct market. If you buy directly from them or their distributor, you can bypass at least one middleman and perhaps several. With a bit of research and time, you can bridge the difference between a "cheap" buyer and a "smart" shopper. Can make a huge difference for someone on a fixed income in retirement. Sometimes you have to let go of some intrenched ideas and start from zero.
Hope everyone is enjoying a pleasant Easter and has time to cheep, cheep a bit on this spring day.
Pierce
Note that the plug-in voltmeter only resolves to the nearest tenth of a volt. This is good enough.
I did the same test a few weeks ago on both sets of batteries and was surprised at the accuracy of this plug in volt meter considering it only goes to the nearest tenth of a volt. Good enough as a starting point. ^.^d
Glad to know I'm not the only one. While the Fluke was great on jobsites I vastly prefer an analog meter for bench work.
Chuck