What have been your experiences with aftermarket voltmeters ?

[grcamna2]

I'm looking to purchase a voltmeter which is as accurate as possible for the price,small,that will mount to the instrument cluster somewhere in view of the speedo/tach.
What have any of you members tried and how accurate was the voltmeter you purchased ?

 

[Redman]

I would think Any cheap voltmeter will be acurate enough. Any smaller error in the meter its self is probably much less than what ever the volt drop is from the battery to where ever you connect in the meter.

And... if you think of it, do you really care if is 13.9 verses 14.0.....?

Mostly what you want to know is that the charging system is still working, so is well above 12volts.

I got a cheap digital LED, 3 digit, and mounted in the GK's fairing. And it saved me some trouble a couple weeks later when it was reading 18 point something (the r/r sense line had lost power). I was able to fix things before blew out headlight or ignitor.
And then about a year later I was about to get on highway and notice it said 10 point low, (stator failure) so didnt get on highway and found a good plaace to stop. Had I got on the highway, the bike would have died somewhere on the highway.
Both happened a couple hundrtred miles from home.

You may want something that mounts on the handlebars.

 

[Gorminrider]

These are $0.56 US free shipping ebay...they come in green and bue too.... If you look at most fancier voltmeters with led readouts, so many using the same little doofunny. I've yet to have one of these fail. But hey, carry a spare in your toolbag... I seal them up with scotch tape across the readout and chewing gum on the back

 

[Gorminrider]

..."philosophically" for this purpose it doesn't really matter what any gauge has on its dial. It's the CHANGE up or down from whatever it says when things are good that's important. How truly accurate are the speedometers on your bike, or the tach? IMPORTANT Gauges need regular tests to calibrate them where it matters...For my (maybe your) purposes it's enough to compare whatever the battery voltage is to whatever the doofunny connected to some circuit near your handlebars says... might be a 1/2 volt or more.

 

[mikerophone]

Agree with the comments about using it as a reference, it’s more important to be able to monitor a change than it is to know accuracy in my opinion. If you need accuracy get something more expensive otherwise get one of these cheapies like mentioned on eBay above which is exactly what I did on my other GS here:



I checked it with a known good voltmeter and I’m about .3v off of actual but like Redman points out above, it’s more important to see if one day it’s over charging or under charging. For my other bikes, I’ve used epoxy to seal them, but since I’m 1,500 miles away from my shop and the scotch tape and chewing gum wasn’t available I rigged up a quick way to waterproof it better than the quick and dirty corner of a ziploc bag sealed with a hot knife on my 850 didn’t hold up.

Ended up using a piece of thick plastic cut to size over the face, cut out an opening on some thick heat shrink tubing that was slightly smaller than the plastic, heated it all up and folded it over and stuck it to the back of itself.

 

[Gorminrider]

and chewing gum wasn’t available

(and weirdly, not all chewing gum is suitable...it has to stick to your fingers after chewing!... Excel "Chiclet" kind does while the stick types I've tried and chewed don't seem to stick to anything..)

 

[grcamna2]

Agree with the comments about using it as a reference, it’s more important to be able to monitor a change than it is to know accuracy in my opinion. If you need accuracy get something more expensive otherwise get one of these cheapies like mentioned on eBay above which is exactly what I did on my other GS here:

View attachment 58618

I checked it with a known good voltmeter and I’m about .3v off of actual but like Redman points out above, it’s more important to see if one day it’s over charging or under charging. For my other bikes, I’ve used epoxy to seal them, but since I’m 1,500 miles away from my shop and the scotch tape and chewing gum wasn’t available I rigged up a quick way to waterproof it better than the quick and dirty corner of a ziploc bag sealed with a hot knife on my 850 didn’t hold up.

Ended up using a piece of thick plastic cut to size over the face, cut out an opening on some thick heat shrink tubing that was slightly smaller than the plastic, heated it all up and folded it over and stuck it to the back of itself.

Mike,
Did you make that silver dashboard plate? It looks good

 

[grcamna2]

These are $0.56 US free shipping ebay...they come in green and bue too.... If you look at most fancier voltmeters with led readouts, so many using the same little doofunny. I've yet to have one of these fail. But hey, carry a spare in your toolbag... I seal them up with scotch tape across the readout and chewing gum on the back

You have a link for that little voltmeter?

 

[Gorminrider]

I did when I grabbed that picture, grcamna!

Just goto ebay.com put "voltmeter" in the search and then choose "price+shipping lowest" from a menu there. The default for a search is always "closest match" and I never find that altogether satisfactory, for a simple search.

I've bought probably 10 of these and haven't had a single failure. They come in different colours! but red's the best overall to see in daylight. You can tuck it away under the handlebars if it's annoying at night.

 

[mikerophone]

Mike,
Did you make that silver dashboard plate? It looks good

Nope, that?s the highway dirt bikes top clamp specific to my bike to accommodate the Scott?s steering stabilizer and optional switch kit. It connects to my hand guards at the bar ends and has sweet little fold out highway mirrors - super solid setup from a Colorado based small business!

https://www.highwaydirtbikes.com/

 

[londonboards]

Never leave home without one:

 

[Gorminrider]

Yours (londonboards) is the best one here because it's the easiest to read in bright daylight and is fairly small...

 

[alke46]

What I am using is the Innova 3721, available at Amazon for not too much money. I really like the portability of it as it just plugs into a cigarette lighter outlet. I use it all the time on the bikes I ride as well as using it in my wife's car and my truck to check the battery condition.
Pics attached (maybe).

IMG_20190810_091448597



IMG_20190810_091606193

IMG_20190810_091756776

 

[mikerophone]

I tried one of those cigarette lighter voltmeters thinking the same thing, how convenient... I can move it around between my cars, truck and bikes but it was horribly inaccurate. Granted, it was a few dollars and would at least show you variation from one day/minute to the next but it just sits in my center console box unused these days.

I like how yours has had the red, orange and green LED’s for a quick visual check. If it wasn’t so expensive, I’d love a Kuryakyn voltmeter with the range of LED’s:

 

[alke46]

I tried one of those cigarette lighter voltmeters thinking the same thing, how convenient... I can move it around between my cars, truck and bikes but it was horribly inaccurate. Granted, it was a few dollars and would at least show you variation from one day/minute to the next but it just sits in my center console box unused these days.

I like how yours has had the red, orange and green LED’s for a quick visual check. If it wasn’t so expensive, I’d love a Kuryakyn voltmeter with the range of LED’s:

View attachment 58664

I totally agree with you, however, every time I have doubted mine, I check it against my multimeter and it is still spot on accurate. I've had it for several years. That Kuryakyn one looks nice. But yes, pricey.