Hi, Jim Davis writes: > I'd say that an ammeter would be my third preference, so that you can keep an > eye on the charging system. But..... given that you need to run some really > big wires quite a ways to accomplish this, I'll be opting for a voltmeter in > the near future when I add gages to my van... This is almost true- the Ammeter doesn't really _need_ to have the big wires running the full length of the van since the meter part works by measuring the voltage across a small series resistance in the current path (OK, I'm simplifying too but it'll do). It should be possible to locate the series resistance close to the battery and other high current paths and have the actual meter on the dash with relatively light cabling linking it to the "sender" resistance. How practical this is depends on how the Ammeter is actually constructed-and therefore how easy it would be to seperate the meter part from the resistance- but it _should_ be possible. It would have the advantage that a meter wiring fault would be less likely to cause a failure, too, since the long wire runs would only drive the meter instead of being in the critical path for the van's electrics. Cheers, W.
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