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Ammeter wiring?

Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2004 7:14 pm
by toyotroop
On the back of the Ammeter there are positive and neg wire coming out the back.. where is the best place to connect them to in a hj 47 troopy?

Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2004 7:50 pm
by Big Red Toy
well for starters if you connect it between positive & negative you bugger it!
An ammetre is normally connected inline with the load, so it depends what you are wanting to measure current draw on

Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2004 8:33 pm
by Area54
As BRT said depends on the application, but current flows from positive to negative, so for example, if you were trying to measure current drawn from dual battery from a fridge or similar, you would mount the ammeter along the positive cable, with the battery supply first entering the positive side of the ammeter, then exiting the ammeter via the negative side and then the cable continues to the fridge (put simply.) Very important with ammeters to fuse them properly, use correct size cables for the load, and be very pedantic with the insulation, DONT BUY CHEAP AMMETERS!!! they have the potential to fail internally.

Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2004 4:59 pm
by bazzle
I prefer voltmeters as they will tell you when voltage is too low to maintaion charge. An ammeter will have a small voltage drop across it reducing max voltage applied to the end load the more current flows thru it unless it is a very expensive low resistive shunt type.
A troopy alt is not powerful enough in my op to utilise an ammeter.

Bazzle