Simple digital voltmeter

[Taranwanderer]

I figured I'd share this little gizmo I just made up--got the idea from the Harley forums I also frequent--another group of folks who are somewhat fanatical about battery charging/maintaining! It's a portable voltmeter that I made up using a simple digital 12V meter and some 2-pronged trailer plugs.

Here's the meter:

UN3F Mini DC 2 5 30V LED Panel Voltage Meter 3 Digital Display Voltmeter V20D | eBay

Top is a pic of the plugs I use, I use these on all my batteries (TT, tractor, motorcycles, etc,) so I can move this meter and all my chargers around as needed.

Bottom is what the finished product looks like:

[Taranwanderer]

A little more detail:

The meter is a 2-lead type (there are 3-lead ones out there,) so I just stripped a bit of insulation off the plug wires and soldered each one of the leads to one of the plug wires. Then you plug it in, and if it doesn't light, flip it around--then you know which end goes to the battery and which end goes to the charger. I wrapped the meter's mounting tabs around the wire bundle with electrical tape. You can kind of see in the finished pic, I wrapped the end that goes to the battery in blue tape and the end that goes to the charger in red. So now even a caveman can hook it up (apologies to the Geico caveman guys.) It's nice to be able to move it from my bike, to her bike, to the TT, to the tractor and see how each batt is doing at any given time, and to leave it on while charging to monitor. Hope this gives you some ideas!