SB and LB MONITOR

[dobby]

Just brought one these, not fitted it yet but very useful:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-LED-double- ... TQ:US:1123

The eBay seller is very helpful

[Diplomat]

It certainly looks useful. Single sided ones often come up in Lidl or Aldi and I've bought several in the last few years and use them in various applications.

However I've never left them permanently in circuit as I wasn't sure how much current they draw continuously just to function. In some of my uses, every milliamp supplied by the battery is precious.

According to the link, the double one takes 20 milliamps. While not a lot, this is way above the self discharge current of a lead acid battery and would in some circumstances necessitate more frequent charging. What I have found interesting is the difference in displayed voltage between that at the battery terminals and that being supplied from cigar lighter sockets. For that reason they really need fitting before any fuses, switches and wiring in order to give a meaningful battery condition reading but if connected permanently to the batteries will increase the quiescent discharge.


Frank

[dobby]

Yes I agree, I'm fitting a solar panel in the near future that will toggle between the two batteries. When I fit the monitor it will be directly to the batteries and with a switch on the negative feed to the monitor to avoid current drain. May fuse the feeds but I think there's a protection circuit on the monitor. What's nice is the monitored is fully potted as well.

[Simon Jones]

What did it cost in the end and did you get clobbered for any import duty? This would fit nicely on my rear conversion with a push switch on the negative wire.

[bongojoe]

What you need is a Bongo Maschine!

[Simon Jones]

That's also on the to do list

[dobby]

What you need is a Bongo Maschine!

Wow!

[dobby]

That's also on the to do list

Raspberry pi = xbmc ....

[blobber]

That's also on the to do list

Raspberry pi = xbmc ....

xbmc+ Bongo = niiiiiice.

[dobby]

[winchman]

Now being tight and wanting something looking good but cheap and easy

It has an on and off switch too.
Just bought one of these to mess about with its fab
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251301304775? ... 1439.l2649
I wonder if two would fit in the BMW clock hole?
Local scrappy has no BMW clocks left I wonder what else we could fit?

[dobby]

I've seen those fitted into blank din panels on another forum, I was looking at them when I saw the led monitor for sale. I fitted a TM2 into the bmw clock space. There's a fair bit of room?

[dobby]

What did it cost in the end and did you get clobbered for any import duty? This would fit nicely on my rear conversion with a push switch on the negative wire.

Sorry missed your post, no import duty was payable, came via Royal Mail etc.

The seller suggested a double pole if need be but I'm going with just the negative

[Simon Jones]

Took your advice Dobby and ordered one which turned up in about 2 weeks from South Africa which I don't think is too bad. Very impressed as its a very neat unit and the calibration is pretty accurate. As you can see it's a nice small package so this one will be going somewhere on the conversion and I'm tempted to get another one to go on the dashboard.

[dobby]

Nice one Simon, I temporarily fitted mine on the dash. It may end up on a blanking plate for the spare DIN slot.

The seller makes all the kit he sells and is good to deal with. The fixed leads are very generous as well