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Forum Index : Solar : analog amp meter connection problem

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bobt
Newbie

Joined: 26/12/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 17

Posted: 07:47am 06 Jun 2010

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g'day everyone,

i got some cheap 20 amp meters off ebay, so i thought i'd connect
up to the solar panels to see how many amps were being used,

however when i connected up with the "solar in" on the regulator,
there was a couple sparks on the negative terminal, then
all the lights went out on the regulator and the amp meter was
showing around 4 amps coming through,

the moment i disconnected the amp meter from the regulator all the
lights came back on.

can someone advise me where am i supposed to connect the amp meter on the
regulator?

thanks
bobt

Downwind

Guru

Joined: 09/09/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 2333

Posted: 09:42am 06 Jun 2010

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Can you post a photo of the meter or where you bought it.

Did you place it in the line of one wire or across the positive and negative.
It should be in one wire only.

If its a digital meter than some will not work with the same power supplying the meter as it is reading the amps from.

There is a mass of different amp meters and we will need to know what you have before we can help with the right information.

Pete.

Sometimes it just works

oztules

Guru

Joined: 26/07/2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 1686

Posted: 10:46am 06 Jun 2010

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Yes Bob, sounds like you connected it across the solar input. What you would see then is the short circuit current of the solar array at near zero volts..... which explains why the regulator went dead... no power for it.

The meter needs to be in series with one of the solar wires.... ie cut one and place the meter in series with the wire. Then the current flows through the meter and on into the regulator.

If you get it back to front, it will push hard on the stops at the zero amps end. Reverse it and it will read the current in the right direction.
So:
If you choose the positive wire to cut, then the positive terminal on the back of the meter goes to the solar cell positive output, and the negative terminal on the back of the meter then feeds the regulator positive terminal....

The negative solar wire remains undisturbed in any way by you.
OR:

If you chose to cut the negative wire from the array, then the meter goes the other way around ie meter minus (-) to the solar array negative, and the meter + terminal to the neg of the regulator.

The positive from the array to the regulator would remain undisturbed in this configuration.

Hopefully clearer than mud?

............oztules

Village idiot...or... just another hack out of his depth

bobt
Newbie

Joined: 26/12/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 17

Posted: 11:34am 06 Jun 2010

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thanks guys for your replies, im enclosing a photo
that downwind wanted, its only a analog meter i brought for $1 each off ebay

oztules, it sounds complicated it may not be but, when i get a new regulator
i will get one with with a built in digital display.

Iv just tried to upload a pic but for some reason i cant the webpage wont
let me thats ok,

thanks anyway,
cheers
bobt

Downwind

Guru

Joined: 09/09/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 2333

Posted: 12:10pm 06 Jun 2010

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Hi Bodt,

I am guessing the reason the forum wont let you post or upload a photo is the photo file size is to large.

Its a common problem as most cameras take photos of huge file sizes.

There is an easy answer and it is worth taking a few minutes to learn what to do as we all love to see photos here.

I posted this some time back to help someone else shrink a photo to post to the forum.

I hope it will help you too.
[quote]
Photos would be nice and to post a photo use the button second from the right with the green arrow on top of the reply window.

If you have large size photo files you might want to shrink them first.

I do this in "Paint" open the image in paint then click "Image" .... "Resize"... I use about 50% to both horizontal and vertical ...Then OK....Save AS.. the image... I just add "small" to the previous file name...Click OK.

Now post the photo.

I find it much quicker to upload this way.
The forum will often resize most photos but it is slow at doing it. [/quote]

I look forward to seeing the photo.

Installing the meter is very easy and just sounds difficult.
I will see if i can find a different thread that covered this some time back for you.

Pete.

Sometimes it just works

bobt
Newbie

Joined: 26/12/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 17

Posted: 01:04am 07 Jun 2010

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G'day everyone,

I got the analog amp meter now working with the regulator

,

thankyou so much oztules, i will send you some of my homebrew beer,

this morning i just connected a small red alligator clip from solar in postive
to the analog amp meter postive, then i used the black alligator clip from the

negative analog amp meter terminal to the postive on the regulator,

and wohoo its all working,

I will now use propper cables instead of the alligator clips, as im only getting
in a couple amps,
voltage loss due to small alligator clips.

once again, thanks oztules, i had time to think about it what you said to do
this morning, as last nite it was late, and nothing could be done in the dark.

cheers
bobt

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