power for turnigy/doc wattson meter

[defed]

i finally got my turnigy meter and have a question about where it gets power for its display.  when you have the SOURCE as the turbine (after rectifier) and the battery bank as the LOAD...where is the meter getting power?  does it draw from the LOAD?  or will the display only be on when the SOURCE is providing power thru the meter to the batteries?

in the pamphlet that came with it, one configuration example shows a battery charger as source and a battery being charged as the load.  they do not have an auxiliary battery hooked to the meter.   so does the meter get power from the charger or the battery?

thanks for any advice.

[BrianSmith]

Most power meters have something in line with one of the leads to measure current and a voltage reading device.  You could check this by trying to measure with an ohm meter from the source to load side.  They should be effectively shorted together source to load side.  That being said, both sides are essentially tied together so it should be able to draw its power from either side.

You could also try connecting a battery to either side and see if it powers up.  Hope this helps.

[TomW]

My Doc Wattsons both use the "3 wire" connection setup. One of those 3 wires goes to the + on the battery bank. The other two go  in the negative lead from the source (charger) It measures current in the negative lead so there is a ground available.

Just how mine is rigged.

I don't have a Turnigy as I started to order one but decided the delivery time was unacceptable.

Tom

[Bruce S]

I have to agree with TomW on this one. I can't seem to find an online manual for this unit.
However the Doc Wattson will pull from the source side if there is no aux power applied to the little power adapter on the source side.
It must have a minimum of 4Vdc to keep the display and accumulated data.

Hope this helps
 Bruce S

[zap]

Too big to insert here and I didn't look it over too closely.
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uploads/644544719X213538X11.jpg

Same thing in a pdf at this link
http://boydhobby.com/TurnigyPrecisionWattMeterPowerAnalyzer.aspx

A big discussion about the meter here and even though external powering is mentioned, I never actually saw anyone doing it.
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=13607

[defed]

Tom, are you saying that you wired 3 wires (pos to battery bank and 2 negs from source neg wire) to the 3 pin aux power input?  do you happen to have any pics of this?

yea, delivery time was terrible.  hobbyking has a US warehouse, but it was shipped from singapore, and took 2 wks.

Zap, thanks for that link to the e-bike info.  one of the guys there seems to indicate that it can get power from either the source or the load, so i guess i'll just have to try and see what happens.

[Bruce S]

Too big to insert here and I didn't look it over too closely.
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uploads/644544719X213538X11.jpg

Same thing in a pdf at this link
http://boydhobby.com/TurnigyPrecisionWattMeterPowerAnalyzer.aspx

A big discussion about the meter here and even though external powering is mentioned, I never actually saw anyone doing it.
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=13607

ZAP! Thanks for the links!! Lots of good reading in the PDF, and endless-sphere will suck up hours of reading .
BUT all good information.
When I got my first one, I grabbed an old AA battery box and wired it up for use with external power applied so I could move it around while testing PV placement.
Cheers
Bruce S

[TomW]

Tom, are you saying that you wired 3 wires (pos to battery bank and 2 negs from source neg wire) to the 3 pin aux power input?  do you happen to have any pics of this?

Sorry, no pics but if you Google the Doc Wattson their sight explains the different ways you can wire it.

the doc wattson goes in the negative lead of the source to battery connection.Source negative to meter source negative meter load negative to load (Battery) negative. Positive from battery to the red positive source lead. Very simple and well documented on their site.

The Aux connector is not used and the load positive is just left unhooked. I screwed a wire nut on it so it cannot contact anything it shouldn't.

Good Luck with it.

Tom

[defed]

i'll have to check the wattson site.  on the pamphlet for the turnigy (same as Zap posted), it shows [charger +/-] to [meter source +/-], and [meter load +/-] to [battery +/-].  i did it this way...turbine rectifier as source, battery bank as load.  display is on whether wind is blowing or not.  so, the meter will get power from either side.