Voltmeter longevity

nighthog

A bit of a bike hacker
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Judging by what's in the Voltmeter Installation thread, the little LED meter I fitted when I rewired the bike over winter is the same as others have fitted. Mine died on the way home last night, and I plan to fit another but want one that lasts more than 10 minutes! Going to end up spending a fortune on the bloody things otherwise.

Now either these things are really OK and I just got unlucky or they really can't cope with being attached to an XS650 ... What's your experience, and can anyone recommend one that is robust enough? I'd like to mount the replacement where the current one is but that's not set in stone.

Thoughts, please chaps (and chapesses if we have any)?
Cliff

20220622_145412.jpg
 
I've been using these little sealed and waterproof units on both my 650s for several years and they've held up fine so far. I've had one on my Standard for about 5 years, one on my Special for about 3 years .....

SmallVoltmeter2.jpg


SmallVoltmeter.jpg


I was able to fit the one on my Standard right into the dash pod .....

https://www.xs650.com/threads/77-79-standard-in-dash-voltmeter.49689/

..... but the Special required a separate housing (see post #79) .....

https://www.xs650.com/threads/200-special.51454/page-4

But another member here just zip tied his to his handlebars, simple but effective .....

SimpleVoltmeterMount.jpg
 
I've had this one on my bike for about 3yrs now. Here's the link to how I mounted it.



1655916142106.png




They have since come out with a new version that has a "touch screen" on/off button. I recently installed one of those in my truck.
LINK.



1655916292897.png


1655915943537.png
 
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Yes, by most accounts, these things are pretty reliable. Yours is the first reported failure I've heard of. I think you just got a bum unit.
 
I've used a bunch of all types including years and thousands of miles on this one.
LED volt meter.jpg
LED Voltmeter.jpg

This is the cheapest, bare, not protected type, the ODO now over 12K, seen plenty of rain, heat, cold.
Haven't had one die yet.
 
Judging by what's in the Voltmeter Installation thread, the little LED meter I fitted when I rewired the bike over winter is the same as others have fitted. Mine died on the way home last night, and I plan to fit another but want one that lasts more than 10 minutes! Going to end up spending a fortune on the bloody things otherwise.

Now either these things are really OK and I just got unlucky or they really can't cope with being attached to an XS650 ... What's your experience, and can anyone recommend one that is robust enough? I'd like to mount the replacement where the current one is but that's not set in stone.

Thoughts, please chaps (and chapesses if we have any)?
Cliff

View attachment 216994
Gammatronix
Pay a little bit more for these...........UK made and programmable to suit you.

I bought 3 of these. Set one up in my rev-counter, could be set up in the idiot tower

This is an old review
https://www.autospeed.com/index.html

Ebay
https://www.ebay.com/str/gammatronixltdelectronicsstore

Sparkbright..........UK
Water proof, program looks to be set
http://www.sparkbright.co.uk/battery-voltage-monitors.php
 
Thanks, all. Jim's solution while typically lovely is somewhat more involved than I'm looking for and I don't have any spare bits of aircraft to hand anyway ... :) Maybe as 5T suggests I just got unlucky so I'll do a like-for-like replacement this time and if it dies again I'll try one of the little rectangular boxy ones. Skull's suggestion looks neat but I prefer to read numbers! Probably an age thing ....
 
One way forward could be to talk to the seller

As in
" Something was wrong with this from the Off "

Sometimes they also get a substandard batch form the big land with a red flag and golden stars on it
Can happen for everyone.
Can get a replacement over the counter
 
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