wordsmith Posted February 21, 2019 Share Posted February 21, 2019 I'm re-posting this, edited and with a more appropriate title that I hope may attract some answers! I've ordered one of the small round digital voltage readout display units, since my bike couldn't be started when the battery recently lost power and required recharging after being unused for only about five (5) weeks. I note the two terminals at the base of the voltmeter, which will be fitted into the right-hand side 'cigarette lighter' space. On my bike I have two LED DRLs powered from the spare plugs under the screen, and it just happens that the leads to the right-hand side LED run near the 'cigarette lighter' plug into which I'd fit this voltmeter device - blue and brown leads in the pic below. The colours of these wires is to be ignored as I used whatever left-over lengths I had lying around. DRLs are ON when ignition is ON. Can I safely tap into these two LED leads to power the voltmeter? And - final q - what typical voltage should I see if the battery is well-charged? Thanks for any advice/ info/ tips.. Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captainscarlet Posted February 21, 2019 Share Posted February 21, 2019 2 hours ago, wordsmith said: I'm re-posting this, edited and with a more appropriate title that I hope may attract some answers! I've ordered one of the small round digital voltage readout display units, since my bike couldn't be started when the battery recently lost power and required recharging after being unused for only about five (5) weeks. Unfortunately I'm not going to answer your specific question. 😜 What I am going to do is mention that having just installed a similar style device, (a usb socket not a voltmeter) I found that its diameter was just slightly larger than the hole it was going into. At first I thought I might be able to screw it into place but realised quite quickly that this would damage the threads on the socket. So I used a dremel with a small grinding wheel to carefully enlarge the hole on the bike. It didn't take much and the usb socket slotted snugly into place. I only mention this because all these sockets/voltmeters look like they come from the same factory in China. As to what constitutes a healthy battery I have shamelessly copied this from another website: Our Most Common Questions About Motorcycle Batteries, Answered! - BikeBandit.com WWW.BIKEBANDIT.COM A healthy 12 volt battery should ideally register around 12.7-12.8 volts at rest, but anywhere between 12.5-13.5 volts indicates a serviceable battery. Once a battery drops below 12.4 volts, your bike will struggle to start, and at under 11.8 volts, 12 volt batteries are considered to be dead. CS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wordsmith Posted February 21, 2019 Author Share Posted February 21, 2019 Many thanks, cs. From the specs of the unit on the vendor's website the item has a diameter of 3.7cm, but whatever it is - smaller or larger - I can easily work around it. A nylon nut is provided the secure the unit from below, apparently. 12.5v to 13.5v registered! A quick glance at the display before getting into my riding gear will avoid a repeat of last weekend's frustrating episode where I was sitting on the bike ready to go, then found the battery was flat! Well worth AUD$4.70 to avoid a repeat!! Info on wiring still sought! Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supporting Member betoney Posted February 21, 2019 Supporting Member Share Posted February 21, 2019 9 hours ago, wordsmith said: Info on wiring still sought! @wordsmith - have you already used all of the available switched power outlets behind the screen? I would hate to recommend splicing into wiring if there is an available power socket. If I remember correctly, after wiring in my GPS and DRL's, there was still one plug left (presumably) for the right hand side 12v socket option. Another option, if you do not use the current 12v socket you could remove the socket and use those wires. I mention that because in my case, anything plugged into the 12v socket would loosen and lose power intermittently, I had the socket replaced under warranty and the 2nd one was the same way so I stopped using it and now have an additional switched power lead I can use. ***2015 Candy Red FJ-09*** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wordsmith Posted February 21, 2019 Author Share Posted February 21, 2019 Thanks for this advice, betoney. I used both under-screen aux plugs (the ivory-coloured ones) to wire-in the LED DRLs, but the more I think about it the more I'm of the opinion that I can tap into the wires shown in my photo (which power the RHS DRL) and get a good outcome. I'll give it a go, anyway, but will also have a look around under both sockets to see what may be available. Just waiting for the voltmeter to arrive, eta March 11th or later is promised. Thanks again... Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBB Posted February 21, 2019 Share Posted February 21, 2019 As I never use the cigarette socket, I used the wires from that for my USB/voltmeter. I also swapped the socket to the right hand side as it made more sense for connecting to my tank bag, and just put the blanking plate on the left. I too, had to enlarge the mounting hole, using a half-round file. Red 2015 Tracer, UK spec (well, it was until I started messing with it...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wordsmith Posted February 21, 2019 Author Share Posted February 21, 2019 6 hours ago, BBB said: As I never use the cigarette socket, I used the wires from that for my USB/voltmeter. I also swapped the socket to the right hand side as it made more sense for connecting to my tank bag, and just put the blanking plate on the left. I too, had to enlarge the mounting hole, using a half-round file. Thanks for all the helpful replies - I think I'm good to go now. But I must confess that until a few moments ago I had never looked at the left-hand side cigarette-lighter socket, assuming (which one should never do!) that it was identical to the empty rhs hole, and was quite surprised when I just did! But - if that's a ciggie-lighter, where's the ash-tray? Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wordsmith Posted February 22, 2019 Author Share Posted February 22, 2019 A further note now that I know what's in the l.h.s cigarette-socket hole. I tested the circuit using a cast-off LED indicator stem, and lo! - there was light. I now plan to make up an insert with two terminals that can be put into this socket to power the voltmeter when it arrives: that will avoid risk of overloading the r.h.s. LED wiring. Again - thanks for guidance! 'Seek and thou shalt find' indeed! Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rain Posted February 22, 2019 Share Posted February 22, 2019 I have the same meter, the BLUE one to match my bike. I tapped into the left hand socket wires, so not exactly plug-n-play. I had to dremel the hole in the mounting flange a little, like the other poster said. Not too bad. I'm guessing they're not all too EXACT in the voltage measurement. I compared mine against my DVM and the pretty blue meter reads about 0.2V lower than actual. Or the opposite Easy to remember. Still, it's pretty and fills up that hole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member 2and3cylinders Posted March 8, 2019 Premium Member Share Posted March 8, 2019 Where you feed the VM from depends on what you want to read, battery voltage or system voltage at some point far from the battery. Technically, larger gauge wire provides the less amperage drop and truer voltage reading. I feed a volt meter from both the battery using 16 ga wire AND instrument voltage using a SPST switch. I also have an amp meter that measures battery voltage during starting. Plus I have a combo VM - dual 2.1a USB power port unit in the right hole. Don't expect any inexpensive digital VM to be particularly accurate but you can "calibrate" relative to a known quality multi-meter. I also carry a lithium micro jump starter unit which I have never needed myself thankfully but did start a Suburu 4-cyl, a 88 HD Evo big twin and an 97 Valkyrie Tour with it no problem... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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