Electric dummy

[salmonite]

I have always suspected that i had a battery drain somewhere... So I went and got an amp meter and boy I don't know what I am doing. I only I have the motor cables and the cables from my fuse box attached at battery. Now please clarify in dummy words how I check each cable to see If there is a draw. What I have been doing is leavening the positive cable from motor and fuse box attached to battery and simply touching my negative amp wire to negative motor cable that is normally attached to battery... And if the there is a negative draw the draw is from that wire??? Is this correct?

 

[woody66912]

Re: Electric dummy

Yes, then put your meter in line at the battery post and (each) wire, then start pulling fuses and when the draw is 0. then trace that wire from the fuse block to what it powers.

 

[salmonite]

Re: Electric dummy

Yes, then put your meter in line at the battery post and (each) wire, then start pulling fuses and when the draw is 0. then trace that wire from the fuse block to what it powers.

Ok I am at zero when I touch my negative amp wire to motor cable and fuse box negative wire so that means I have junk battery.. The only question I have is I turned on the bilge and I still didn't get a negative reading. This is why I was doing something incorrectly.

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: Electric dummy

take the -12vdc wire off the battery and put it somewhere it can not touch any thing postive. next turn meter to amps if it has a-ma choose the A setting next on some meters u have to switch the leads on the front to the A setting one should be A the other in common. then put one lead to the battery negative post (common or negative to the battery post)the other lead to the wire that was removed from the post (the positve or A lead) so now all the electrical flow has to go through the meter. turn on something like the biege pump and you should see a 1 to 2 amp draw. if you have got this far and everything is working then like salonite said if you are reading amps with everything turned off then pull one fuse as a time until it goes down to zero (ignore true zero as 0.1 or lower is fine as anything with a soft touch start button will still be using a small amount of juice)

 

[salmonite]

Re: Electric dummy

Pretty much speaking Greek to me man...which cable to take off? Positive or negative? Does it matter if the positive amp wire is on the post or wire?

 

[NYBo]

Re: Electric dummy

Pretty much speaking Greek to me man...which cable to take off? Positive or negative? Does it matter if the positive amp wire is on the post or wire?

It doesn't matter. Just connect your meter, set to amps, to the battery terminal and to the connector(s) you removed.

 

[TerryMSU]

Re: Electric dummy

One other area of concern here... You may need to plug your meter probes into the right spots on your ampmeter. Can you send a picture of the front of your meter and we can tell you where to plug in the probes on your meter? Other than that NYBo is right.

TerryMSU

 

[salmonite]

Re: Electric dummy



Here it is... I believe i have it correct but when i put it inline with the negative even with a bilge on it does not register a draw.

 

[salmonite]

Re: Electric dummy



tried to make it larger

 

[NYBo]

Re: Electric dummy

Can't read the dial. What is it set to?

 

[salmonite]

Re: Electric dummy

A 10a

 

[salmonite]

Re: Electric dummy



lets try that again..

Edit.. for some reason iboats keeps on shrinking it.

 

[NYBo]

Re: Electric dummy

The 10 amp setting is correct. Now we have to figure out why the gauge isn't reading even with the bilge pump running. Try setting the gauge to DV volts and connect the probes to the battery. You should get a reading of about 12.6 volts if the probe wires are intact.

 

[salmonite]

Re: Electric dummy

Yes it works on the volt section... Reads 12.71

 

[TerryMSU]

Re: Electric dummy

Zoom in on the area where the probes plug in to the meter and send just that picture. Most meters have a different spot to plug in for current vs. for voltage measurements. My suspicion is that the probes should plug into the middle and bottom spots for current, but I cannot see what the labels say. The fact that you can measure voltage seems to support that theory. Also, what is the maker and model of your meter? Maybe I can find it on line.

TerryMSU

 

[salmonite]

Re: Electric dummy

Terry for the volts section I actually do have to move it to the bottom two plugs...

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: Electric dummy

few minor questions

1/ how many batterys do you have?
2/ when you tryed reading amps did you disconnect one of the battery leads?
3/ when you tested the biege pump did it run?

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Electric dummy

These meters typically have a fuse in them so if you accidentily put the meter across the positive and negative of the battery while in current measuring mode, for example, you likely blew the fuse. To see if this has happend, pull the fuse of a known good circuit on your boat and put the meter between the fuse prongs and see if the circuit works and you actually measure current. You have to take the meter aprt to change this fuse.

 

[Don S]

Re: Electric dummy

View attachment 155943

lets try that again..

Edit.. for some reason iboats keeps on shrinking it.

I think you are uploading the thumbnails, not the images themselves.
Read this and see if it helps http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=468676

 

[salmonite]

Re: Electric dummy

These meters typically have a fuse in them so if you accidentily put the meter across the positive and negative of the battery while in current measuring mode, for example, you likely blew the fuse. To see if this has happend, pull the fuse of a known good circuit on your boat and put the meter between the fuse prongs and see if the circuit works and you actually measure current. You have to take the meter aprt to change this fuse.

i think you are right... bilge does not run when i have it correctly placed. I must have done this when screwing around on how to do it

wow this fuse is small... I usually deal with larger ones but i would clearly see the strip of metal going though the glass... Correct? i dont see anything at all but a faint little floss sized metal strip going through. When i say small i had to put it up to a light bulb to see it