"Edgar" wrote in message
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"Capt. JG" wrote in message
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"Edgar" wrote in message
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"Capt. JG" wrote in message
My instrument panel has an ammeter which tells me the total current
being
drawn from the house battery by all the auxiliaries on the panel.
When you switch anything on, even a single mast light, you can see the
needle give a little kick which confirms that it is indeed working.
And yes, I know that a short circuit on the wiring would also give a
kick, probably much greater, but IMO you can ignore this possibility if
you manually check the operation of the lights occasionally.



Neither of my panels have an amp meter unfortunately. Even if they did, I
wouldn't be able to see them from the cockpit. I've been thinking about
upgrading the panel, but haven't done so.

Go on, have a go its fun :-)
I am in the middle of doing it.
It is easy enough to add an amp meter. A suitable meter has the current to
the board all passing through an external shunt and the meter itself is a
milliampmeter connected across the shunt and calibrated in amps.
Apart from the indications I mentioned it helps you calculate if your
house battery is going to last through the trip



I've been putting it off mostly because of where to put it is an issue. I'd
likely have to increase the size of the cutout for the new panel, which I
hate doing.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com