I've been thinkin' again (that ain't a good thing)
With my new 200a alternator, my oem voltage gauge pretty much stays at 3/4 when the truck is running, no matter how much stuff I have turned on.

It would be nice to see the actual battery voltage when the truck is running or the key in acc'y position... without using my multimeter.
I'd like to add a single A pillar pod with a digital voltage gauge. It would probably need to be wired to a relay like my backup lights.

I know (from searching the forum) that you guys & gals have installed multiple gauge pods, but where might I find a single pod (hopefully really cheap) for my 96?
How about a digital voltage gauge (preferably green or blue #'s, but if the price is right, I could live with red). I've seen a bunch of dial gauges, but I'm not a big fan of dial gauges. I've seen a few digital volt gauges, but they were $50 or more.

Any suggestions?

 

Autometer makes single and double pillar pods for Rangers:

Autometer dual pillar pod: P/N 15308
Summit Racing $27.95, Summit P/N: ATM-15308

Autometer single pillar pod: P/N 15309
Summit Racing $21.95, Summit P/N: ATM-15309

http://www.summitracing.com/

http://hp.autometer.com/products/mou...lar_truck.html

 

Cool,
That's what I'm thinking about.
Darn summit and their "free" shipping PLUS $11 "handling" though.

 

also I belive i read on the internet that if you look on summit, the column that the auto shifter is on. If you look through I believe that it works on are trucks also.

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...666+4294925228

 

Me being the more extreme "I'd rather do it myself" type, I've always thought about putting an LED readout ON the cluster by the amp-o-meter. I've got two really small red LED displays that would be perfect (6 pin DIP, 3 digits. One would be enough to show 12.0 volts). I've also got an old blue LED voltage meter with a burned out segment that would be perfect to drive the display.

Hmm. I do have a spare cluster at the moment to practice on...

Gah. Who am I kidding. It'll never happen. Or will it?

 

^ ^ DO IT!...............then make me one too.

I even thought about buying one of those digital voltage battery terminals off ebay & ripping the display & guts out & fit it in the cubby hole above my head unit.

 

I'm ordering one this weekend to put in the new gauge pod i'm building. It's a blue led read out found on e-mail. Linky below. There are quite a few different ones with various sizes, colors, and out puts.

http://cgi.ebay.com/BLUE-LED-DC-0-20...QQcmdZViewItem

 

Did you see the mini 3 digit ones that seller has?

Please let me know how yours works.

The only question I would have is.... I see some of them (from that seller) require 5v DC to operate, how do we drop the 12v to 15v DC our alternator generates down to 5v to power the unit? Would a diode work?

This is getting interesting!

 

I put in a voltmeter in my truck, cigarette outlet style, when i added a 200 amp alternator and a yellow top optima battery
truck consistantly stays above 14 volts, often over 14.5 volts when truck is running and all accessories on, only drops under 14 when truck is shut off

 

Here is one I got red temp gauge and oil pressure gauge
they are made by cyberdyne you can get them from JC whitney and summit

http://www.cyberdynegauges.net/blueice.php

 

I did a little test yesterday when I had to drive out of town. I used alligator clips to attach my multi-meter to the extra cig outlets I have & my voltage ranged from 14.4v to 15.8v.
My voltage drops a minute or so after I turn the truck off too, down to about 12.5v.

 

sounds about right, although i might be concerned about being above 15 volts, i always thought it shouldnt put out more than 15 volts or over power the electrical stuff, i could be wrong though

 

5v regulator from Radio Shack should do it. linky

Package labeling should show what pins you would need. Something like that shouldn't draw *too* much current, so heat may not be an issue (but I'd tie it to a heat sink anyway for good measure)

 

Also if you search around e-bay a little bit more then have some other ones that can run on ne thing from 9 to 15 volts so a regulator isn't necessary

 

I've been checking around ebay, but the ones I found that have a 12v+ regulator built in have 4 digits or more.
Like to find a green, 3 digit one that's super compact, that will handle 12v+, that I can squeeze in above my head unit.
I found a 4 digit green display that has a built in regulator, but it's 3 1/8" wide by 1 5/8" tall (darnit!) Guess it wouldn't be hard to see that one in the day or night though.
If I wasn't so picky, I wouldn't have this problem.
Maybe I could tuck one of the larger ones in the ash tray.

 

I finally found a 3 digit green led display that was small enough to fit above the head unit. The 7805 5v regulator works like a charm. I've got it (temporarily) connected via the cig plug power, but I'll switch the display to read power directly from my amp distribution fuse block.

The only drawback I found is that the display is almost impossible to read in sunlight (at least up over the head unit, anyway). So I popped the front cover off & found that the GREEN is actually just a opaque green piece of plastic. I cut a small piece of limo tint and placed it in front of the green plastic & reassembled the display & it seems to work better (I didn't do the whole wet/peel/squeegee the tint in case I need to replace it sometime). The display almost disappears when it's not on now.

I have a green led switch that's only active when the truck is running or the key is in the acc'y position so I hopefully won't run the battery down again... I forgot to hook up my battery charger while I had the doors open & hood up all weekend & my battery dropped down to 10.5v & the truck wouldn't start today. After a couple of hours with the charger on, the battery is back to 12v.
Looks like I'll be getting a new battery pretty soon too. I can't see why though.... I just bought this battery in.... 2001.

Pics of the install when I have time...