How do you guys measure Amps?

The story is almost exactly the one I used to teach exposure to new photographers, Instead of electricity it is light same things applies time and volume fill the bucket.
 
Most people would set their meters on the handlebars which adds length of wires and added resistance.
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You missed that part of an earlier post...

No.. It's not just 4" of wire and even if you only have 4" you still get a voltage drop, which does effect it somewhat. (obviously not that much, but every mile counts)

It would be useless to have a meter connected at the battery/controller area, that's the entire point of having a meter where you can read it AS you are riding.

Most people have their battery in the back of the bike and the controller in the middle, so you need to run the wires from the battery to the meter at the handlebars and then to the controller which adds at least 4 FEET of wire, and running electricity through that much wire adds alot of resistance.

I can't get you exact figures in terms of mathimatical results of resistance vs wire guage and length...

That is why I gave real world examples.
 
I'll tell you what...

Try this...

Run your bike with a meter attached at the handle bars and even the 10awg wires (which is a good idea anyways) and run the batteries till dead...

Then run the bike with 14awg wires running through everything and run the batteries till dead.

Then run the bike without any meter whatsoever and run the batteries till dead.

I bet you that you'll definitely get more miles without any meter whatsoever attached
You'll get a little more miles with a higher awg wire, that's for sure, but trust me, it makes a huge difference depending on just those things I have mentioned.

I notice I can ride faster and have more torque without a meter attached, then I do with one attached with 4' of wire.

Try what I said.. You'll see.

FYI. That was my point... Using the CA is your best bet... Otherwise spend half the price of WU and buy the turnigy unit, that's all.
 
First thing i did, was change my original post, to more accurately provide what I did with the wires...

I think you almost missed my point.

The point was that you WILL get MUCH better mileage if you use the cycle analyst meter (which uses NO wires, and only a shunt) then if you use 4'+ of 14awg wire (which in reality is more like 8') on a meter on the handlebars. That was it.
I use my CA to measure AS I am riding, so that I can see the current (pun intended) usage DURING my ride. Otherwise, do what you do, and put the meter very close to the battery/controller.

The whole point for MY meter(s) is to see as I am throttling, going up and down slopes, and during regen and it tells me the stats as I'm riding.The use that you would want to use it for, on an ebike.

The original use of the meters were for RC use and has just been recently been adopted for ebikes

FYI on my tests I used my (unused) WU meter mounted on the handlebars. (battery AND controller are on the back of my chopper bike, so I actuality had to use 10'+ of wire.
 
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LOL, numbers haven't changed. I think YOU are seeing things.

The point wasn't the resistance of the meters, it was the (added) resistance of 8 to 10 feet of wire needed to mount it on the handlebars

If you don't believe me without testing it for yourself, that's your porragtive (sp?)

All I know is that i get a bunch less miles with TWO (WU) meters attached (at the handlebars) then without them.

You say you won't believe it, but you won't test it out for yourself.

It's not a difficult test. try it with small batteries, so you won't have to travel 100 miles... 100 miles, now that's funny, it was MUCH less than 100 miles, it was a beautiful day and i got to see some of the beautiful sights of South Fl.

SLAs suck because of Voltage Sag and add to that wire lengths using 8 feet of 14 awg wire, and you'll see a difference.

Don't believe, all i know is that on two batteries measuring 40ah total on two motors, i can go in excess of 100miles.... Prior to switching to the CAs, I was getting at BEST 80 miles.

it cost me a total of $100 for bike, $540 for the batteries and $250 for a second motor and $110 for various Radio, Directionals, battery box, etc, etc, and $300 for two CAs, for a total of $1300 for 100+miles of travel.

That's as good (if not better) then a gas bike and i'm totally green and it costs me about .50 per charge and charge time is only 3 hours.

so fantasize about getting just as good mileage with SLAs/NiMh and a Meter attached at the handlebars.
 
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Happy Jack said:
Okay, Okay me play nice.

SANGESF , you sure got me beat on the "totally green" thing. On that final point I award you econanumous victory.

I have nuthin' against the little green Kermits, and I do confess to having a regular Mustang Ranch bordello of 2-stroke and 4-stroke gas ho' motors that done gives me a carbon footprint bigger than a Sasquatch. May Al Gore please forgive me.
I do have 5 stages of electric motors, from bike to boat , but I abuse them and their batteries with sparks and mud.
Me bad.

You see .... It's the intoxicatin' smell of the 32:1 mix that I have been using for cologne , AND, well sometimes I sneak out and (I hate to confess this , but this is good for my intervention) I even sniff the exhaust from my 58 Merc Inline-6 and get a, well ya know (a viagra type reaction!).

In deference to the mods and other genteel forum viewers I will henceforth go into "play nice" rehab and not address your post on this topic again. Best of luck to you on your greenness.
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'nuff said.
 
Im not into e for the green to be honest. It just does what I personally want it to do better than gasoline bikes I have built.
 
could you use it as a test meter somehow.
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Sure.
BUT--- Just like using a clock. It only tells a single "reading" , then you must figure out in your head how to use the numbers.
 
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I got one of those Turnigy watt meter thingys...

T-wattmeter.jpg


does anyone know what type of wire I would need to hook this up to my battery & controller? I dont want to go buying any old wire and find that it melts because its not the right type.

Regards
Tom
 
SANGESF said:
I would suggest 12awg wire and try to keep the wire lengths as short as possible.
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aah, then I could be in trouble?
The plan was to have this setup on my bike handlebars (for viewing) and run the cable(s) along the bike back to the push trailer then back again, a distance of around 2 1/2 to 3 meters by the time you take bends and kinks into account.
I think its a bit pointless having the turnigy locked up in a box (along with my batteries and controller) where I cant read it unless I stop.

Regards
Tom
 
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