If you ever thought a voltmeter might be an interesting thing to add to you controls, the font of all stuff, epay, has several 0 to 20 VAC meters listed. Options include prices about $5 for the meter and $5 to ship from China and a month or two wait, to a US distributor selling the same item for about $13 and free 4 day shipping. Item #401288028806. So, plunk down big bucks for the ZW-L to get the metering, or roll your own. Amazon is a great place to find things like plastic or aluminum project boxes too, and yes, they also have low volts AC meters, but the lowest range I could find was 0 to 30. The normal train running voltage would have the needle down on the low end most of the time. Another thing to look at on Amazon are the LED kits. Hundreds of 5 and 3MM leds in all colors, in one plastic box, some come with a 1 for 1 number of dropping resistors, and are the raw material you need to put ditch, classification, and number board lights on the older stuff, or make block signals or traffic signals, all for an expense in the $10 range.
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Remember, if you're running with any of the many chopped waveform transformers, a common $5 voltmeter isn't going to give you anything close to an accurate reading.
I have a digital multimeter for checking voltage. Cut off the probes and attached a pair of alligator clips. A harbor freight job that I've used for 8 years.
@third rail posted:I have a digital multimeter for checking voltage. Cut off the probes and attached a pair of alligator clips. A harbor freight job that I've used for 8 years.
That's unlikely to be a true-RMS meter that measures chopped waveforms accurately.
believe it or not we are working on putting some meters in that came from China via eBay at the club layout. When checked against my Fluke 902FC it really wasn’t off by far there’s a pot on them to adjust the voltage and I mean you may be volt or two off at times but I mean in all honesty I think a general idea is all we are ever looking for from a panel meter. This may be my opinion but what is it your looking for from a panel meter
1. The simple question is track power on.
2. if it is on is there 18V for command or if it’s conventional you may be looking for a good operating range for a particular train.
The thing I’m not so entirely sure as to what meter would work good for amperage. And just haven’t looked into it much yet
@gunrunnerjohn posted:That's unlikely to be a true-RMS meter that measures chopped waveforms accurately.
It doesn't matter to me. I'm just looking to see if I have power to the tracks, whether a fuse blew on the transformer/brick or if I have a dead rail.
@third rail posted:It doesn't matter to me. I'm just looking to see if I have power to the tracks, whether a fuse blew on the transformer/brick or if I have a dead rail.
Then all you need is a lamp, i.e. a pilot light.
Mike
I'm with Mike, I'd just stick a bulb up there. AAMOF, I'm planning on that addition myself, at times it would be useful to see which of the four circuits has power at a glance.