Home made battery tester

[UK-Corlett]

Hi

I have been making little circuits for my TD. They will all end up in one box soon but for now they are easier to describe. This is a real easy build, cheep too. The IC costs £1.52 ($3) and the other bits cost very little. I found the circuit and details at:-

http://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/circ/batmon12.htm




I altered it a little I made the 10th led red and tuned the 9th LED to 12.65 instead of the 10th so I would get an indication that the battery is being successfully charged.


The LED's left to right.
1. (red) set at 11.89V
9. (green) set at 12.65V
10. (red) something above that

Clive

PS As a newby I am shy about posting to a sticky. Should I re post this to "Battery State of Charge Chart"?

[Dooner]

As it is installed, do all the LEDs stay on continuously and as the battery voltage drops, they go off one at a time? I think someone made one similar, but put a push on switch in line so it would only go on when you pushed the button to check. Looks real cool. I love the tech devices.
I think I even saw one somewhere that only powered one LED at a time as the voltage dropped. You never have more than one LED on.
Anyway, can't wait to see it installed. Keep up the good work.

[UK-Corlett]

Hi Dooner

This works as a bar graph, one led lit for 11.89V nine leds lit for 12.65v and 10 lit if anything higher. You can work it so only one led is lit at a time but I think it looks better this way.

Also when fitter it will have a non-latching switch so its not on all the time.

Clive

[Dooner]

I like it with all the lights on and as the voltage drops they go off one at a time. It just feels right to me. The more lights on, the more power you have.
I think the person that did it the other way was worried about the drain on the battery, but he had a switch like you. It did not latch on. I didn't think they used that much to worry about the drain. I really don't know. To each his own, I guess.
Looks good though. When I get ready to do something like that, I may pm you. If you don't mind.