I’m curious - I thought about cutting the leads off a Harbor Freight multimeter, attaching ring terminals and connecting it to my deep cycle battery. I’ll put the multimeter itself in a waterproof bag and will turn on the switch when I want a reading.

 

Anything completely wrong with that idea? I have at least 5 of the free multimeters and can save money using one of them.

The voltage setting is usually first on the dial (not sure about this one),  but if you accidentally crank it over too much to read resistance for example, it might fry the (cheap) meter.  Perhaps not with 12v though?  

 

a small “marine” voltage gauge is cheap money on amazon.  Throw in an in-line switch if your concerned about draw on your battery.  Kayak?

39 minutes ago, Arcs&sparks said:

The voltage setting is usually first on the dial (not sure about this one),  but if you accidentally crank it over too much to read resistance for example, it might fry the (cheap) meter.  Perhaps not with 12v though?  

 

a small “marine” voltage gauge is cheap money on amazon.  Throw in an in-line switch if your concerned about draw on your battery.  Kayak?

It’s sitting on the 20v reading so it should be fine - for my Sun Dolphin Sportsman. I just wondered if that was any problem cutting off the leads.

31 minutes ago, mrstangblb said:

 I just wondered if that was any problem cutting off the leads.

Nope; you're just making a permanent connection instead of holding the needles to the battery terminals.

 

Snip away!

Have you checked to see if your sonar unit can display voltage?  

1 hour ago, Smokinal said:

Nope; you're just making a permanent connection instead of holding the needles to the battery terminals.

 

Snip away!

Thought so but I wanted to make sure. Thanks!

 

1 hour ago, Arcs&sparks said:

Have you checked to see if your sonar unit can display voltage?  

It does but I have a separate battery (7 amp/hr) for it.

??? Why not just get an inexpensive waterproof dash voltmeter?

 

I have three on my boat, one for each battery in dash a mounted pod.

 

Search on Ebay: "waterproof dash voltmeter"

 

and for mounting search:

 

"dash pod"

 

I just removed my gauges from separate pods and mounted one for each battery (in three different colors Red port, Green Stbd, and blue house batteries) in a triple pod. 

 

No plastic bags needed. 

 

 

 

43 minutes ago, gnappi said:

??? Why not just get an inexpensive waterproof dash voltmeter?

 

I have three on my boat, one for each battery in dash a mounted pod.

 

Search on Ebay: "waterproof dash voltmeter"

 

and for mounting search:

 

"dash pod"

 

I just removed my gauges from separate pods and mounted one for each battery (in three different colors Red port, Green Stbd, and blue house batteries) in a triple pod. 

 

No plastic bags needed. 

 

 

 

Why spend MORE money on something that I have 5 of laying around? I’ve already blown all kinds of money on extras for this boat, and this multimeter should work fine for me. I don’t have a dash - this is attaching to my battery box. Plus my multimeter is an LCD readout that I can easily read in full sunlight.

32 minutes ago, mrstangblb said:

Why spend MORE money on something that I have 5 of laying around? I’ve already blown all kinds of money on extras for this boat, and this multimeter should work fine for me. I don’t have a dash - this is attaching to my battery box. Plus my multimeter is an LCD readout that I can easily read in full sunlight.

It was only a more elegant suggestion / solution. YMMV. 

 

My Fluke meter doesn't read the same as the HF ones but for a reference it'll be OK.  

3 hours ago, gnappi said:

It was only a more elegant suggestion / solution. YMMV. 

 

That would look nice!

1 hour ago, Alex from GA said:

My Fluke meter doesn't read the same as the HF ones but for a reference it'll be OK.  

The HF is not completely accurate for sure, but it should get me off the water when I need to.

Both my two Harbor Freight voltmeters are inaccurate compared to more expensive ($30) ones. If you use it, you might obtain a better quality one and compare voltages across a range of battery charges. 

5 hours ago, Maggiesmaster said:

Both my two Harbor Freight voltmeters are inaccurate compared to more expensive ($30) ones. If you use it, you might obtain a better quality one and compare voltages across a range of battery charges. 

True - I have 2 other really good ones I can check with.