Wiring Voltmeter...?..

[Jd377 6]

Hey I have a crappy voltmeter from an autoparts store locally that my friend hooked up a year ago to who knows where in the front of the car, I think to a fuse for power just so i have an idea of my voltage.. But I am about to purchase a new stinger voltmeter as I am about to add a new Kinetik hc1400 up front and decided I want a more accurate reading of voltage for my Sundown amp. I was just wondering how you guys wire these up to get a good readout of the voltage? (I guess at the amp?.. ) I'm assuming you would want the voltage at the amp to see how much power the amp is actually getting?.. correct me if im wrong about what voltage i want to read.. so basically I was just wondering do I just run a long wire to the back of my car to the amp from the voltmeter for the reading or what?.. I thought I would ask here as almost everyone seems to use these meters. THANKS IN ADVANCE!! you can give a full explanation of wiring one up if you want as I have no idea how to wire a voltmeter, I know you can ground to basically any part of the frame of car/metal.. but thats about all for me.

[ssh 924]

You can wire it to anything you want, personally, I wire mine at the amp so I know what voltage the amp is seeing.

Mount your voltmeter in your dash or where ever, run your 3 wires (power, ground, remote turn on) all the way to the amp. You can simply stuff each wire into the corresponding terminal on the amp.

[sefugi 166]

Hey I have a crappy voltmeter from an autoparts store locally that my friend hooked up a year ago to who knows where in the front of the car, I think to a fuse for power just so i have an idea of my voltage.. But I am about to purchase a new stinger voltmeter as I am about to add a new Kinetik hc1400 up front and decided I want a more accurate reading of voltage for my Sundown amp. I was just wondering how you guys wire these up to get a good readout of the voltage? (I guess at the amp?.. ) I'm assuming you would want the voltage at the amp to see how much power the amp is actually getting?.. correct me if im wrong about what voltage i want to read.. so basically I was just wondering do I just run a long wire to the back of my car to the amp from the voltmeter for the reading or what?.. I thought I would ask here as almost everyone seems to use these meters. THANKS IN ADVANCE!! you can give a full explanation of wiring one up if you want as I have no idea how to wire a voltmeter, I know you can ground to basically any part of the frame of car/metal.. but thats about all for me.

I am not using one of these at the moment but you answered your own question. Don't forget to adjust it once it is installed.

[ssh 924]

Hey I have a crappy voltmeter from an autoparts store locally that my friend hooked up a year ago to who knows where in the front of the car, I think to a fuse for power just so i have an idea of my voltage.. But I am about to purchase a new stinger voltmeter as I am about to add a new Kinetik hc1400 up front and decided I want a more accurate reading of voltage for my Sundown amp. I was just wondering how you guys wire these up to get a good readout of the voltage? (I guess at the amp?.. ) I'm assuming you would want the voltage at the amp to see how much power the amp is actually getting?.. correct me if im wrong about what voltage i want to read.. so basically I was just wondering do I just run a long wire to the back of my car to the amp from the voltmeter for the reading or what?.. I thought I would ask here as almost everyone seems to use these meters. THANKS IN ADVANCE!! you can give a full explanation of wiring one up if you want as I have no idea how to wire a voltmeter, I know you can ground to basically any part of the frame of car/metal.. but thats about all for me.

I am not using one of these at the moment but you answered your own question. Don't forget to adjust it once it is installed.

x2, not sure why they need to be calibrated, seems pretty ironic, but use a dmm next to it and match the voltages.

[Jd377 6]

aw smart, never thought about that. Installing all 3 wires in the amp itself ! genius. Thanks lol. I just wanted to make sure before I went and bought wires to run back. I didn't know if people really just ran it to their front battery or alt.. But sweet amp sounds better because I dont want her to see below 12v EVER

P.S. How the crap do people sit at above 14v?.. I don't think mine is even at 13?.. Its hard to tell though since the meter I have atm is junk. But will adding a hc1400 up front increase the voltage my car sits at?.. ( stock alt, kinetik hc600 in back, and atm I have stock batt but adding the hc1400 monday up front) Just wonderin how I get the voltage higher like above 13v

[ssh 924]

aw smart, never thought about that. Installing all 3 wires in the amp itself ! genius. Thanks lol. I just wanted to make sure before I went and bought wires to run back. I didn't know if people really just ran it to their front battery or alt.. But sweet amp sounds better because I dont want her to see below 12v EVER

P.S. How the crap do people sit at above 14v?.. I don't think mine is even at 13?.. Its hard to tell though since the meter I have atm is junk. But will adding a hc1400 up front increase the voltage my car sits at?.. ( stock alt, kinetik hc600 in back, and atm I have stock batt but adding the hc1400 monday up front) Just wonderin how I get the voltage higher like above 13v

stock alts should charge at 14.4v, after the years of driving, wear and tear, they often drop to the 13s.

A lot of people upgrade to high output alts, and some of the h/o alt manufacturers raise the voltage a little, (15.5v is about the most you can go on a 12v battery 14v charging setup)

For instance, my stock alt with 80k miles will charge at 14.9v when its cold with no music on, when it's hot outside it drops to 13s.

My dc alt would charge around 15-15.5v all the time with no music, or at full tilt with a saz1500d around 14.5-14.8v