Ammeter

[featherbedder]

How can I make ammeter work. It is in panel & original univolt had wire to ammeter shunt, now have powermax converter only have 2 wires plus and minus [hot & Ground]. This is original panel w/ ammeter in 76 AS no mods. Do not want to in stall after market ammeter, trying to keep AS original except for mandatory replacement of bad components, ie water pump, drapes, toilet, converter, & carpet. Bill

[TG Twinkie]

The shunt in the old Univolt is wired in series with the wire you are monitoring. If you want it the read the current going to the battery, the charge/discharge rate. Wire it in series with the negative battery lead.
If you want to know the load on the converter. Wire it in series with the negative lead to the converter. This will give you the total current draw of the coach along with the current required to charge the battery when on shore power.



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[idroba]

You could take the original ammeter shunt from the original Univolt and put it the new converter/charger circuit. However this is a bit tricky, as the shunt has to be put in a place where the current flow to and from the battery is taking place, that is in the negative line from the battery. I know how I would do in in my mind, but I am not sure how to tell you what to do, where to place it and so on.

Shunts are generally put in the negative side of the circuit, but I am not even sure that the old Univolt did that. My memory is not clear on what they did, and I am not home now so can't look at one of my old shunt equipped Univolts to check it out.

Possibly a search of threads may turn up something, I have a vague recollection of the issue coming up in the past, but it may have been a number of years ago.