I had a thought last night, while checking battery voltage. You may recall the Lair’s powershed has essentially two separate battery banks at the moment, and only a single indoor voltage monitor. It’s connected to the 12v line, so I can directly monitor only the batteries connected to the 12v lighting. That’s not all that useful, I’m back to hiking out to the powershed every morning with a voltmeter.
I could fix the problem easily, any time I’m ready to trench yet another conduit out to the powershed. Right now there’s just too much other stuff on my plate. And last night I got to thinking, why doesn’t anybody make a wireless voltmeter for remote monitoring? You can walk into any hardware and buy a wireless thermometer for $20, but unless I’m just using the wrong keywords there’s no such thing as a wireless voltmeter on all of Amazon.
Does that seem right to you?
if you have a smartphone and are not too far away there is a mooshimeter. but it is an expensive device for just reading voltage.i would just run wires to a cheap voltmeter…..but your idea is a good one. let me think on it.
https://www.amazon.com/Automotive-Wireless-Bluetooth-Charging-Cranking/dp/B06Y5PC9D8/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1503967842&sr=8-7&keywords=wireless+battery+monitor
Yup, this is low cost but you need a smartphone or bluetooth enabled pad or computer to link to it.
https://www.amazon.com/QUICKLYNKS-Battery-Monitor-Bluetooth-Device/dp/B01MT4583U/ref=pd_cp_60_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01MT4583U&pd_rd_r=CCQ7RSVJTW692QE779YS&pd_rd_w=I16Vi&pd_rd_wg=CkRcB&psc=1&refRID=CCQ7RSVJTW692QE779YS
You could put an old car voltage meter in a powershed window facing your digs and just read it with the rifle scope each morning.
It sounds as though you had pre-existing meter wiring to the house? You could make a commutator out of the minute hand of a cheap clock in the shed such that it reads each battery alternately for 20 seconds (with two five second gaps), and sends it via those wires. A poor mans duplex.
There are a lot of wireless battery monitors, but they’re pricey. Wireless cameras less so, so maybe a camera in the shed pointed at gauges?
Here’s another; the price is low enough to make me wonder about quality. Search Amazon for “wireless voltage monitor,” or “wireless battery monitor.”
Joel, skip the Bluetooth ones. Even with a compatible device you won’t get more than a few feet of range. That last one might do it – they’re speccing it for 10m in open air so probably more like 8 reliably. Components for this stuff are dirt cheap these days, even the displays, so I’m inclined to think that it’ll probably work at that price but the design may not be top notch.
Why not just run a wire from the top of the shed to the eaves of the Lair? Underground would be more aesthetic, but overhead lines seem to work for power and telephone purposes.
It figures the current state of the art answer to my question is “There’s an app for that.” :\
Jabrwok, the question is moot. I’ve been conversing with Big Brother and the guy who’s coming next month to help me drywall, and we’re just going to dig the whole thing up and do an upgrade. It’s really not a very long or deep trench, it’s just a matter of having the materials and doing the thing, and then it’s done.
So, Joel. When you do an update are you going to put in a larger pipe than needed or maybe one or two extra, empty, pipes (with pull-strings already installed) as a just-in-case?
Yeah, pretty much. “Do it right the fourth time,” that’s my motto.
Jabrwok, the question is moot
Fair enough. I was envisioning you out there with a shovel, all alone. Which would not be fun:-).
EdH’s suggestion is really a very good one. I’ve done the equivalent, using internet-connect cameras to look at voltmeters in remote buildings. Think seriously about doing this his way.
pull your old wire out (with a pull string attached) and then pull new multi stand wire for the 2 monitors.
Really, you should only need 1 or two more conductors anyway…..
If you are gonna dig new conduit, then put as many as you can afford into the trench. No one was ever unhappy when they buried an extra conduit for use later. (Hint: Use different color tape (or pulling strings) to make it easy to identify which conduit is which.