AMP & Volt Meter questions / problems.

First the AMP meter:

I believe one of my amp meters is just plain bad (displays nonsense). I plugged in another and it displays numbers but jumps around quite a bit between 7 & 5. Although at times it has a crazy number like -54 so somethings not quite right there. Even 7 amps seems like alot of draw with just some lights no?

Second the Volt meter:

The Volt meter, when it was working, was jumping around 240 volts then it went blank and hasn't returned. The transformer hooked up to it was really, really hot while the AMP meter's transformer stayed nice and cool

Both transformers were wired to the same neutral/hot/ground so I guess the one was faulty and maybe it had something to do with the volt meter dieing.

Say more about how you have these things hooked up, and to what. If you've got it hooked up to something that's really hot, I suspect that you're not paying attention to your meter's current tolerances.

Sorry I should add that I'm doing Kal's electric build and these are the panel meters.

Is it normal that voltage & amp readings on these should fluctuate so wildly? (+/- 10-15V & +/- 2-3 Amps).

I'm using 20 gauge stranded petsafe dogfence wire between the transformers,dc power supplies,meters. Possible that it's not rated for enough voltage?

rvklein said:

Sorry I should add that I'm doing Kal's electric build and these are the panel meters.

Is it normal that voltage & amp readings on these should fluctuate so wildly? (+/- 10-15V & +/- 2-3 Amps).

Click to expand...

Hmm...I'm not familiar with the schematic there, so I won't be able to trouble shoot it. But, no...that kind of fluctuation is not normal. The fact that one of your transformers was getting so hot is another clue that something is wrong. Are all of your components correct, including proper current ratings?

If you see the Edit above I question the wire I used for the low voltage side of the transformers to the DC Power supplies to the meters. I'll replace that with telephone wire just to be sure.

The two transformers were wired to the same Hot/Neutral/Ground so either one was bad or it needed to be rated for 240v?

Ok, I'm got the AMP meter wired to it's original power supply and after jumping around a bit when I initially turned the on switch it's settled into between 3.3-3.5 amps normal?

My guess is that the hot transformer torched both the dc power supply & the volt meter. Plausible?

This is my first wiring job outside of electrical outlets

rvklein said:

If you see the Edit above I question the wire I used for the low voltage side of the transformers to the DC Power supplies to the meters. I'll replace that with telephone wire just to be sure.

The two transformers were wired to the same Hot/Neutral/Ground so either one was bad or it needed to be rated for 240v?

Ok, I'm got the AMP meter wired to it's original power supply and after jumping around a bit when I initially turned the on switch it's settled into between 3.3-3.5 amps normal?

My guess is that the hot transformer torched both the dc power supply & the volt meter. Plausible?

This is my first wiring job outside of electrical outlets

Click to expand...

Hmm...I'm on the train right now, so I'm not in a position to figure out the schematic. It's certainly possible that the wire is too small for the job, though it should be fine if it really is just on the low-voltage/logic side of your circuit.

3.3-3.5 is a degree of fluctuation that I'd be more comfortable with, but still might indicate that one of your components is dead or dying. Again, I don't know what kind of power conditioning this is supposed to have, nor what kinds of power draws you have, so it's hard to say much of use. Powering on will often cause some initial jumping around. As long as you don't have sensitive components in there it is okay.

A hot transformer could certainly equate to a dead dc power supply and volt meter. More specifically, either the transformer was over capacity and started turning out more current than it should have, or the same thing that was over-powering the transformer ended up over-powering the volt meter and power supply.

Sorry I'm not much help here. Really all I'm saying here is that I agree something is wrong, based only on general electrical principles. I hope somebody else familiar with the build will jump in. In the meantime, you might want to consider rebuilding your circuit step-by-step to see if you can find your point of failure. Good luck!