My new digital dash meter reads low volts.

[virgilmobile]

To improve the looks and monitor the electrical system on my soldered up gl1200(viewtopic.php?f=16&t=12522),I installed a digital volt meter next to the new radio.

I know,I need a pretty bezel around it too,but back to the problem.
A DVM on the battery showed,while idling,13.8 volts...The dash meter showed12.6 volts....
I did a test of the voltage drop from the battery positive post to where I attached it in the faring ignition wire.Low and behold it measured 0.605 volts.
Hmmmm,that explains part of it.
I decided to measure to see if there was a voltage drop on the ground.
I attached the DVM to the battery ground and then to where I connected the meter and wa la...another 0.6 volt drop...

OK,I ran a pair of wires direct from the meter to the regulator.I attached them to the frame and the black regulator wire(which I have relay controlled) .

End result..The in dash volt meter now reads exactly what is on the battery. 13.6 volts at a idle and 14.3 at 3500 rpm. Charge rate at 4.2 amp to the battery

[dingdong]

Way to go Virgil. Now get to work on that pretty bezel.

[WingAdmin]

I found a cheap LCD voltmeter that I tried to put on my 1100, but gave up - it would read 100% accurate when the bike was off, but as soon as the engine was started, it would read about 2 volts higher than what a DVM hooked up at the same place would read. I guess it was seeing noise from the rectifier/regulator and reading it as voltage.

[virgilmobile]

I'm sure this one would have too but I use a relay from the battery to switch the regulator on.that's where I tied in for the meter.