ST Heads with volt meters

[veggie]

Hi,

My ST5 head has the standard "dog house" box with no meters.
I have seen other ST's with Voltmeters (and maybe watt meters).

I'm assuming I can easily add a voltmeter to my box cover.
Anyone know a good place to source meters like the one in the picture below?

Veggie

[Ronmar]

Surplus center had plug inones for 120V  https://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?UID=2009100118064651&item=21-1712&catname=electric

McMaster Carr has 240V meters for around $90...

I took mine out, and replaced the original flimsy doghouse with an off the shelf electrical J-box.  Into the J-box I put the generator circuit breakers and the hour meter which runs off the "Z" winding(generator capable of making voltage = hour meter running).  I use a kill-a watt meter plugged into my load bank J-box which has 4 outlets, 2 on each generator 120V leg.  This is how I monitor output voltage and frequency.  A pair of the meters listed first would plug into these quite nicely.  I am not especially worried about voltage.  I mean I look at at least one leg when I set the generator and every time I come back to make a round, but I think frequency is more important.  If it is on freq, the output voltage is where it needs to be.  On the basic harmonically excited ST-5 generator head,  there is no adjustment for it anyway, so it is what it is...   I have thought I may put the original 240V panel meter into the upper load bank J-box(end of 1500W baseboard heater) as it just has a cover and a switch in the side of it...   

[veggie]

Ronmar,

Good idea. Get a Kill-a-watt and plug it into the 120v outlet on my receptacle panel. It's more versatile because I can also use it to gauge the wattage draw of various house appliances.

Thanks,
Veggie

[Ronmar]

It is more usefull than that on a flyweight governed generator.  The flyweights require a drop in engine RPM to move and apply a throttle correction to halt the rpm drop(less RPM = more throttle).  Since throttle is an indication of load in a "constant speed" application, in this case, that relatively small drop in RPM is also an indication of engine load.  I set up my generator for 62HZ no load.  It drops to 58HZ at full load in a relatively linear fashion.  Since frequency shows no signs of line loss like voltage does, I can plug that little $30 wonder(Bought a second one at Cosco for $26 last week) into any outlet in my house, and at a glance tell you pretty accurately what the generator load is based on the line frequency.   

[mobile_bob]

not sure i would mount anything inside a box on an st head, especially a meter
they get shook to death pretty quickly there.

bob g

[JohnF]

I'm with Bob on this one.  In the past I have mounted boxes and meters on the genhead and they have all shaken themselves to death after a couple of thousand hours.  I now recommend moving all that stuff to a remote location.

[NoSpark]

The volt meter on my ST lasted about 2 hours before the insides came apart.

[Henry W]

The needle is shaking all over in the gauge assembly on my ST-12 Voltage is steady though. I see it won't last long.

Henry

[Shipo]

Veggie and you can also use the Kill-a-watt as amp meter per leg (120v)....

http://www.utterpower.com/kill_a_watt.htm

[veggie]

Veggie and you can also use the Kill-a-watt as amp meter per leg (120v)....

http://www.utterpower.com/kill_a_watt.htm

Yep, that seems like the simplest solution. Plus you get the added benefit of reading wattage.
I'll pick one up.

Cheers,
Veggie

[BruceM]

I also moved everything off of the generator when my stock voltmeter failed along with the stock diodes (about 16 hours).  

I put a die cast aluminum box over the hole on the generator (used just as a junction box), and ran over to the wall for everything else.

Where room is available, it makes sense to get electronics of any sort away from the vibration and heat, I think.

Bruce M