Monitoring +5V on PCBs

[level42]

I've always wanted to have a means of knowing the power supply level going on in my games without having to turn the cab around open it and use my Fluke multimeter....so:

I just bought 10 of these.....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-LED-DC2-5-30V-Red-Volt-Voltage-Meter-Display-Digital-Voltmeter-Self-Powered-/140898541601?

The price is totally incredible, free shipping........

Pictures look like quality is OK.

There are others on ebay, a little more expensive, but these start at 4,5V which I found a bit high for monitoring 5V and also they show only 1 digit behind the comma.
Also they don't seem to be adjustable, and this is (see the pot), so I can adjust them to match my Fluke....

Plan is to put them in the coin door area of games (maybe somewhere else @SW, coindoor is a bit out of reach ATM....maybe I will use a couple on SW, voltage differs quite a bit on a huge boardset like that...) so they are easy to see but don't mess up the cab on the outside. On Berzerk it can go on the PCB drawer of course....

Will connect them to test points on the PCB. Will need to extend the wire of course. Will also need to use twisted wires to prevent any external fields from messing up the results shown.....

Will report back when I got them...

[Luigi]

Now that's a cool thing...looking forward to your report! Thanks for sharing

[Belike]

Übercool, please inform us if you ever receive them, I would also give them a try on a switching power supply.

[Elgen]

I have mounted a similar on the homemade SuperGun I did a few years back

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1825635165893.110508.1390686556&type=1&l=d171261ea5

Works like a charm }:-P

[anunaki]

I got one of these on top of my switching power supply connected to my supergun, nice and handy

[f4brice]

Thanks for sharing.
Looks very interesting indeed !
I'm waiting for your test results.

[Etienne MacGyver]

Great idea !

[level42]

They finally arrived today so:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWV4qaWSQCQ

[ckong]

Nice!    Thanks for the vid. I guess that thre will be a wave of these little cheap things come to europe. 

[Q*ris]

Thanks for all the details, cool idea, I could use some too.

[Etienne MacGyver]

Nice PSU you got there 

[Luigi]

They're no longer available

edit: OK, for a few cents more you get these

[level42]

Yup those are the same, different seller though. And the guy I got them from sold 959 of them so.....I guess he'll have them back on stock, but the price difference isn't something to loose sleep over I guess

[Belike]

No.1. thanks for sharing.

[level42]

Oh forgot to mention, I also measured how much current the little guys draw and it's around 23 mA. Not too bad, can't expect LCD currents (much lower) for a LED display. Anyway, it won't trip your powersupply or anything....

And the range it can be connected to and displays goes up to 30VDC. You can't used it below I believe 2,5V because I guess it just won't work below that voltage since it's being "fed" but the measure leads too.