Would I just take inputs from both batteries? That way if the breaker between my batteries pops, I'll notice a change in volts?
huh?
you gotta tell us what your are tring to accomplish
your batteries should be wired in parallel
My car may run 18s, but I can do your taxes in 10 seconds flat.
JBO lube - they would never have enough in stock and we'd never see RodimusPrime again
They are. However, I put a circuit breaker between them as opposed to a fuse. One battery is powering only my amps, the other is powering everything else. Basically, I want to be able to read voltage from both of them at the same time, then in the event that the breaker pops, I'll be able to tell with a voltage drop on the gauge. I was just wondering if I'd just need to hook the guage up to both batteries in order for that to work like I'm thinking it should.
If you hook up the volt meter to both batteries, 1 of 2 things will happen.
1) it will blow the gauge
2) it will read the higher of the 2 voltages at all times.
1 for each battery would do it, yeah....But why not just have 1 for the rear battery, it'll be the one you'll notice the voltage drop on, will it not?
wysiwyg wrote:i would say they bang, they don't really pound so much. but if
you want to bump, then they will bump and hit real hard and a lot good. 
LOL
What he said. if theres a circiuit breaker that turns off one of the batteries. then why not just add a volt meter to that battery. much easier. youd have to use a relay and a keyed ignition source tho to get it to work
Even with 2 of them, if the breaker pops, it'll still read voltage from the other. Plus your tunes should shut off if it's hooked up properly.
Well the tunes will run for a while on the second battery. I just don't like the idea of the second battery draining without me noticing right away, since it's not a deep cycle.
Are you running an isolator? Or are the two batteries just connected via a circuit breaker?
No, I'm not running an isolator, they're just connected with the breaker.
Do it like this. Have your circuit breaker on the run that goes back to the 2nd battery. If it trips, your subs/system turns off. That's how I have mine set up, and it's worked mint for years now.
Pilz-E wrote:Well the tunes will run for a while on the second battery. I just don't like the idea of the second battery draining without me noticing right away, since it's not a deep cycle.
That's a completely different problem. With both batteries connected together... with a circuit breaker... you're going to run them both flat at the same time. By the time you notice the voltage drop, it will be too late to do anything about it.
As far as the breaker popping... why would that happen? Are there shorts in your system that you're worried about? Poor wiring?
What if the breaker never pops? You'll drain both batteries at the same time.
Only an isolator will achieve what it sounds like you're trying to do - use up the deep cycle to power your system, without draining the non-deep cycle one (to start the car).
Or maybe I'm off-base here, and you're trying to achieve something else... but it's confusing as you're talking about two different things at the same time.
On top of that, isolators aren't terribly expensive, as well as what Lenko said.
Essentially the overall effect I'm going for is reading the voltage from both batteries. I'll just stick with wiring up the single voltmeter and be happy with it. And I'm not worried about the breaker popping due to shorts or poor wiring, but it seems like I've had to fix a lot of electircal problems on my car, so I figured it wouldn't hurt. It's only popped once, but I found that to be a small short in my trunk. Thanks for the info, I guess what I'm attempting to do would be best done with two voltmeters.
