A battery level indicator?

[Michele Coser]

I was thinking if it was an useful thing (maybe something the big names already have), having a power level indicator for batteries. It can be something made out of led or on a small LCD on the d-box; i don't know if there is a way to build something or there is already some electronic thing that can do it. Any ideas?

[Charles King]

Honestly, the only time I would consider putting one on a rig would be if you're planning on flying more batteries. Two and/or definately three batteries. The reson for that you would probably want to keep an eye on your power draws between the different components. Something definately shone on when flying film or big HD cameras and many thousand and one other devices at the same time.

Having one battery doesn't demand the option for one. Although it would be nice and would probably come in handy in the future if you ever decided to upgrade the rig.

I'm thinking of installing one on mine becausee I have the 3 battery option. I'm thinking ahead.

[Michele Coser]

It was just for checking the battery level; it may help when it's time to change battery.

[Jay Truesdale]

Like this?

http://hollywoodgadgets.com/tb811.html?engine=nextag&keyword=voltage+meter

Or this?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000BOKC0I/nextag-toys-20/ref=nosim

[Tom Wills]

Look on Jameco's website (http://jameco.com) - they've got a kit form which is quite basic, you just solder some LEDs, a few resistors, and a chip to a board, plug in your power, and you're off and running. Pretty cheap too. Of course, if you're not much of an electronics person, building a kit might not be the best idea, but it is a quite simple little kit.

EDIT: Here it is. http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&productId=181833

[Michele Coser]

I was initially thinking of something like that in the photo i post:  However this might be costly and (i think, but i'm not an expert) needs some kind of program.   On a second through, a LED indiator (yes like Tom willis post, maybe with square leds?) it's more easy and way more cheap.

[Bob Hill]

The really nice thing about making your own is that you can calibrate the meter precisely to your batteries and load usage.  Being able to set the limits on the meter is a huge feature.

Bob

[Michael Thonfors]

i build a simple battery meter with a 2 color led. (green-red)  shows green when batteries good. yellow (green and red) when they are about 1/3 full. and red when almost depleted.

[Brett A. Noe]

Do you have a schematic we can see?

[Charles King]

i build a simple battery meter with a 2 color led. (green-red)  shows green when batteries good. yellow (green and red) when they are about 1/3 full. and red when almost depleted.

Yeah, a schematic would be nice.

[Warren Adrian]

Here is a simple circuit that can be modified for different battery voltages (above 5 volts).

If you want to use a tri colour led just remove the components for the 4th led.

Warren

[Job Scholtze]

Big rigs have some sort of other device what is much more important i thinkl.

I also fly a 3 battery setup on my nexus, and the nexus knows the status of the batterys and gets the power from the full ones, and less for the bad or empty one. Meaning, at the end, all your batterys are down at the same time. Perhaps you should look into that