Hello world for Amp Panel Meter

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I’m dreaming up a diy 12v bench power supply so I went and got myself a little 5a panel meter and a shunt.
I wanna see my panel meter working and get a feel for it.

I’ve used a panel volt meter before which was … educational for me.
That was just for an art piece to look vintage but it didn’t need to be accurate.
This time I want it for measurements, so I need to run some tests with a 0-5amp load.

My idea was to wire up a lot of ws2812 leds and turn them on one by one. My hope was that as I turned on more leds I would be able to raise the current draw.

I recon that would work but it seems overly complicated and I’m sure that’s not how it’s meant to be done. Typing in “testing my pannel meter” in a search engine just yeilds results for DMMs understandably.

What’s an example of a super simple setup I can use to get a feel of this panel amp meter?
I have so much electronic equipment now… surely I have something that’s easier than pulling out an arduino and programming addressable leds.

1 Like
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Hi Pix

Some automotive 12V incandescent lamps with bases would be easiest. A 21W lamp (stop light) would be about 1.75A.

If you get say 4 bases and wire them in parallel you could get a variety of globes and plug in whatever combination is suitable for the approximate result you need.
BA15S would be easiest, don’t fiddle around with stop/tail dual combinations.

Could be a versatile dummy load with lots of uses.
Cheers Bob

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Good idea!