Test high DC voltage with low watt meter

Thread Starter

Brainlessinva

Joined Jan 13, 2019
4
Hey, I'm new and trying to remember things from my middle school electronics class. I have an electronic load tester with a Max of 30v and 4amps( I think), but I also think it's 30 watts rated and from what I gather it protects itself by adjusting what it can measure but haven't had a chance to test that and don't want to blow it up. My tester has a meter function I would like to utilize outside of the limits of what it is capable of. I was wanting to know if it is possible to use a shunt probably a 50amp @75mV to moniter thepower going the load from supply. Voltage can be obtained from a simple multimeter reading and during the metering process see how the voltage changes along with the amps. My thought on this is have a known voltage with a known static load like a resistor to gather my base of how what the meter shows to what is actually being used. Is this a possibility or do I need to think of another process? This project is primarily for current usage monitoring. I know there are other options to help me but this is a shoe string budget and the operator is not a total moron( most days). Any input would be appreciated on what avenues to explore using. Thanks
 

Thread Starter

Brainlessinva

Joined Jan 13, 2019
4
Okay, don't hate just what I can afford, after all this is just a cheap-ish hobby for a dad of two, the load tester is a zke ebd-usb+ mainly wanted it for the computer interface and the load rating is comparable for most of what I'll be doing. Probably not as accurate but definitely not as expensive.
 

danadak

Joined Mar 10, 2018
4,057
Is that not a load test of a USB port, either on a wall wart or a PC/LapTop ?

Are you capable of desoldering its internal shunt ? And putting a new one
on the tester ?

Regards, Dana.
 

Thread Starter

Brainlessinva

Joined Jan 13, 2019
4
It does USB connection but in the since of using banana plugs to alligator clips. I don't know I don't have it in front of me and concerned about deminishing a likely loose calibration that I don't know if it can be calibrated again. But, for it's size and price figured maybe using an external shunt
 

Reloadron

Joined Jan 15, 2015
7,501
In the interest of simplicity if you just want to measure power to a load just buy one of these for $18.00 USD. You can even get less expensive using one of these. Rather than try to hack the load bank you have any of dozens of flavors of these things pouring off the boat from China is a simple and economic (cheap) solution. Here is yet another example. Unless you have a need for a highly accurate measurement plane and a need for a precision shunt any of those complete turn key solutions should work for you. That would be just my thinking anyway.

Now if you want to actually use data acquisition to collect data then that becomes another story.

Ron
 

Thread Starter

Brainlessinva

Joined Jan 13, 2019
4
I have the second one I was hoping to use the logger function but I guess a smart phone camera and a meter would suffice. I like the first one a lot and have ironically been considering that but I thought I had enough meters. Oh well guess I was wrong lol. I have been thinking about building a resistive load bank with resistors and dimmer switches also been considering putting a cheap dso to monitor the signal being sent. So that may be part of it. Thanks for the info all
 
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