How does one measure Amps...

[Venturing Sole]

I attached a coax type power cable to my battery for my heated gloves and jacket. There is an in-line fuse rated at 15 Amps. I'm not sure what the actual Amps are in the cable. If the actual Amps are very low, then the heated gear won't achieve full capability. Gloves are supposed to draw about 2.3 Amps and jacket is supposed to draw about 3.5 Amps. This means I need about 6 Amps actual supplied to the power cable from the battery. Trying to figure out how to measure the actual Amps running through this power cable. My multimeter only measures voltage and resistance. For what it's worth I also have my GPS wired to the battery and the revco air horn. My kuryakin voltmeter is wired to the fairing power socket.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

David

[David Strnage]

This is purly and electronic answer, plug in your gloves and vest then disconect the power cable from the battery, now use your ohm meter to measure how many ohms it across the power cable(this will be the resistance of the gloves and jacket) now put your meter on volts and read teh voltage of the battery and plug the numbers you get into the formula E = I * R where E is volts, I is current and R is resistance. So if the battery is 12 volts and you are looking for 6 amps you should read about 2 ohms of resistance.

 

The only problem with this is that heating elements usually change resistance as they heat up or may even have some electronics in them to control the current in which case this rudamentary way of getting current will not work. But it's easy and cheap.

 

Hope this helps

 

David http://venturerider.org/forum/images/icons/icon7.gif

[royalstarjac]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohm's_law

[MiCarl]

There aren't amps in the cable per se. What there is is a potential (measured in volts) of about 14 with the motorcycle running.

 

The devices attached to the cable will draw the amperage they need. If they draw more than the cable can support the cable will heat up and potentially burn up. That's the purpose of a fuse. If the load draws too much current (amps) the fuse fails before something else heats up and burns out or starts a fire.

 

If the in line fuse came with the cable it's safe to assume the cable is capable of handling a 15 amp load. Realistically the devices you described should work just fine on a 10 amp circuit.

[Squeeze]

To answer your primary Question ...

 

You need a DMM which can measure Amps. If you got one, Plug the one Probe End n the Common Connector and the Probe's End in the "A" or "10/20 A" Connector.

 

This is different than measuring Voltage, because you have to bring those two Probe in Series(aka in Line) with the Circuit you want to measure. I.E. While measuring Voltage you place on Probe on the Positive of the Battery and the other Probe to the Negative Post of the Battery. Not so here, you have to unplug the Circuit on a convenient Place and connect one Probe to one End of the Circuit and the other End to the other Side. Thanks to digital Technique, on a DMM you don't need to watch the Polarity. Just make proper Connections and turn the Switch on, read your DMM and your what's going on.

 

But be careful, in Series means both Probe Ends are HOT and if you exceed the Current Rating of the DMM you will burn down the Amperage Measuring Circuit of the DMM.

 

If you keep in Mind, measuring parallel means high Resistance of the Measuring Device, Current means very low Resistance, just like a blank Wire.

[GeorgeS]

The heated items will not draw any more current then the mfg. rateings.

 

If you have not other added items, your OK.

 

If you are running 55 Watt running lights, then you will be right on the edge.

 

Turn - OFF - the running lights when useing the heated clothing.

 

Or--- Install the upgraded STATOR, which puts out more current.

 

Stock Stators are rated, at 30 Amps, at 3000 rpm. but on average you are only getting about 26 to 27 amps.

[Guest tx2sturgis]

Put simply, to measure the amps, in case you need to use a suitable fuse, or want to know what the total load is, you need to have a digital (or analog) ampmeter. Most digital meters can measure amperage up to about 10 amps, past that value, you might need something like an 'amp clamp', which is a specialized meter for measuring amperage flowing thru a conductor.