Martin, your videos are always excellent and well done. Given the feedback I'm hoping for a followup video that covers several topics. 1) I would expect a measuring device that powers itself from the voltage/current being measured might be less accurate than one with external power. As mentioned in the comments below, what about redoing the measurements with each meter powered by external power. I believe each supports external power (for low voltage measurements) but I wonder if this impacts the higher measurements as well. 2) Some have suggested that is it possible to calibrate the individual meters. It would be interesting to investigate this further. 3) Someone also pointed out that you are using testing leads that are not up to the task. It would be interesting to try different size leads and look at measurement differences (especially at the high end) 4) Possibly review/compare other meters like the "High Precision FT08 RC 150A Watt Meter & Power Analyzer" which is even cheaper than the GT meter coming in at around $15. I mention this one because it frequently comes up when searching. My "Watt's UP" meter didn't come with the three pin external power connector. I'm guessing these are readily available but it would be nice to see someone actually set up and use the external power. You help a lot of individuals better understand this tech stuff. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the video. I've ordered a GT power meter after watching your comparison. It's great that we have access to all these inexpensive gadgets to play around with!
that unit was a bit bonk too , right? why did you buy it? since this was a long time ago, can you tell me which one you ended up using these days? like in 2019, thanks a ton!!!!
I just found your video today. Very detailed. Thank you. I have purchased the same capacity controller It came without any cable and I am blind now. Please help me to get up and walk. I want to use this for my 4X 3.2 v lifepo4 batteries. How do I get a cable and how do I connect my lifepo4 batteries and capacity controller Thanks a lot for your time for coming to help me 😊
Perfect video, I am an RC flyer and was trying to decide between these 3 exact devices and this gave me exactly the information I needed. Thank you very much for putting the video together.
I was interested in using one of these meters to measure total amp hours. But according to the spec sheet you showed, the highest it can count up to is 65Ah. That makes this meter totally useless. I think they programmed the decimal point in the wrong place - who needs a three place decimal display (.001) of Ah at the expense of the grand total. Further evidence that they screwed up is that the watt hour (Wh) display will count up to 6554.
One of the best reviews here with precision measuring! Well done! I guess its more random errors on these cheepies, don't think it is reproducable for the same brands, but not sure of course. You would have to check a few of each kind.
cheers for the vid. Have been looking at a watts up meter for ages for portable ham radio operations in the field but was hard to justify the price but for the 30 odd bucks for the gt, I grabbed one from the link provided. I could see them cheaper but 100% feedback its hard not to spend the extra few bucks.
i've got (2) Turnigys, maybe 4 yrs old not sure, mine do not have a clock sorry to see that one out of calibration one of mine is connected between the batteries and the solar controller on my RV caravan to you Brits so i can track daily solar accumulation but these meters were never intended to measure milli-amps they are for high RC electric motors, you can't fly an electric RC sport plane on MAs of power but i'm real happy to see your comparison test thanks
Hi. Firstly your videos are a great source of information. Secondly, I am to buy one of these to use in my shed. I have 140W worth a solar panels and would like to measure the power being generated by them. Can I use this in series with the solar panels and the charge controller? Or just in series with the battery and load? Many thanks. Albert.
It would be interesting to verify the calibration of the GT power with a second unit. Also I think it would be a better comparison if you had used on the low side a wattage that all the meters could have read...something like 3 watts. Even with 3 watts I don't think it would have changed the outcome but at least we can see a reading that is out. Love the sparks! Keep up the good work!
Great video. and I agree with +candleburning. How about a retest of these with a different external power source connected? This would be interesting to see if it makes any big difference in readings, low or high. Thanks.
Nice review ....I need something to monitor the maximum current draw during usage. Do these have a peak hold function so you see what the maximum current draw was while a load was applied?
Gr8 video! Thanks for taking the time to make this video, ur awesome! i'm glad you did not cause any damage to your WattsUp meter! I'm thinking: GT Power meter is the way to go! Thanks again, VERY useful information here!!
What tester would you use to test 18650 batteries? I like to recover batteries from laptop and reuse the good batteries, but I'm not sure if my charger is telling me truth. I'm open to any suggestions, not just a tester but a different charger that works better than mine. Thanks again!
i think turnigy made their homework. the turnigy 180a is nearly perfectly lined up with the reading of my calibrated fluke87v. i was concerned after your video, but i meassured it, to be pretty accurate by voltage AND current.
Thanks for the video. Useful Test. My Wattsup from circa 2006 has died and I'm just wondering if you (or anyone reading) has found any resources such as a schematic. The display still shows the top line with all the dots set, unless you turn the votage down to ~4V when you can read semi-random characters. Clearly the display is still somewhat working and the micro is still somewhat working, but something is amiss. It might be fettleable, and it's a nice bit of kit so I don't mind trying to fix it. Seems unlikely that no-one has reverse engineered it sometime in the last 15 years or so, but I'm failing to find such info online.
The idea of the meters is to give a general idea of power usage, its typical for the meters to not register low current draw accurately. But be warned not suitable for setting charge voltages for batteries as due to the inaccuracies that vary from meter to meter, they can be off by 0.2 of a volt and that can be a problem. You could under or overcharge you're battery very easily.
My WU is/was more accurate than the 2 Turnigy meters I have and water resistant as well. One of the Turnigys eventually crapped out. The back light is an excellent feature and Turnigys are much cheaper, but I'm currently looking for a Watt's Up meter to replace it with. I ordered them from Hobbyking, but they don't appear to carry them any longer either. WU is currently $45 on Amazon.
So electricity, no matter if it’s AC or DC is one of my weakest areas of knowledge and experience. I have been trying to find a test meter that I can use to determine the “actual” watts vs the claimed watts that the manufacturer lists. You guessed it, primarily for the Chinese manufactured LED. Please tell me if I have this right or wrong. If I understand how this device operates, I should be able to connect the source wires to my 12 volt regulated power supply which will ensure the proper voltage remains at the optimal level and then connect the leads from an LED to the opposite end, make the appropriate selection on the meter and this thing will display the actual watts the LED is producing ???
Hello thanks for the review. I bought a GT Power RC 130A to measure the draw on my bike battery which is supposed to be 48V 13A. After giving a very brief reading of 54.4V the screen just starts flashing, with no reading visable. Thanks in advance for any insight.
Turnigy showing ' & " is weird, minutes and seconds of an Ah?. I had a GT Power meter but it was cycling the lower left values too quickly. Any backlit meter is great because I use the power meter on my e-bike between the battery and controller. I like to use the WattsUp meter even though it is more $ and no backlit. A-h Lets me know how much capacity I used so I know when to stop and re-charge. Thank you for making this great video.
could the design of the Turnigy device be consuming 1 watt to operate? The back light, digits running through the device that actually measures its own consumption plus the load.
i have the gt power. but its smokes couple days ago, maybe because over voltage, and now the display doenst show up but the backlight still on. maybe you know how to fix that ?
Well, to be REALLY fair since calibration is an issue at least two of each from different batches separated by a little ordering time to make sure would be a lot fairer to give individual calibrations of mass produced meters a chance to show some difference especially if the GT was tested before shipping it to someone who "might" be known for testing test equipment. My feeling is the ability to measure time on the Turnigy supplies important information the GT doesn't do, and the Watts Up Meter is just and only that missing important features anyone taking care of multi cell Lipo batteries and getting ready for a flight needs. However in favor of the Watts Up meter since it "uses DSP to increase ADC resolution and differential measurement amplifiers to increase noise immunity" it may and should be even more accurate with an ESC in the loop as they certainly add noise. And with factory calibration stored constants in EEPROM "to compensate for component tolerances" it certainly has some advantages as an in line meter and I think a test with ESCs in the loop is in order as that may change the outcome of what is being shown here. I wonder if adding the ability to measure time is causing the Turnigy's design to be less accurate, or if it was just a poorly calibrated unit. At any rate I am going to look for some tests with ESCs inline to see how the Turnigy fairs as that is my first choice since "amp hours" deal with time and it's main use will be checking batteries and how well they are balanced, but for designing and building rotor craft the Watts Up Metter seems invaluable. But honestly without a noisy ESC inline I have a hard time saying anything about what I just witnessed. But certainly a thumbs up and thanks for doing the test.
+mjlorton I believe +candleburning has made some very good points. For RC measurement, the precision is not as important as the measurements over time for a battery or load, with the exception of the voltage measurement. Most DMMs are fairly accurate. Nonetheless, given the excellent pricing, it would be helpful to be able to calibrate these devices. A more in depth comparison of calibration of these meters would be helpful. Who would provide a better video on this subject than MJLORTON??? As for the 150A meter, I'm curious to know if it is actually just a 130A meter that has been labeled with a "puffy" spec. for sales capture reasons.
The probably both have 1% current shunt resistors or something similar. Would not be surprised if the GT Power just happens to have one that's closer to its marked value :) It's common for Hobbyking to buy in existing products, make some small changes (firmware tweaks), slap the Turnigy brand on it, and then sell it on. Have you taken them apart to compare the boards internally? Typically, these are used in RC products. When your BLDC motor(s) are pulling 1000W you really don't care about 1W :)
though the spec says max 130a, I found in mine it is showing upto 139A. I was skeptical to go beyond it, however wanted to check with you the max amps it can measure?
Martin, thanks for your videos, I hace 3 What´s Up, one I broke, I can remmeber how I connected, but the lcd is off. I bought and a G.T Power, so far, good and hace almost the same difference that you show in your video, but one problem, in the auxiliary power I use the same auxiliary baterry, 4 - AA battery, that I use in the Watt´s Up, doesn´t work, just light the LCD. Well, thanks again for all your work, great job.
Hello, have you ever thought of open them up? I bought a really cheap Chinese watt meter and found out inside there where 2 variable resistors which actually calibrate the volts and amperage!
Hi there. thank you for this review. I'd like to ask you if this wattmeter shuts down after a certain amount of amps measured. I use this on a solar panel and i have to disconnect and conect day by day. Thanks for your reply
Very helpful video. Wonder if you have a pointer a similar product that can also provide data-logging to a pc in order to automate production of test graphs?
Hi great video. You gave me a idear as I do have one of these but in tatty condition tho but still works fine. Now do you think it will be fine to take this apart and build it in to a power supply that is 24v at 120A At 1200w? Im in the process of building a power supply. And just wondered if I could use this in my project? Or do I need to buy the proper stuff eg. Led voltmeter / ammeter + shunt. Thanks.
Hi. How can i measure the SOC of my batteries using the watt meter? I want to know if i used 30% to 40% on my batteries. Assuming i have a 100ah battery. E.g. source side is on the battery and load side on the charge controller. Btw, i'm using a 1000w inverter when i use my batteries. Thanks
Hi, Friend. I use one of this from my solar panel to the charge controller but after some hours the numbers dissapear. Do you know why? Thank You! Emmanuel Távora.
I wish that they made these read up to 180VDC. I made a wind turbine that produces 100VDC and I would love to monitor the output voltage, current and, the power while it is working.
if i connect it from the solar panel on the input and the output in the charge controller where the solar should go in will it read the amps and volts coming from the PV?
I ordered a GT Power RC and I have two remarks with this review : 1) when going to about 40 V my GT power RC, it's 2% off on voltage measurement. Not a huge problem considering the price 2) more problematic : when monitoring the energy consumption of an ebike with my GT Power RC it gives values completely out of what they should be. After a 40 km trip in ebike, my battery got 60% empty (evaluated using voltage level). The battery is 36V x 17 Ah = 612 Wh, so 60% consumed means 367 Wh. But the energy consumed indicated by the GT Power was only 134 Wh. So I think there is not big problem with measurement precision but a serious problem in the program that make the calculation, or internal clock... that make the product I have completely useless for energy measurement Maybe you could try to monitor also the energy and not only current and voltages, a bit as I did ? So we could know if this problem is only on my product or on all GT Power RC. So far my seller doesn't seem to be able to understand what the problem is... best regards,
You cannot accurately calculate the remaining battery capacity using a voltmeter, as LiPo batteries have a very small voltage drop until they are almost depleted and then drop off suddenly. Better to use a battery charger that tracks the mAh used to refill the battery to calculate % usage.
Great video. I am looking information what happens to these devices if the current flow direction changes? I mean the Source and Load are switched and some minimum current is flowing backwards. I think all these current meters are based on INA139 or INA169 IC. The IC itself allows some negative current flow - but maybe someone has already checked that. I don't want to damage mine. Thanks, Przemek
Oddly, the Turnigy reads pretty consistently 1.0 W high, despite different currents and voltages. It's almost like it deliberately adds 1W and then back-calculates the current needed to produce that extra watt at the current voltage. That seems unlikely, but the consistency of the watt delta is surprising. And yes, for me that different current matters, as I'm interested in the accumulated Ah drawn by smallish loads over time (mixed with larger loads for shorter times).
Just came back to this after receiving one of the standard 3 button 100A watt meter and balancers that is grossly out of calibration and useless for balancing cells and pack voltage readings which are almost 10% low making these meters in the video look like electron counters in accuracy. And what I am noticing is while the Turnigy is not reading watts as accurate as the GTP meter... it errors on the safe side for setting up RC electric motors and matching ESC, props, etc. At 12:19 minutes in the video true Watts is 12w and Turnigy shows 13w while the GT Power's reading is too low at 11.6w. Voltage too errors on the safe side on the Turnigy. So for RC aircraft use the Turnigy is giving reading errors that are safe, but the GT Powers is giving reading errors that are too low. It's better to set your plane up thinking you are pulling more amps than you really are than to be told you are pulling less. So the Turnigy actually wins here for RC aircraft use regarding these two particular meters. But IMO that means very little as these meters are being mass produced with very little quality control and final inspection. You would have to test many meters from many different shipments to get a fair comparison. But again thanks for the thumbs up video. It seems the only way to get an accurate watt meter is to calibrate it yourself which requires expensive equipment, or keep sending the meters back until you get a good one and that can get very expensive, and that's a shame as it should only take a minute or two extra to manufacture and calibrate these meters correctly within specification.
Informative video and I will purchase the GT Power meter. Is there anyway to know for sure if I am purchasing the real GT Power and not a fake? I am purchasing on Amazon in Canada Thanks for any help ( :
The test used cheap test leads, the clip on leads which have poor crimp connections and very small wire, like #26 or 30. These can induce lots of voltage drop at higher currents. Should have used large wire like in the meter. However, it was pretty good video. Just the tester needs to do some learning in test set up, hi. The current measurements are valid in that current is a series factor. Also one would think the power measurements would be off for they are simple V x I calculations from the voltage and current. Actual power is not being measured. (caution...these meters are rated at 130A and probably will do for 10mS. The wire is #10 good for 20-25A. At 130A would smoke about everything in short time.) At $17 to $50 one should not expect a lab quality meter, but good for reference. I use mine for battery charging and at times for discharge to determine battery life.
They're not waterproof, they have cooling air holes int he case. You could probably seal the case yourself if you want, though. These meters are great for ebikes. I've had quite a few of these for ebike use, maybe 4 or 5 of them of different brands, and they all do the same thing and work very well. Unfortunately, all of them were eventually stolen, a 'classic' ebike problem.
Who cares if the Turnigy is 1 watt off. Nobody is going to use these meters for such low measurements since any digital volt meter will measure up to 10A DC. Most people will use these to measure power readings of motors over 100W. Run over 100A through these and let us know if they burn up.
I think you we need to test a good half dozen each of these for a true comparison, the thing I've found with these cheap chinese rc power meters and also the lipo cell checkers is the manufacturing calibration consistency, I have a good half dozen cell checkers, 3 turnigy (identical) and 3 generic unbranded, to be frank they all give different readings with the same lipo connected, my fluke 87v confirmed that only one of all 6 (turnigy) was accurate to 2-3mv (that's acceptable accuracy even for fluke 87v). The rest were anything up to 30mv out which in the world of rc's is about the cell difference where we start getting concerned about a cell issue. I bet if you got a couple more of those gt power versions you'd get one just as inaccurate 😉. I think rc people in particular have to remember these are not precision instruments and just 'indicators'. I've had many a discussion about the accuracy of cell meters and trying to explain your 30mv cell difference is probably the meter and not a cell fault is sometimes like banging your head against a wall lol! A £3 instruments CAN be accurate but it's pot luck and it's unlikely. Even my 87v is 0.05% and a one count so that's an acceptable drift of 7mv either way at 12v.
Bad luck with these. I ordered 2 baylite brand from eBay. They used nearly 2 watt with no external source. One ofthe two showed only one fifth of the amperage and wattage even side by side. The vendor never did send the promised replacement. The other order never came the vendor stalled for time until eBay closed the transactionautomatically. eBay and Paypal never refunded. The chargeback on the prepaid DC bank card had to be sent twice so far and still no refund and no order completion. Going on 6 months now.Definitely Amazon this time and these look more reliable. Really that is what these devices are for: accurate measurement . Do not want to complain but there was nothing reasonable at all in the order process anddeceptive practices, reassurances, delay and Paypal just kept the money going on 6 months now and theyare the receiver of the purchase funds as stated on the card transaction.
These meters are designed to measure current and power in systems using hundreds, or even thousands, of watts. You're trying to get a useful reading at very tiny wattages and low currents, and they simply aren't designed to be accurate there. At very low currents, the current sensing resistor is not heating up, increasing its resistance to produce more accurate readings in the range of currents where the meter is intended to be used. You're being *very* nitpicky about accuracy at piddly currents and wattages. Try putting 300 or 400 Watts through it, and you'll get a much more useful reading. Interesting vid though, thanks for posting.
It seems to me its just installed to your wires from your solar panel + and -- and its installed. I guess you could install it before the solar controller to see what your panels are putting out or after your control in the controller to battery. Then you could see how much you have lost from your controller. My first controller lost 33% of its amps of charging power and that sucks so I got a true MPPT controller and its 97% efficient with just a 3% lose.
The thumbs up does not seem to be working so here is my thumbs up in a comment. Make that 2 thumbs up :-) Thank you for a great video :-) I am trying now to figure out if I can encase a meter like those in the same products used to encase solar cells when a solar panel is built. Like Sygard 184. Here is the project I am building and I want to measure the load the motor is using and at the same time the amps being produced from the solar panels. S I would use 2 meters. Can I do this encapsulation with a meter like those ????? My project : serenitysolarcanoe
Martin, your videos are always excellent and well done. Given the feedback I'm hoping for a followup video that covers several topics. 1) I would expect a measuring device that powers itself from the voltage/current being measured might be less accurate than one with external power. As mentioned in the comments below, what about redoing the measurements with each meter powered by external power. I believe each supports external power (for low voltage measurements) but I wonder if this impacts the higher measurements as well. 2) Some have suggested that is it possible to calibrate the individual meters. It would be interesting to investigate this further. 3) Someone also pointed out that you are using testing leads that are not up to the task. It would be interesting to try different size leads and look at measurement differences (especially at the high end) 4) Possibly review/compare other meters like the "High Precision FT08 RC 150A Watt Meter & Power Analyzer" which is even cheaper than the GT meter coming in at around $15. I mention this one because it frequently comes up when searching.
My "Watt's UP" meter didn't come with the three pin external power connector. I'm guessing these are readily
available but it would be nice to see someone actually set up and use the external power.
You help a lot of individuals better understand this tech stuff. Keep up the great work!
candleburning Thanks for the feedback.
+mjlorton lol answer the question, what about running the meters with external power from the 3 wire inputs! Good stuff otherwise. tu
Thanks for the video. I've ordered a GT power meter after watching your comparison. It's great that we have access to all these inexpensive gadgets to play around with!
that unit was a bit bonk too , right? why did you buy it? since this was a long time ago, can you tell me which one you ended up using these days? like in 2019, thanks a ton!!!!
I just found your video today. Very detailed. Thank you.
I have purchased the same capacity controller It came without any cable and I am blind now. Please help me to get up and walk.
I want to use this for my 4X 3.2 v lifepo4 batteries. How do I get a cable and how do I connect my lifepo4 batteries and capacity controller
Thanks a lot for your time for coming to help me 😊
Perfect video, I am an RC flyer and was trying to decide between these 3 exact devices and this gave me exactly the information I needed. Thank you very much for putting the video together.
I was interested in using one of these meters to measure total amp hours. But according to the spec sheet you showed, the highest it can count up to is 65Ah. That makes this meter totally useless. I think they programmed the decimal point in the wrong place - who needs a three place decimal display (.001) of Ah at the expense of the grand total. Further evidence that they screwed up is that the watt hour (Wh) display will count up to 6554.
Nice video.
The Turnigy is only a precision watt meter, where the GT Power is a HIGH precision watt meter. lol
One of the best reviews here with precision measuring! Well done! I guess its more random errors on these cheepies, don't think it is reproducable for the same brands, but not sure of course. You would have to check a few of each kind.
cheers for the vid. Have been looking at a watts up meter for ages for portable ham radio operations in the field but was hard to justify the price but for the 30 odd bucks for the gt, I grabbed one from the link provided. I could see them cheaper but 100% feedback its hard not to spend the extra few bucks.
Hi.. I am electronic engineer, and i have to say GREAT JOB. Professional and precision information.
I will buy GT, i don't need so high precision.
i've got (2) Turnigys, maybe 4 yrs old not sure, mine do not have a clock
sorry to see that one out of calibration
one of mine is connected between the batteries and the solar controller on my RV
caravan to you Brits
so i can track daily solar accumulation
but these meters were never intended to measure milli-amps
they are for high RC electric motors, you can't fly an electric RC sport plane on MAs of power
but i'm real happy to see your comparison test
thanks
I wonder if you would have better accuracy if the self powered battery was connected. perhaps the meter would be closer.
Hi.
Firstly your videos are a great source of information.
Secondly, I am to buy one of these to use in my shed.
I have 140W worth a solar panels and would like to measure the power being generated by them.
Can I use this in series with the solar panels and the charge controller? Or just in series with the battery and load?
Many thanks.
Albert.
Excellent video my friend, such a good comparison man, much appreciated. Looks like the GT Power meter is the way to go.
It would be interesting to verify the calibration of the GT power with a second unit. Also I think it would be a better comparison if you had used on the low side a wattage that all the meters could have read...something like 3 watts. Even with 3 watts I don't think it would have changed the outcome but at least we can see a reading that is out. Love the sparks! Keep up the good work!
Great video. and I agree with +candleburning. How about a retest of these with a different external power source connected? This would be interesting to see if it makes any big difference in readings, low or high. Thanks.
Nice review ....I need something to monitor the maximum current draw during usage. Do these have a peak hold function so you see what the maximum current draw was while a load was applied?
Gr8 video! Thanks for taking the time to make this video, ur awesome! i'm glad you did not cause any damage to your WattsUp meter! I'm thinking: GT Power meter is the way to go! Thanks again, VERY useful information here!!
Nice review. almost every person that has a small solar system uses these items. I found it a great Review.
Nice Job mate.
What tester would you use to test 18650 batteries? I like to recover batteries from laptop and reuse the good batteries, but I'm not sure if my charger is telling me truth. I'm open to any suggestions, not just a tester but a different charger that works better than mine. Thanks again!
i think turnigy made their homework. the turnigy 180a is nearly perfectly lined up with the reading of my calibrated fluke87v. i was concerned after your video, but i meassured it, to be pretty accurate by voltage AND current.
Thanks for the video. Useful Test. My Wattsup from circa 2006 has died and I'm just wondering if you (or anyone reading) has found any resources such as a schematic. The display still shows the top line with all the dots set, unless you turn the votage down to ~4V when you can read semi-random characters. Clearly the display is still somewhat working and the micro is still somewhat working, but something is amiss. It might be fettleable, and it's a nice bit of kit so I don't mind trying to fix it. Seems unlikely that no-one has reverse engineered it sometime in the last 15 years or so, but I'm failing to find such info online.
The idea of the meters is to give a general idea of power usage, its typical for the meters to not register low current draw accurately. But be warned not suitable for setting charge voltages for batteries as due to the inaccuracies that vary from meter to meter, they can be off by 0.2 of a volt and that can be a problem. You could under or overcharge you're battery very easily.
conclution: Original Watt-metter is always the best ! thanks for your test.
Thanks very much for the feedback.
Simply Great!! I have G T Power, bought for about $21 including shipping charges. :-)
Hi!
Do you know why my watt meter shows about 1.2w when i connet it only to source, without any load? Yours and other meters show zero.
I know this is ancient.. But do you think the small bit the GT meter was out was caused by the current draw from the backlight?
My WU is/was more accurate than the 2 Turnigy meters I have and water resistant as well. One of the Turnigys eventually crapped out. The back light is an excellent feature and Turnigys are much cheaper, but I'm currently looking for a Watt's Up meter to replace it with. I ordered them from Hobbyking, but they don't appear to carry them any longer either. WU is currently $45 on Amazon.
What do you think you will be able to operate the vat meters under load 20A 48V (not long load) - and a lot 48V 10-15 A?
So electricity, no matter if it’s AC or DC is one of my weakest areas of knowledge and experience. I have been trying to find a test meter that I can use to determine the “actual” watts vs the claimed watts that the manufacturer lists. You guessed it, primarily for the Chinese manufactured LED. Please tell me if I have this right or wrong. If I understand how this device operates, I should be able to connect the source wires to my 12 volt regulated power supply which will ensure the proper voltage remains at the optimal level and then connect the leads from an LED to the opposite end, make the appropriate selection on the meter and this thing will display the actual watts the LED is producing ???
Hello thanks for the review. I bought a GT Power RC 130A to measure the draw on my bike battery which is supposed to be 48V 13A. After giving a very brief reading of 54.4V the screen just starts flashing, with no reading visable. Thanks in advance for any insight.
Turnigy showing ' & " is weird, minutes and seconds of an Ah?. I had a GT Power meter but it was cycling the lower left values too quickly. Any backlit meter is great because I use the power meter on my e-bike between the battery and controller. I like to use the WattsUp meter even though it is more $ and no backlit. A-h Lets me know how much capacity I used so I know when to stop and re-charge. Thank you for making this great video.
could the design of the Turnigy device be consuming 1 watt to operate? The back light, digits running through the device that actually measures its own consumption plus the load.
i have the gt power. but its smokes couple days ago, maybe because over voltage, and now the display doenst show up but the backlight still on. maybe you know how to fix that ?
Well, to be REALLY fair since calibration is an issue at least two of each from different batches separated by a little ordering time to make sure would be a lot fairer to give individual calibrations of mass produced meters a chance to show some difference especially if the GT was tested before shipping it to someone who "might" be known for testing test equipment. My feeling is the ability to measure time on the Turnigy supplies important information the GT doesn't do, and the Watts Up Meter is just and only that missing important features anyone taking care of multi cell Lipo batteries and getting ready for a flight needs.
However in favor of the Watts Up meter since it "uses DSP to increase ADC resolution and differential measurement amplifiers to increase noise immunity" it may and should be even more accurate with an ESC in the loop as they certainly add noise. And with factory calibration stored constants in EEPROM "to compensate for component tolerances" it certainly has some advantages as an in line meter and I think a test with ESCs in the loop is in order as that may change the outcome of what is being shown here.
I wonder if adding the ability to measure time is causing the Turnigy's design to be less accurate, or if it was just a poorly calibrated unit. At any rate I am going to look for some tests with ESCs inline to see how the Turnigy fairs as that is my first choice since "amp hours" deal with time and it's main use will be checking batteries and how well they are balanced, but for designing and building rotor craft the Watts Up Metter seems invaluable. But honestly without a noisy ESC inline I have a hard time saying anything about what I just witnessed. But certainly a thumbs up and thanks for doing the test.
which meter has the lowest self power consumption?
would it not be interesting to see if the lower level readings improved with the battery power connected to the meters where available
+mjlorton I believe +candleburning has made some very good points. For RC measurement, the precision is not as important as the measurements over time for a battery or load, with the exception of the voltage measurement. Most DMMs are fairly accurate.
Nonetheless, given the excellent pricing, it would be helpful to be able to calibrate these devices. A more in depth comparison of calibration of these meters would be helpful. Who would provide a better video on this subject than MJLORTON??? As for the 150A meter, I'm curious to know if it is actually just a 130A meter that has been labeled with a "puffy" spec. for sales capture reasons.
In my experience, the WattsUp gets VERY hot if you run it at 50A for longer than 10minutes or so. How does the GT Power handle this?
The probably both have 1% current shunt resistors or something similar. Would not be surprised if the GT Power just happens to have one that's closer to its marked value :) It's common for Hobbyking to buy in existing products, make some small changes (firmware tweaks), slap the Turnigy brand on it, and then sell it on. Have you taken them apart to compare the boards internally?
Typically, these are used in RC products. When your BLDC motor(s) are pulling 1000W you really don't care about 1W :)
Hi..Can you run this as a on board meter with two lipo batteries in series?
though the spec says max 130a, I found in mine it is showing upto 139A. I was skeptical to go beyond it, however wanted to check with you the max amps it can measure?
Thanks for your response, Raj. Did you say the stock GT power will support till 165amps?
Martin, thanks for your videos, I hace 3 What´s Up, one I broke, I can remmeber how I connected, but the lcd is off.
I bought and a G.T Power, so far, good and hace almost the same difference that you show in your video, but one problem, in the auxiliary power I use the same auxiliary baterry, 4 - AA battery, that I use in the Watt´s Up, doesn´t work, just light the LCD.
Well, thanks again for all your work, great job.
I got gt power...my ebike reads amp spikes upto 110a...scary..... great video...
I know this is an old video and I'm asking what is potentially a noob question, but why does the voltage drop as the amps increase?
Hello, have you ever thought of open them up? I bought a really cheap Chinese watt meter and found out inside there where 2 variable resistors which actually calibrate the volts and amperage!
Good day sir please does your meter analysis make noise
Hi there. thank you for this review. I'd like to ask you if this wattmeter shuts down after a certain amount of amps measured. I use this on a solar panel and i have to disconnect and conect day by day. Thanks for your reply
Very helpful video. Wonder if you have a pointer a similar product that can also provide data-logging to a pc in order to automate production of test graphs?
Hi great video. You gave me a idear as I do have one of these but in tatty condition tho but still works fine. Now do you think it will be fine to take this apart and build it in to a power supply that is 24v at 120A At 1200w? Im in the process of building a power supply. And just wondered if I could use this in my project? Or do I need to buy the proper stuff eg. Led voltmeter / ammeter + shunt. Thanks.
I'd like to know how much current draw each unit takes. I'll bet without the backlight, the WattsUp takes the least...
Hi. How can i measure the SOC of my batteries using the watt meter? I want to know if i used 30% to 40% on my batteries. Assuming i have a 100ah battery. E.g. source side is on the battery and load side on the charge controller. Btw, i'm using a 1000w inverter when i use my batteries. Thanks
excelente comparativa, gracias .
Hi, Friend.
I use one of this from my solar panel to the charge controller but after some hours the numbers dissapear. Do you know why?
Thank You!
Emmanuel Távora.
tengkyu for review nya Gan.. ..
the gt power one looks more washed out, or is it just the angle of your camera
Great video! Do you know any similar devices for measuring low amp, low voltage? Let's say 1S battery with only a few hundred mA?
I wish that they made these read up to 180VDC. I made a wind turbine that produces 100VDC and I would love to monitor the output voltage, current and, the power while it is working.
Thanks Rob!
if i connect it from the solar panel on the input and the output in the charge controller where the solar should go in will it read the amps and volts coming from the PV?
I ordered a GT Power RC and I have two remarks with this review :
1) when going to about 40 V my GT power RC, it's 2% off on voltage measurement. Not a huge problem considering the price
2) more problematic : when monitoring the energy consumption of an ebike with my GT Power RC it gives values completely out of what they should be. After a 40 km trip in ebike, my battery got 60% empty (evaluated using voltage level). The battery is 36V x 17 Ah = 612 Wh, so 60% consumed means 367 Wh. But the energy consumed indicated by the GT Power was only 134 Wh.
So I think there is not big problem with measurement precision but a serious problem in the program that make the calculation, or internal clock... that make the product I have completely useless for energy measurement
Maybe you could try to monitor also the energy and not only current and voltages, a bit as I did ? So we could know if this problem is only on my product or on all GT Power RC. So far my seller doesn't seem to be able to understand what the problem is...
best regards,
You cannot accurately calculate the remaining battery capacity using a voltmeter, as LiPo batteries have a very small voltage drop until they are almost depleted and then drop off suddenly. Better to use a battery charger that tracks the mAh used to refill the battery to calculate % usage.
so in summary is it your opinion that what's up is the winner?
Thanks very much.
Great video.
I am looking information what happens to these devices if the current flow direction changes? I mean the Source and Load are switched and some minimum current is flowing backwards. I think all these current meters are based on INA139 or INA169 IC. The IC itself allows some negative current flow - but maybe someone has already checked that. I don't want to damage mine.
Thanks,
Przemek
No, it won't measure backflow - www.miromax.lt/upl/banks2/files/GTP-wattmeter.pdf
Oddly, the Turnigy reads pretty consistently 1.0 W high, despite different currents and voltages. It's almost like it deliberately adds 1W and then back-calculates the current needed to produce that extra watt at the current voltage. That seems unlikely, but the consistency of the watt delta is surprising.
And yes, for me that different current matters, as I'm interested in the accumulated Ah drawn by smallish loads over time (mixed with larger loads for shorter times).
Exactly
what measuring instrument do you think is best for Wh?
Just came back to this after receiving one of the standard 3 button 100A watt meter and balancers that is grossly out of calibration and useless for balancing cells and pack voltage readings which are almost 10% low making these meters in the video look like electron counters in accuracy. And what I am noticing is while the Turnigy is not reading watts as accurate as the GTP meter... it errors on the safe side for setting up RC electric motors and matching ESC, props, etc. At 12:19 minutes in the video true Watts is 12w and Turnigy shows 13w while the GT Power's reading is too low at 11.6w. Voltage too errors on the safe side on the Turnigy. So for RC aircraft use the Turnigy is giving reading errors that are safe, but the GT Powers is giving reading errors that are too low. It's better to set your plane up thinking you are pulling more amps than you really are than to be told you are pulling less. So the Turnigy actually wins here for RC aircraft use regarding these two particular meters.
But IMO that means very little as these meters are being mass produced with very little quality control and final inspection. You would have to test many meters from many different shipments to get a fair comparison. But again thanks for the thumbs up video. It seems the only way to get an accurate watt meter is to calibrate it yourself which requires expensive equipment, or keep sending the meters back until you get a good one and that can get very expensive, and that's a shame as it should only take a minute or two extra to manufacture and calibrate these meters correctly within specification.
Informative video and I will purchase the GT Power meter. Is there anyway to know for sure if I am purchasing the real GT Power and not a fake? I am purchasing on Amazon in Canada
Thanks for any help ( :
Thanks for the helpful video.
All your stuff must have lots of little scars from being poked with screwdrivers and meter probes and all manner of pointy things.
The test used cheap test leads, the clip on leads which have poor crimp connections and very small wire, like #26 or 30. These can induce lots of voltage drop at higher currents. Should have used large wire like in the meter. However, it was pretty good video. Just the tester needs to do some learning in test set up, hi. The current measurements are valid in that current is a series factor. Also one would think the power measurements would be off for they are simple V x I calculations from the voltage and current. Actual power is not being measured. (caution...these meters are rated at 130A and probably will do for 10mS. The wire is #10 good for 20-25A. At 130A would smoke about everything in short time.) At $17 to $50 one should not expect a lab quality meter, but good for reference. I use mine for battery charging and at times for discharge to determine battery life.
@ron wright Sorry but 10awg is spec'd, by my supplier, at 140.6A at 20degC ambient
I think your 20-30A is based on 18awg
MY E BIKE IS 72V BATTERY IT IS TO POSSIBLE TO USE 0-60V 150A WATTMETER AS PER SHOWED IN YOUTUDE TY
Can the turnout be calibrated, hope so because iv got one .
Nice review as always, with a bit of excitement. :-)
Where can I buy one of them?
Do they work with LiFe batteries????? Plz I really need to know and I haven´t found this info anywhere.........
Yes. They do.
are these waterproof for permanent outdoor use..? ie: 52v ebike
They're not waterproof, they have cooling air holes int he case. You could probably seal the case yourself if you want, though.
These meters are great for ebikes. I've had quite a few of these for ebike use, maybe 4 or 5 of them of different brands, and they all do the same thing and work very well. Unfortunately, all of them were eventually stolen, a 'classic' ebike problem.
well my gt power rc 130a meter
reads
low currents n wattages
down to 0.01a 0.1w
at 12.60v
weird
Great informative video.
Keep in mind that precision is not the same as accuracy. That's how they can say "precision" even though it may not be accurate.
well done on the video...very informative
Interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Good videos keep up the good work 👌😎
what are the 3 pins on the side of the box???
AnthonyandMolly Papa they are RC radio battery plugs
cant find the timing funtion thank you
Who cares if the Turnigy is 1 watt off. Nobody is going to use these meters for such low measurements since any digital volt meter will measure up to 10A DC. Most people will use these to measure power readings of motors over 100W. Run over 100A through these and let us know if they burn up.
Very good review - thanks. I was about to buy the Turnigy and glad I didn't. Wish all reviews were this good.
I think you we need to test a good half dozen each of these for a true comparison, the thing I've found with these cheap chinese rc power meters and also the lipo cell checkers is the manufacturing calibration consistency, I have a good half dozen cell checkers, 3 turnigy (identical) and 3 generic unbranded, to be frank they all give different readings with the same lipo connected, my fluke 87v confirmed that only one of all 6 (turnigy) was accurate to 2-3mv (that's acceptable accuracy even for fluke 87v). The rest were anything up to 30mv out which in the world of rc's is about the cell difference where we start getting concerned about a cell issue. I bet if you got a couple more of those gt power versions you'd get one just as inaccurate 😉. I think rc people in particular have to remember these are not precision instruments and just 'indicators'. I've had many a discussion about the accuracy of cell meters and trying to explain your 30mv cell difference is probably the meter and not a cell fault is sometimes like banging your head against a wall lol! A £3 instruments CAN be accurate but it's pot luck and it's unlikely. Even my 87v is 0.05% and a one count so that's an acceptable drift of 7mv either way at 12v.
Bad luck with these. I ordered 2 baylite brand from eBay. They used nearly 2 watt with no external source. One ofthe two showed only one fifth of the amperage and wattage even side by side. The vendor never did send the promised replacement. The other order never came the vendor stalled for time until eBay closed the transactionautomatically. eBay and Paypal never refunded. The chargeback on the prepaid DC bank card had to be sent twice so far and still no refund and no order completion. Going on 6 months now.Definitely Amazon this time and these look more reliable. Really that is what these devices are for: accurate measurement . Do not want to complain but there was nothing reasonable at all in the order process anddeceptive practices, reassurances, delay and Paypal just kept the money going on 6 months now and theyare the receiver of the purchase funds as stated on the card transaction.
Good review..
Good info
thumbs up. very well done video
A great video, how can I contact with you? You have a email address? I have some problem with this kind of testing tools, need professional help.
llook like garbage.. but i think its nice and neat, when ready for premently home.. great stuff
The Turnigy ones are crap. They randomly just freeze up and read 217 amps at 0v.
These meters are designed to measure current and power in systems using hundreds, or even thousands, of watts. You're trying to get a useful reading at very tiny wattages and low currents, and they simply aren't designed to be accurate there. At very low currents, the current sensing resistor is not heating up, increasing its resistance to produce more accurate readings in the range of currents where the meter is intended to be used.
You're being *very* nitpicky about accuracy at piddly currents and wattages. Try putting 300 or 400 Watts through it, and you'll get a much more useful reading.
Interesting vid though, thanks for posting.
$31.99 as of 15 Aug 2015 from the E-bay link
For which meter?
the GT Power meter in the Link above.
I wish show how you have it wired up., you never do
damnit! i just want to see how to connect it to a solar power system and no one shows! ah!
It seems to me its just installed to your wires from your solar panel + and -- and its installed. I guess you could install it before the solar controller to see what your panels are putting out or after your control in the controller to battery. Then you could see how much you have lost from your controller.
My first controller lost 33% of its amps of charging power and that sucks so I got a true MPPT controller and its 97% efficient with just a 3% lose.
The thumbs up does not seem to be working so here is my thumbs up in a comment. Make that 2 thumbs up :-) Thank you for a great video :-)
I am trying now to figure out if I can encase a meter like those in the same products used to encase solar cells when a solar panel is built. Like Sygard 184. Here is the project I am building and I want to measure the load the motor is using and at the same time the amps being produced from the solar panels. S I would use 2 meters. Can I do this encapsulation with a meter like those ????? My project : serenitysolarcanoe
Turnigy electronics suck. The imeter is the same.