DC Panel meter reads high voltages at times

Can you hook up another meter to confirm the voltage the first meter is displaying?

Does this occur only with the engine(s) running?

Does this occur only when on shore power?

Does this occur only when the battery charger is on?

Is there any particular electrical configuration when this occurs, i.e. at the dock with shore power on and charging through an inverter charger. Or underway and charging through the engine mounted alternator, or ???

If it is a digital meter, is the meter part of another device? Is it a multipurpose display that also shows other parameters?

How long do these high voltage events last? Does the voltage ramp up and down or does it just suddenly go from 26 to 56?

Are there other symptoms which might confirm or deny that voltage is high rather than a meter defect? Damaged electronics? Short bulb life?

There are so many questions to ask before the crystal ball will provide a useful lead.

Marmot, I find your crystal ball's inability to solve this issue shocking.

I usually find electrical troubleshooting a stimulating process but I'm not exactly energized this morning. Perhaps later when I am better grounded I will be able to make the connections to generate some leads.

Hi,

Be careful Marmot - Where would YF be if you were to get into an over load situation and blew a fuse while laying a cable so early on?

Probably a brighter place. Way back in my youth, when I sailed electrician and we were changing over from whale oil lamps to those new incandescent things, the Brits on the crew used to call me Lucas for some reason ...

Hi,

You wouldn't have Joseph for a middle name would you?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_Industries

I think it had somethng to do with this: http://www.mez.co.uk/lucas.html

More enlightening comments

Providing answers to Marmot's ungrounded questions would provide more troubleshooting direction but I will venture into the fray. Digital volt meters are more sensitive than analog panel meters and as such are suceptable to interference. My first guess would be to inspect or re-tighten the Amp. installation/connections to the battery and any connections to the panel meter that may have been disturbed. My second guess would be that the Amp. is electromagnetically interfering with the reading of the panel meter i. e. the input wires or output wires from the Amp. are running too close the the panel meter wires. My third guess is a bad panel meter. Happy trouble shooting

Wouldn't these two comments together indicate a bad meter?

"Wouldn't these two comments together indicate a bad meter?"

Not necessarily. A digital voltmeter is a high impedance device, in the real world that means it is susceptible to magnetic fields and RF as much as volts so, as Capt. Fred suggests, it may have something to do with the routing of the wires for the new amplifier, or even the cirucuitry of the amp itself which is probably jammed with high speed switching devices that are infamous for creating electronic "hash" that pollutes as much as the sound they produce.

Did you fly kites with a key attached to it behind the boat?

"Did you fly kites with a key attached to it behind the boat?"

Funny you should ask that ... we used to make boxkites and fly them sometimes but no keys. Besides, that was Ben and he was able to get electricity on a regular basis.

If Lucas was involved we would probably still be using Leyden jars to power our headlights.

Just woke up ... how long has this been going on?
Did it begin just after the amp project?
Did you do any other wiring or electrical projects just before it started acting up?
Put a digital multimeter on the circuit and see if it displays the same readings at the same time.

24 volt panel reads low volts

I just installed 4 new AGM Odessey batteries to replace the 4 wet 8D's. for some reason the 24v digital meter in the salon climbs to 24 V's but then drops to read 3V's or 8V's or 9V's, etc. any ideas on this?

It sounds like a loose connection in this case. Specifically a bad ground.