Voltmeters!

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Shakespeare
Posts: 286
Joined: Sun May 24, 2009 11:26 pm

Voltmeters!

Post by Shakespeare »

Excuse the wall of text. For a tl;dr, look down past the quotes.
Shakespeare wrote:I'm adamant in making at least one of my portables Steampunk-ish, and that means no digital displays and whatnot. Wood casing, brass trimmings/buttons, etc.

What I really want to do is take something like this and combine it with a battery life indicator, sitting at the top left corner of the portable and pointing at how much life the battery has left. The closest to this I could find is this. Looks big, looks too modern.

Would I be able to make my own, assuming I can't find a better alternative to the golf cart battery monitor? I need something tiny.
samjc3 wrote:it should be a very simple'ish mechanism. you should be able to duplicate it somehow. ;)

and as for the "no digital displays" thing, what about the screen? :P
i really like the idea! :D
Shakespeare wrote:Thanks. Of course I'ma have a screen. Hopefully, the case will counterbalance that. I just don't want to add any more LCDs than I absolutely have to, so yeah. I'm going to incorporate a pressure gauge into the design somehow, I just figured it might as well have a purpose.

Oh, and if it's any consolation, this will likely be an Atari or something old-ish. I was originally going to go for an N64, but the 3D graphics and whatnot would just make it look out of place. I'll use my other case ideas for that.

If anyone can find a cheaper analog battery life indicator (I really can't think of/find a better name for them), let me know!
XCVG wrote:Get an old analog voltmeter.

Seriously. It's analog so it's got a nice tuned mecanism. Connect, recase, and add a new scale. Done!
tl;dr: I need an analog voltmeter. A small one. One that'll tell me the battery life of my portable. Everything I've found so far is either HUGE or DOUBLEHUGE. Smallest I can find is 2.5" in width. Not small enough.

How hard would it be to take one of these voltmeters, pry it open, and cram its parts into a much smaller housing? I need something miniscule, like 1"-1.5" in diameter.
what is this i don't even
Kyosho
Portablizer
Posts: 338
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2006 9:38 pm

Re: Voltmeters!

Post by Kyosho »

I'm not sure how big the guts of those things are really, but why not go with the smallest one you can find, and cut the needle thing a lot shorter? Then make a backround for it of appropriate size.
Shakespeare
Posts: 286
Joined: Sun May 24, 2009 11:26 pm

Re: Voltmeters!

Post by Shakespeare »

Kyosho wrote:I'm not sure how big the guts of those things are really, but why not go with the smallest one you can find, and cut the needle thing a lot shorter? Then make a backround for it of appropriate size.
... That's an excellent idea. I feel silly for not thinking of that to begin with. Thanks.
what is this i don't even
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