I use a meter in my car (above the battery in the photo.) I feel more comfortable using a meter because I don't have to guess, and it also double as a testing tool. For example, how much can you crank out of your batteries before you go run a race? This way, you can find your max amps (or in my case max watts) you can be pulling for an hour. Mine also has a watt-hour and amp-hour meter so I can check at certain points in the race to see if I'm "on schedule" or not. It also tells me how fast I am going as well which is a nice thing. I feel it's more "car like" in my case, but some people don't run with a speedometer, just meters.
Plus, here in the Northwest (especially the Northwest) we have lots of turns and traffic to deal with when going into corners at high speed, so it's essential to have a meter of some sort (Harbor Frieght multimeter, analog meter(s), digital meters like mine, etc). One thing I did notice over the years starting my junior year and senior year of high school, the top cars here are usually the cars that have some sort of metering system. Cloud has a meter with each of their cars and they have had some really good success all over the place in the U.S. -- Edited by Zaine Stapleton on Wednesday 26th of January 2011 07:14:50 AM
-- Edited by Zaine Stapleton on Wednesday 26th of January 2011 07:23:23 AM
None of Willamette High cars use any 'fancy' meters. --Our good drivers learn to listen to the motor's hum to feel the amp draw and be sure that they are driving in the motors efficiency range. -Many of the kids do buy a cheap bike speedometer which I feel may be the most important meter. It lets me check going into a tight corner to be sure I am not going too fast or slower than my car can handle. That way I don't need to hit the brakes at all during a race unless a slower car cuts me off or goes out of control in front of me. -There are some of our students that use a $3 Harbor Freight multimeter to measure volts--but all that tells you is that that you are starting to go dead. I do like it with the Yellow tops though. When I drove my car this last season I found that around 40 minutes the deep cycles would start to drop to a low 22 volts. I would 'take a lap or two off' and still drive reasonably fast but not push it hard (draw less than 20 amps if possible.) Then I would start pushing it hard again and the voltage under power would go back up to high 23 volts and I could usually drive hard to the end. I think the yellow tops need a minute or two to get the deep charge to the surface where it could be used. I have found that after the races that ended with me slowing down my car if let rest for about 2-3 minutes would have a full 23-24 volts under load and I could drive hard and fast again for at least another lap or two. Again the deep cycle can not get out all of its power in the 60 minutes and we are leaving more in the tank. -A few of our kids add a cheap 100 amp--100 mV shunt (
That is twice??? ...100 amp- 100 volt shunt-less than $20-this is a good way to help teach students how to drive. They can easily see that if they try to push too hard out of corners, up hills, or in traffic their amp use skyrockets but their speed and lap times change very little. They soon learn that it is better do drive hard but reasonable than to push too hard and not finish a race. I like an amp meter because it helps me keep my overly competitive nature somewhat under check. My amp gauge is just below the windshield so I quickly catch myself trying to over accelerate in traffic to get by them too fast.
Having tested batteries and amp/hours previously, our team has been able to use the BatMan to dial in and schedule how much speed to use during each second of the race. If you set one gear faster than usual, then at the end of the race you can increase speed in order to make sure you're using everything you've got. At 60 minutes.... our batteries are dead.
