battery testers

Sorry the download on the Gunson site is for the old model, not the new LED one. From what I gather it tests for 15s, which hopefully is long enough to be meaningful but not long enough to start a fire.

Sorry, I could have worked that out myself. I didn't know that the bulbs were 55W off the top of my head. I don't know where the lights came from. It wasn't me. Another reply said to test with the lights on. Or perhaps I misunderstood. The battery FAQ does say something about using the lights for a few minutes if the battery has recently been charged. Perhaps that's where it came from?

Anyway, I have been looking at Maplin for a multi meter with max and min data. What happened to their White Gold range? It's a shame what has happened to Maplin over the last few years. I see they sell some "automotive" meters, I will have to look more closely at those to see what they do. Do they have extra functions or is it a marketing gimmick?

People have mentioned measuring "dwell", sorry to sound thick but what is that?

Thanks.

Yes, but when it will happily pass a 100A test, it just won't reliably start the landrover.

Yup, it depends on state of charge, temperature, type of battery and accuracy of the meter.

e.g.

The automotive ones can display rpm from the coil feed, if you can get at it on your car. Historically dwell was the length of time the contacts stayed closed on your points, it's duty cycle expressed in degrees .

Sorry for the late reply.

Do modern cars have points? I thought it was all computer controlled these days? Not that I would know, I've always driven oil burners so I guess dwell would be no use to me.

No.

Yes

Well it's duty cycle, so you can see the injector cycle etc.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Dave Plowman (News)" saying something like:

I always thought Avos were swell meters.