See post one of this thread: https://www.f150forum.com/showthread...=421912&page=1

One of the menus you get through is voltage.

 

Added this to the wife's Subaru. Going to do something similar to my truck

 

I could not vote because it didn't say, 'I have a voltmeter'. If there was a 'I have a voltmeter' in the poll, I would vote, 'I have a voltmeter' but, you do not have 'I have a voltmeter' in the poll!

I have an SC Dashpaq stuck to the window in my truck, It has a voltmeter and just about any other 'monitor' for the engine and tranny.

 

How accurate is that?

 

I'm stumped because poll question #3 is 'I have a voltmeter'.
No worries, the poll is just for fun.

Out of curiosity, other than the voltmeter, what other gauges are in the SC Dashpaq that aren't on the truck?

 

LIghter port voltmeters are usually off buy a bit. I have that feature on my radar detector and I know full well it's off somewhere between 0.5 and 0.8V vs what's at the battery.

BUT I'll tell you why you don't have a volt meter on your dash. It would move around alot if you did. Unlike vehicles of old the alternator output varies significantly by demand of the computer. So you could start up and see 15.2 and think man that's high. Then after about a 20+ minute drive watch it drop to 13.9. But tomorrow it will start up at 14.2 and stay there all day. Variable demand. And included in that is variable amperage so if you have a volt meter you might as well have an Ammeter too. It's considered to much of a moving target that it would spook consumers and for the most part I guess it would.

I've always been an advocate for providing the data options to the consumer - since all of that is logged in computer it is all readable by nearly any scan tool package. I use a BT OBDLinkMX and Torque Pro and I can see nearly all those parameters if I want to when I want to. I like that engineering mode is there - but I have always advocated for additional display gage options for the buyer.

So short of wiring your own in place - don't bother you'll be better off reading what the computer says. Reason - if you have issues you'll want to know what the computer sees, not so much that the battery is. If the hall effect sensor goes wonky you will have issues but the battery and alternator will be fine, for example.

my 0.03

 

Ok, you got me their! Anyway, what you see on the face of my Dashpaq is just what I wanted up as the basic setup. Engine temp, voltage, Inlet Air Temp, Turbo Boost and RPM. On the next 'page', you can have up to 6 or 8 readings, I don't remember which. There's a 'page' that has a list of engine monitors to choose from. Some you don't see are, HP and Torque, oil pressure, readings for the fuel injectors, the list is quite extensive. It's a fairly complete engine monitoring system. Maybe later I can takes some pics of these for a better explanation. Oh, it's a tuner as well and it will read and clear codes. Plenty of these kind of things on the market as you probably know. There's just more to them than being a tuner.

 

Yup - monitoring voltage using Torquepro, I see voltages anywhere between 13.1 and 14.9 volts - all dependent on what the truck is doing, charge state of the battery, temps, loads, etc... On a standard guage with no dampening, folks who don't understand the system will think something is wrong. And it does chnage based on what you are doing, not just in response to electrical loads.

Oh - it will drop lower than that when start stop engages too...

 

RIght - not to mention if the battery is in good nick - and all conditions are smooth. Voltage can stabilize to 12.3 and that's fine. Despite popular mythos that running should always be over 12.6

And while stopped dropping below 11 isn't always bad either. Course they could have done like with oil pressure on some engines. Is there some, yes - show gage normal; no - show gage bottom out

meh.

 

Thanks Napalm, this is a very cogent reply! Worth more than .03 I reckon.

I agree - a meter that appears to be all over the place would not be well received by the general public. You render the most salient point - in these highly computerized vehicles, general battery state is less important than what the computer thinks of the battery state because "the computer" will change your vehicle's behavior. For example, my truck has started itself while sitting with Auto-Stop engaged, presumably because of high electrical demand (A/C, radio, headlights).

It probably wouldn't bother me to see a voltmeter report a wide range as long as I could correlate the readings to electrical demand. That's probably not going to happen, so it's looking like a meaningful voltmeter is not an available option.

Therapy is going well, a couple more sessions and I'll be happy with the idiot light.