Source for ac volt & amp panel meters

One place is www.lightobject.com  just click on analog meters, and scroll thru the choices--- they sell a 15 ampAC and a 30Vac meter for under 10$ each. there are other online dealers that sell them too.

I found some nice ones on eBay for $6/ea, they're about 2.5" square.

I purchased several used vintage volt and amp meters off of Ebay for less than the price of the cheap modern plastic meters.  The vintage meters have thick bakelite shells, glass windows, much heavier construction and a classic look that really complements my postwar layout.

Cheap setup with '80s version of DER 670 Meters[about $11 each from New Zealand]. Light Object Meters are just as effective for Toy Train monitoring.

          Go to ebay and search for Asia Enginnering. These are the meters I got from them and no charge for shipping from China and the shippung is quite fast.

OK, I just did that search, this is what I find: Asia Engineering

I don't see any meters.

I bought all of mine from, allelectronics.com The prices are reasonable w/ fast shipping.

Have you tried Mouser Electronics? I think the website is www.mouserelectronics.com

Lee F.

I no longer have a Mouser Catalog but as I recall their meters were the "moving iron vane" type by Simpson brand which is higher quality in the $85-$90 price range. The Light Object, Shurite, AllElectric and other brand panel meters discussed above are inexpensive simple "moving magnet" type. In my experience the cheap $10-$15 meters are sufficient for monitoring Toy Train power districts. Usually only 1-1/2% to 2-1/2% + or [-] variation.

Here is a link to some inexpensive panel meters:

http://www.newark.com/shurite-...31?_requestid=282868

Marty

Harbor Freight has small multimeters on sale for $3.99. They are small enough where you could take the guts out of the case and mount in a panel.

Amps are DC amps but I'm wondering if you could add circuitry to convert it to an AC ampmeter (John?). It's been too long since school for me to remember. I know we spent a lot of time on meters.

Just noticed you asked about analog meters, not digital. I would still be interested to know what it would take to convert a DC ampmeter to AC.

Rich

         John,  

         Sorry about that it is Asia Engineer on ebay.   That should work.

Well, I get more hits, but still nothing about meters.   I get nothing for a seller ID of that name.

eBay Search Asia Engineer

I must be missing something.

Hmm...  $18 isn't all that cheap.

Light Object's AC analog panel meters are $9.50 each. The Ammeter is 0-15 amp range and the appropriate voltmeter is 0-30 range. I have only tested them[successfully]on a single power district----my regular meters are DER 670 [15 years old]. I used a Sperry bench meter from the family Electric Shop to check the Light Object readings. 

apparently 'asia engineering" is not the sellers name...

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_nkw=analog+ac+volt+meter&_pgn=2&_skc=50&rt=nc

Silly question but what is the max voltage/ amps the meters must show for a train layout in both conventional as well as TMCC/DCS?

           Prrhorse,

Thanks for getting the correct site fot the meters.

Yep, thanks for the reference for the meters, I like the round ones at $10, they look pretty nice.