Category Archives: Gear

Blue Sea Systems – DC Voltmeter

I’ve been a fan of Blue Sea Systems gear for a while now, they make things that are built for the marine environment. My thought process is what works out on the open ocean will surely perform in our vehicles. I bought one of their brand new Mini DC Voltmeters. This will be my first impressions of the thing and general info.

From the Packaging:

Blue Sea Systems

Mini OLED DC Voltmeter

Monitors DC Voltage

Bright, waterproof, daylight readable screen.

Features

  • Reverse Polarity Protected
  • Mounts in a common 1-1/8: (29mm) hole

Specifications

Nominal Voltage 12V / 24V DC

Voltage Range 8V-36V DC

Voltage Accuracy +/- 1%

Maximum Operating Current 15mA

Resolution 0.01V DC

Cutout Dimensions 1-1/8″ (29mm) Diameter

Regulatory

Meter face is IP66-protected against powerful water jets.

The Blue Sea part number is 1733.

A 2 AMP Fuse is required between the positive leg of the meter and incoming positive.

This can either be directly wired to your batter with a cutoff switch for easy off on use. Or wired inline with your ignition voltage. I have a house battery on my system so I’m using a ON – OFF – ON switch so that I can check my Main or my House with the flick of a switch.

1733
Dimensioned Drawing

It’s not overly bright at night so I believe it will work well in a car as well.

bluesearealworld2

https://www.bluesea.com/products/1733/Mini_OLED_DC_Voltmeter

Gear ideas.

For some reason gear becomes an obsession to a lot of people, I’ve fallen into gear obsession from time to time. I believe the obsession comes from what an object represents and what it can possibly do for you in the future. My advice is to try not to fall to far down that rabbit hole that is gear obsession.

With that being said, here’s stuff to feed your gear obsession.

Overlanding can learn a lot from what other people are doing in other ventures. I find sailing blogs to be a particularly useful resource to follow. They have to go out to foreign places for long periods of time with nothing to rely on besides what they bring with them. Just like overlanders they tend to have very limited space as well.

Here is a great place to start with sailing gear blog: http://theboatgalley.com/