Adding an hourmeter to my AirCharger

[Davee]

I was thinking about adding an hour-meter to my air charger.
I was planning to wire it in series with the green panel switch that starts the electric motor.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks,

Dave E

 

[rc4fun]

Much easier:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=vibration+hour+meter&ref=nb_sb_noss

Just stick one on the side someplace easy to see.

 

[TMH]

Yes, the vibration activated ones work great. I have mine attached with some thick double sided tape like this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Y7RTG3Q/

They will have a little wire loop which you cut to activate (so that it doesn't come with hours on it when you buy it, due to transport vibrations). If you take your compressor with you to the shooting range, etc., leave the wires accessible or put in a little switch so the meter won't count hours driven in your car.

 

[Travisjellis]

Ive been looking at the air charger, has it been good for you?

 

[Davee]

Hi Travis,

I have had mine for over 1 year and it has exceeded my expectations.
It is simple to maintain and use. No problems as of yet.

Dave E

 

[hitech]

Hey Dave, I too am planning on putting in an hour meter on my Air Charger. I have a vibration meter on my Shoebox F10, but I bought a wired one for the Air Charger. I plan on wiring it the motor via the red and green wires. I will probably do it this weekend and if I have success I'll let you know and take come pictures.

Blair

 

[Davee]

Thanks Blair,
I am looking forward to your success. I thought I would do a similar hookup as you describe. That way the meter is only active when the green button is pushed to start the motor.
I was going to mount the meter in a small box and secure it with double sided tape to the top of the main control housing.

Don't forget the share the results.

Dave E

 

[hitech]

So, I've added an hour meter to the Air Charger. You can see the pics below. A couple things to note. Buy an AC capable hour meter obviously, but buy one that is not digital. I bought a digital meter and kind of regret it. Buy a mechanical readout meter so that while the unit is off, you can still see the hours logged. The digital meter only turns on when the pump is on and is off even when the power is on and water pump is working. See below. Also, you'll have to drill a hole somewhere so that you can safely run your meter wires. Make sure that you drill a hole that is not obscured by one of the large capacitors, relay, or power brick. There's not a lot of room to work with, so take note to where I drilled mine.



The blue and brown wires are power to the motor from the control box.

Here's the hole I drilled.

my + from the meter goes to the blue, and my - from my meter goes to the brown.

power on, compressor motor off, meter off.

compressor motor on, meter on. I've only got couple of mins when I took this pic, but I have used it since then and the meter is working as it should

Let me know if you get yours working Dave. Good luck.

Blair

 

[Davee]

Many thanks to Hitech for the advice on this project.
This is how it turned out.

Thank you to everyone who contributed suggestions for this project.

Dave E

 

[hitech]

Nice job Dave! I have since replaced my digital hour meter with a mechanical one as well, luckily I didn't really have any hours on the first meter just about 30 minutes.