Installation of a Voltage Monitor in a Honda Helix

Many of our scoots have electrical systems just barely adequate to keep the scoot running and the battery charged. Add a few lights, electrical gear or the like and you might be pushing the electrical system too far. Do that enough and you could end up getting stuck on the side of the road with a dead battery. So, wouldn't it be nice to know the status of your electrical system before a problem occurs ? This way you can keep the electrical draw within proper limits. You can and it's easy to do.

I looked around and there a number of voltage monitors available. I selected the Signal Dynamics Heads Up Voltage Monitor. www.signaldynamics.com   It's a simple single LED system that tells you if the electrical system is putting out too much, not enough or just the right amount of voltage.

Installation on a Helix is quite simple -

There are only 2 wires to hook up and an LED to install.

First,  you remove the mirrors and the windshield trim, then the windshield. The maintenance cover is next. and the dash cover.

Once all the plastic is off, I decided to use the "Helix" light bulb from the dash for power. You can use other power sources if you want but you should use a source that is powered by the ignition so, when the ignition is off, the unit stops working and doesn't draw down the battery.

Here's what it looks like. The bulb has been pulled out of the dash. The green wire is ground and the brown is the hot wire.

The unit comes with parts to tap onto the hot and ground without needing to cut any wires. All you need is a pair or pliers. Here's a photo of the unit tapped in with some electrical tape to hold things in place.

Once that's all done you put the bulb back into the socket and move on to the next step.

The main part of the unit that needs to be put somewhere solid. Right in front of the parking brake is a small shelf formed by the top of the glove box. The unit comes with double stick tape so you can just stick it there as shown in the photo below.

Now the install of the LED. Below is the dash, off the scoot but before drilling the hole for the LED

Shown below is the back of the dash with the hole drilled and the LED  installed. I also put some glue on it to help hold things in place.

The LED is installed by drilling a 1/4" hole, slide the LED in from the back and the bezel in from the front. The bezel has 2 legs that grab onto the LED and lock things in place.

Here's the front of the dash with the LED and bezel in place. Makes a nice install, doesn't it ?

Below is everything installed.

and below the unit working and the light flashing.

When you start up the scoot the LED flashes several times to show you it's working then, it will settle down to a solid color, green if all is ok, yellow if voltage is low and red if it's really low. If voltage is seriously low or high, then you get flashing light. A sticker comes with the unit that tells what each light means but after all, is that really needed ? Green is good, red is bad.