Got an email from this vendor showing one of their products. You may already know about this place but thought I would pass it along.
voltage reducer 12v to 6 v power oil gas temp gauges

 

That's an interesting looking unit. I'll be curious to see the debate from our resident electrical engineers. ;-)

 

Yeah thats one reason I posted it too. To get the experts input on it. My system is all 12 volt so I don't need one but a lot of the guys on here are converting to 12Volts and keeping the 6 volt guages.

 

The gauge voltage regulator appears to be a simple zener diode; there are similar ones on eBay for <$10, without a fancy heat sink. ST L7806CV Voltage Regulator 6V1.5A 10pcs - eBay (item 310274167944 end time Dec-25-10 02:09:58 PST)

There is one for about $20 that is much better, and is adjustable: Ford Instrument Cluster Voltage Regulator 5v - eBay (item 280572904377 end time Jan-06-11 17:52:57 PST)

As far as the heater motor dropping resistor, there are no specs on it, so it isn't going to work on ALL 6v heater motors the same.

Not impressed.

 

Looks like a good product according to the write up. The second one Ross posted for the $20 is good to.

They also sell voltage regulators/reducers at NAPA.

There's lots of different types out there and the variations in cost are kind of amazing!

Thanks for posting that.

 

I have used the "7806" electronic reducer and it works just fine. Price is cheap, just wire it in. It is limited to about 1 amp output, which is plenty for gages, not for any heater fan or wiper motor. It is a much better method than matching resistance or the much more expensive runtz reducers. The only gage I have run with it is a fuel gage, the rest are mechanical (oil pressure, water temp, ammeter). An ammeter on older cars does not matter what voltage, it measures current. But modern alternators can put out more voltage than the ammeter can read, pegging it. I have heard using a small shunt around the gage, such as 18 ga wire, will keep this from happening? I just left the ammeter not hooked up and run a separate voltage gage.

 

My ears were burning!!


That unit looks pretty good. It's a solid state unit. using a simple voltage regulator "potted " right into a heat sink.

Gages require very low current so it should only get just slightly warm....




I wouldn't however, use the voltage dropping resistor at the bottom of the page for the heater motor though. They get REALLY HOT!

I would go with one of the following electronic units.

MX033 - DC PWM Motor Speed Controller 15 Amp - Assembled & Tested

Even though they are rated at 12v output, they would work just fine for a 6v motor. (just don't crank it all the way up) Or you can easily replace your 6v motor with a 12v one.


Cheers,


Rick