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The idea comes, because I'm traveling and i forget my voltmeter in another
home, and i'm really needing one. But my Arduino kit aways are with me and
with a few minutes I made my voltmeter.

Necessary items:

-An arduino board About This Instructable

-Resistores -LCD 16x2(optionally)
License:
8 5,554 views
- Wires
 42 favorites
-Batteries to measure
- A little math papafigo
(/member/papafigo/)
Follow 6
Step 1: Hardware: Voltage Divider
(/member/papafigo/)
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Voltmeter With Arduino by papafigo (/member/papafigo/) in arduino (/technology/arduino/)

Download h (/id/voltmeter-with-arduino/) 2 Steps .  Collection I Made it!  Favorite  Share 

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First thing to do is choose what the max voltage that the voltmeter will work.

Reading the AnalogReference on

http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/AnalogReference
(http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/AnalogReference) .
We see a warning: "Don't use anything less than 0V or more than 5V for
external reference voltage on the AREF pin!"

So we can't put directly an battery with more than 5v on analog pin of arduino,
but with a little math and physics we "can" do this.
Using laws of resistors we will do a voltage divider

I decide to use 15v with max voltage to measure, and we need to put 5v max in
the analog pin, to do this divisor, i put 2 resistors of 10k ohms in parallel to have
5k ohms and put another resistor with 10k ohms in series, and my divisor is
done ! now, the voltage will be divided by 3, so in the math calculus on arduino,
we will have to multiply to 3...

Be careful choosing the max, because if you pass of this, you can burn
your arduino board.

Step 2: Programming and Set It Up

 The only important part of the code is the :
float volt = ((sensor1 *5)/ 1023)*3;

look that the only thing i'm doing is changing the analog read to volts and
multiplying by 3.
And is done! But warning is on your own risk!
The hardware have no protection to overcharge, reverse voltage and some
little things, but is fully useful.

Voltimetro_com_ardui…
Download (https://cdn.instructables.com/ORIG/FK9/4LGH/I5B4N0ET/FK94LGHI5B4N0ET.ino)
(https://cdn.instructables.com/ORIG/FK9/4LGH/I5B4N0ET/FK94LGHI5B4N0ET.ino)

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Comments
We have a be nice comment policy.
Please be positive and constructive. w I Made it!  Add Images Post Comment

GabrielC115 (/member/GabrielC115/) 2016-09-05 Reply

epic fail this project, you fail

GabrielC115 (/member/GabrielC115/) 2016-08-10 Reply

i mean papafigo, please help thanks:)

GabrielC115 (/member/GabrielC115/) 2016-08-10 Reply

Dear nodoubtman,
i tried your arduino project but it doesnt work:(
my lcd screen does not light up and cannot read the volts, please help thanks

Sincerely gabriel

MsSweetSatisfaction (/member/MsSweetSatisfaction/) 2015-01-31 Reply

Wow this is an awesome gadget, it's great that you can DIY so many things with
arduino! Nice job showing each step! Welcome to instructables!

nodoubtman (/member/nodoubtman/) . MsSweetSatisfaction

(/member/MsSweetSatisfaction/) 2015-05-01 Reply

15K = 15 V ??

i don't understand
thanks!
marC:)

papafigo (/member/papafigo/) . nodoubtman (/member/nodoubtman/) Reply

2015-05-01
15k ohms *

nodoubtman (/member/nodoubtman/) 2015-04-26 Reply

Nice project! Congradulation! But how do you select the resistor value? :)
thanks!
MarC:)

papafigo (/member/papafigo/) . nodoubtman (/member/nodoubtman/) Reply

2015-04-29
On step1 the picture shows that vout = (r2/(r1+r2))*vin
And i choose set my Vin as 15v and the vout must be 5v.
I havent a resistor of 5k so i put 2 of 10k in parallel.
I try calculate with the resistors that I have,
R1 = 10k
R2 = 5k
This satisfies the calculus .
Or doing direct, 10k +5k =15k, 15k/ 5k =3 , so the voltage divider will
divide for 3
Lots of resistors can be used to divide to 3, I only choose the easy for me.
 I More Comments

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