I know it's not 100% stomp box rated but still - a lot of knowing people around ... worth a shot.
Anyone knows were to buy a small moving coil DC ammeter range 1mA or less? Has to fit 1U case?
May be my keywords are wrong - I'm using "analog ammeter" or "analog ammeter" to search on ebay. Nothing usable shows up

I've seen a few meters, but I thought 1mA or smaller would be too small. I was wrong. Here's a 500uA meter. Not sure how big a 1U panel is though

http://m.ebay.com/itm/231344119784?_trkparms=aid%253D222007%2526algo%253DSIC.MBE%2526ao%253D1%2526asc%253D20140818092515%2526meid%253D3a741322449e4986a020e1208392157e%2526pid%253D100286%2526rk%253D10%2526rkt%253D21%2526sd%253D161433411375&_trksid=p2054897.c100286.m3506

thanks for the reply. I have looked at those. Unfortunately that form factor does not work for me since 1U is 1.75inches (~45mm) high while these meters are 55mm

Could you scale your amps to volts and use a volt meter, but print out a new scale for the meter?

Check out the edgewise panel meters shown here:

http://metersandinstruments.yokogawa-usa.com/category/series-280-thin-edgewise-panel-meters-2

Up close, edgewise meters look like this:

http://jewellinstruments.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/E-Series-Data-Sheet.pdf

Quote from: mth5044 on May 25, 2015, 06:29:53 PM
Could you scale your amps to volts and use a volt meter, but print out a new scale for the meter?

I thought all the MC meters were ammeters (work on current); just the associated circuitry determines if you get amps or volts at the end?

Also, there are a lot of <1mA meters out there, in fact, uA meters are I think more common; size is a problem tho, you are right. You might have to find a specialized part....try searching "miniature ammeter" or something?

While there are vast catalogs of meters, where you can order ANY meter if you pay for a ship-load, the real problem is finding an in-stock retailer for one or two.

Jameco has a fair selection of meters. Put "meter" in the Search box.

At a glance, many of them are bigger than you want. You may indeed have to find an edgewise or a subminiature to fit in 1U. (IMHO, if you want a decent needle-meter, you want a real-size panel.)

DigiKey has meters, but hard to search. Industrial Controls, Meters > Panel Meters, Criteria "Display Type"="Analog - Black Characters". 38 listings but only two in-stock, both $96 frequency-meters!

Marlin P Jones www.mpja.com usually has meters but their website is "closed" at the moment?

eBay "edgewise meter" turns up a lot of offers, some $3 and some $50 (apparently the steampunks love them), mostly not fully specced and uncertain condition.

Given a *large* panel, there are still $10 needle multimeters on the market, even at Home Despot et al. The meter and case are one unit, so you mount the whole lump behind your panel and sneak wires out. They open to inser battery (Ohms only) but it has been a long time so I do not know how hard it is to slip a new scale over the multi-scale.
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> I thought all the MC meters were ammeters (work on current); just the associated circuitry determines if you get amps or volts at the end?

Yes, pretty-much; but on the retail market they often come bundled with the resistor to make say 0-15VDC. Sometimes this is external and easily omitted; except when sold as 15VDC they do not tell you the basic current rating.

1 mA meters are historically inexpensive. 50uA meters are more delicate and more expensive. I see a bunch of 500uA meters.

Thanks a lot everybody for the input.
I managed to find a very close to edgewise eter on Farnell catalog for 15e