isolated power for digital meter

That's not an acceptable solution, this needs to be externally powered, no battery to replace.

Something like this? Cheap enough for you not to have to get PCBs made, transformers wound & EMC test.

If your DC voltage is at least that required to operate the LCD meter and you can accept a pust-to-test 'feature', then you can use a double-pole/2-position push button switch, resistor, a zener diode, and a capacitor.

The capacitor goes across the common poles of the switch (watch polarity), the normally closed poles of the switch go to a charging circuit, and the normally open poles of the switch go to the LCD meter power inputs. If the voltage to be measured is higher than the allowed limit for the LCD power, use a series resistor and a zener diode across the capacitor to limit the voltage.

The capacitor is charged when the push butt>

Bill Kaszeta Photovoltaic Resources Int'l Tempe Arizona USA snipped-for-privacy@pvri-removethis.biz

Do you have any old ethernet cards, with the 5 VDC to isolated 9 VDC coverter modules?

That link doesn't seem to be working.

At any rate I think you guys are making this out to be more complex than it really is. I saw a few circuits at one time that used a little home made transformer, a couple of transistors, diodes and a capacitor to form a little self oscillating inverter. I think I saw another one that used a 555 and a few capacitors. It's the sort of thing I can hack together on a scrap of perfboard using junkbox parts. I just figured I'd ask around for a tested schematic rather than reinvent the wheel and design one myself. I only need one, this isn't something I'd have a pcb made.

A few years back I made one of those with a 2 transistor multivibrator with a small center tapped 600 ohm modem transformer as the load. A zener, diode resistor and cap on the output side provided the 9V.

Vin was tested from 6 to 16 volts and the circuit maintained

Ed

Ooh, I do! I hadn't even thought of that, I've got a whole pile of them.