Inexpensive Battery Monitor -entry Level

[Mustang65]

Originally Posted by klassic

I just received my Morningstar moniter and emc-1 Ethernet converter.
altestore.com was the lowest price I found on the net and they were having a 10% off sale on in stock solar goodies.
Now I can finally see what my controller is actually doing.

It is a REAL nice option.

Don

[norty1]

Originally Posted by Mustang65

Is that IW telephone wire? Amazing the uses it gets. Blue,Orange,Green,Brown,Slate.....
Don

White, Red, Black, yellow, Violet!

[Fratzba]

Originally Posted by Mustang65

Is that IW telephone wire? Amazing the uses it gets. Blue,Orange,Green,Brown,Slate.....
Don

It's actually from an old cat 5 ethernet cable that I cut up for this.
I've since dressed the wires so they are inside of a small plastic conduit so I don't catch them on anything, as well as labeled the meters.

The advantage of two meters vs one with a switch is that I get cumulative charge and discharge readings, instead of only being able to see one direction at a time.

-Fratz

[dj-matt]

This is a newbie question but I've never done wiring like this before. How do you run the wire from the panel all the way back to the shunt and battery?

[Fratzba]

Originally Posted by dj-matt

This is a newbie question but I've never done wiring like this before. How do you run the wire from the panel all the way back to the shunt and battery?

I mounted my meter near the batteries, and just used low-voltage wire (in particular, it was an old cat-5 ethernet cable that I cut the ends off)

-Fratz

[dj-matt]

Originally Posted by Fratzba

I mounted my meter near the batteries, and just used low-voltage wire (in particular, it was an old cat-5 ethernet cable that I cut the ends off)

-Fratz

Are the walls full of insulation or can you just cut a hole and fish a wire down to the frame and then run that to the battery? I was thinking mounting inside the hidden box where all my switches and monitor panel are located would be nifty, plus my 12V outlet in there doesn't work either so maybe I could fix that while I'm digging for wires.

[pconroy]

Did it in the old coach, not the new one. In the old coach, I went down from battery, under the frame (and exposed to the outside) then up over to where the panel was. Up thru an existing hole in the floor. Fished it up and cut hole in the cabinet next to other controls.

[rgardjr]

I finished installing one of these today. Took a little more time than I was expecting, but most of these little projects usually do. I’m happy with the finished results.

[Mustang65]

Originally Posted by rgardjr

I finished installing one of these today. Took a little more time than I was expecting, but most of these little projects usually do. I’m happy with the finished results.

Very NICE job!!!

Don


My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

[OregonPerson]

This is such a great forum for gaining knowledge, getting ideas and solutions, especially for us newbies but I always feel so stupid with some of my questions.

My prior career before retirement was as a health systems architect, programmer, pharmacist, and health information analyst but I don't seem to have a lick of common sense abilities in rv maintenance, modification and electronic skills.

Everybody did such a great job of posting pictures of the monitor mounting but I was wondering if someone could post a picture of what the mounting and wiring of the single shunt for two monitors at the battery looks like?? I understand placing the shunt between the negative terminal and the frame but how do you mount the shunt on something and do you connect the red wire from the monitor directly to the positive battery terminal??

[pgartner]

here is a picture of mine temporarily wired to my 2x6v batteries


this is after 24hr with the fridge on, and the normal system draws (LP detector, radio and antenna booster, est).

can someone help me understand the numbers:

- my battery is still at 100% (>12.6v)
- the current demand on the battery is 10.8w (.85a)
- in the past 24 hours since it has been reset i used 257 Whr (20.x amp/hr??)

now in relation to my 2x6v Costco golf cart batteries that are rated at 206ah (20hr rate). how much of its capacity did i use?

if i used 20a in 1 day, do i have 10 days of run time left? or only 5 days safely (50% of battery capacity)? or how to the 20ahr figure in this calculations


thnaks
Paul

[bigironcoder]

Your panel shows you are using .85 amps per hour. If that was constant, you would have used 20.4 amps the past 24 hours. If we multiply 20.4 amps x 12.78 volts, we get 260.7 watts.

Your panel shows you used 257 whrs, which is very close, so the numbers look good.

In theory, your 206ah battery with a 20hr rate should be able to supply 10.7 amps continuously for 20 hours. Theoretically, your battery could supply about 2700 watts before it was dead. (volts x amps x hours). Or 10 days as you estimated.

I believe most battery manufacturers set their specs at absolute discharge, not when you should stop using it and recharge it. So, I think your 5 day estimate is pretty close.

[pgartner]

Originally Posted by bigironcoder

Your panel shows you are using .85 amps per hour. If that was constant, you would have used 20.4 amps the past 24 hours. If we multiply 20.4 amps x 12.78 volts, we get 260.7 watts.

Your panel shows you used 257 whrs, which is very close, so the numbers look good.

In theory, your 206ah battery with a 20hr rate should be able to supply 10.7 amps continuously for 20 hours. Theoretically, your battery could supply about 2700 watts before it was dead. (volts x amps x hours). Or 10 days as you estimated.

I believe most battery manufacturers set their specs at absolute discharge, not when you should stop using it and recharge it. So, I think your 5 day estimate is pretty close.

Thank you BigIronCoder. i now understand the 20ahr number better. and i believe that discharging not more then 50% to save the battery life


so, my planned 5 day trip is right at the limit, and i should consider a way to supplement via solar or generator.

Paul
(T minus 12 to maiden voyage)

[01tundra]

Installed mine a while ago -