Changed out my batteries

[playersz28]

Switched to 6v and added an inverter.

 

[Seann45]

Good going

 

[mike837go]

Switched to 6v and added an inverter.

Silly question:

How do you get 120VAC from the inverter to the places where it'll be useful without powering up the converter/charger?

 

[Mustang65]

Nice Job!!!

What's next? Love to hear about projects...

Don

 

[playersz28]

Silly question:

How do you get 120VAC from the inverter to the places where it'll be useful without powering up the converter/charger?

Not sure what you mean.

The inverter supplies 120v to the trailer thru the xfer switch. The yellow cord in the pic is hooked up to the gen-prep connection. If I'm on a generator I can either unplug the cord from the inverter or use the shore pwr cord to pwr the trailer off the genny (2000w portable). If I'm using the inverter I have to turn off the breaker for the conv/chgr. I figured out the remote jack on the Xantrex so rather than buying their remote kit I pulled and RJ11 phone extension cord up to the switch panel. When my lighted momentary switch arrives from Malaysia I'll install that in the inside switch panel to turn the inverter on/off. With the inverter on if I disconnect the shore cord the xfer switches to the inverter 120v.

The conv/chgr is for 12v to the trailer and battery charging and needs shore pwr. If I'm dry camping the batteries supply 12v to the trailer and the inverter supplies 120v.

Let me know if this doesn't answer the question.

 

[playersz28]

Nice Job!!!

What's next? Love to hear about projects...

Don

If we like dry camping (1st time will be our 3month trip this winter) then next year is solar. Already looked and I can get the feed from the roof down beside the vent stack. I'll probably also gut the tin box out of the front bay to give me extra room for equipment then too. The back plywood you see in the pic is screwed to the frame rail as the front bay backer was galv metal.

I built a plywood box for the batteries and there is a +shaped piece to keep them apart. I used the two straps that held the OE batteries in place and cut them in half and sewed loops in them so I could fix them to the top of the batt box and hold the batteries down. I went with AGM's so I didn't need to worry about venting.

Also looking into battery monitoring. I ordered some components and am going to take a crack at developing a custom solution with a micro-controller board. Maybe with display to Android phone.

 

[Mustang65]

Also looking into battery monitoring. I ordered some components and am going to take a crack at developing a custom solution with a micro-controller board. Maybe with display to Android phone.

Nice plans.

I went with the Arduino doing the monitoring (battery and AV voltage/Amps, temp, fresh and black water tank levels, and sends the information to a Raspberry Pi2 so that I can monitor it on the Tv (HDMI) and the Smartphones/Tablets (Webpage) also. A lot of bugs to work out of the scripts, but is coming along slowly (VERY SLOWLY). I have 5 different OpAmps that I am working with to monitor the shunt's MilVolts, each one has its issues... I will get the right on yet. I still need to get the serial data out of the Moringstar MPPT SOLAR controller.. not enough time in the day.

Good Luck,

Don

 

[RoyBraddy]

I was going to do some absolute DC VOLTAGE and DC CURRENT monitoring but in the end I ended up just guessing about the CHARGE STATE of battery bank to some degree...

I have dual DC VOLMETERs monitoring both battery groups in my switchable battery bank and then a DC CURRENT Monitor at the feed point of the battery switches...

When my DC VOLTMETERs read 12.6-7VDC when resting I can say they are close to being fully charged.

When the DC VOLTMETERS drop down to 12.0VDC when resting I can say the battery bank is approximately at its 50% charge state and this is when I stop using my batteries until I get them them charged back up to their 90% charge state in a three hour run time using smart mode charging.

The DC CURRENT meter just tells me how much DC current is being pulled from the batteries when camping OFF-ROAD and will also tell me how much the battery bank is demanding when I am charging the battery bank running my OFF-ROAD trailer off my 2KW Generator powering up my PD9260C Converter/Charger.

Been doing this since 2009 and my original batteries are still performing well... They are just now starting to fall off on performance as shown on the DC VOLTMETERs getting to the 12.0VDC level somewhat quicker then before when the batteries were newer.

My goal of course was to have my battery bank do all the things we wanted to do in a one day/night run off the batteries and make it until 8AM the next morning when I was allowed to run my generator at most camp ground areas we camp at...

When we are back at the trailer in the early evening from 6PM to 11PM we usually see as much as 20-22 AMPS DC Current being drawn from the battery bank running our things. The rest of times the DC Current meter show around 1-2 AMPs DC Current showing my parasitic drains... My three meter panel is mounted inside the POPUP trailer is a good place to be easily seen.

Roy Ken

 

[playersz28]

Nice plans.

I went with the Arduino doing the monitoring (battery and AV voltage/Amps, temp, fresh and black water tank levels, and sends the information to a Raspberry Pi2 so that I can monitor it on the Tv (HDMI) and the Smartphones/Tablets (Webpage) also. A lot of bugs to work out of the scripts, but is coming along slowly (VERY SLOWLY). I have 5 different OpAmps that I am working with to monitor the shunt's MilVolts, each one has its issues... I will get the right on yet. I still need to get the serial data out of the Moringstar MPPT SOLAR controller.. not enough time in the day.

Good Luck,

Don

What are you using for your Amps sensing? I have a 500A/50mv shunt and some INA226's on the way so I'll see what I can do with those. Looking to replicate what a Trimetric or other battery monitor does but with extra functionality.

Do you have a thread or anything posted about your setup?

 

[playersz28]

I was going to do some absolute DC VOLTAGE and DC CURRENT monitoring but in the end I ended up just guessing about the CHARGE STATE of battery bank to some degree...

I have dual DC VOLMETERs monitoring both battery groups in my switchable battery bank and then a DC CURRENT Monitor at the feed point of the battery switches...

When my DC VOLTMETERs read 12.6-7VDC when resting I can say they are close to being fully charged.

When the DC VOLTMETERS drop down to 12.0VDC when resting I can say the battery bank is approximately at its 50% charge state and this is when I stop using my batteries until I get them them charged back up to their 90% charge state in a three hour run time using smart mode charging.

The DC CURRENT meter just tells me how much DC current is being pulled from the batteries when camping OFF-ROAD and will also tell me how much the battery bank is demanding when I am charging the battery bank running my OFF-ROAD trailer off my 2KW Generator powering up my PD9260C Converter/Charger.

Been doing this since 2009 and my original batteries are still performing well... They are just now starting to fall off on performance as shown on the DC VOLTMETERs getting to the 12.0VDC level somewhat quicker then before when the batteries were newer.

My goal of course was to have my battery bank do all the things we wanted to do in a one day/night run off the batteries and make it until 8AM the next morning when I was allowed to run my generator at most camp ground areas we camp at...

When we are back at the trailer in the early evening from 6PM to 11PM we usually see as much as 20-22 AMPS DC Current being drawn from the battery bank running our things. The rest of times the DC Current meter show around 1-2 AMPs DC Current showing my parasitic drains... My three meter panel is mounted inside the POPUP trailer is a good place to be easily seen.

Roy Ken

Sounds like a pretty good setup. I want to be able to measure Amps in/out of the battery bank and also retain some historical data so that I can see if I can calculate % remaining/charged for the batteries.

 

[playersz28]

Installed the 500A/50mv shunt today. I didn't really plan for it when I installed the batteries so it was kinda kluged into place. I was also out of 0-gauge connectors so I had to make up a bus bar with two pieces of flattened 1/2" copper pipe. Still need to put a connector into the shunt sensor lines so it's easier to remove the board for s/w dev in the house rather than sitting outside in sub-zero weather with a notebook.

The main board is a TI CC3200 with WiFi. Here's a pic of what it looks like right now.

And a screen shot of the output that I can view in a browser.