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Wiring question. Battery grounding.


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#11 Vic Harder

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Posted 05 March 2019 - 07:45 PM

Connect the "battery" negative terminal to the negative stud on the battery monitor shunt.  Attach everything negative from... solar, truck alternator charging, all return loads from camper... to the aux side of the shunt.

 

The camper negative wiring is connected to the camper frame from a negative buss bar.  As long as those grounds go back to the shunt then the shunt will see the return current back to the battery.

 

The shunt will tell the battery monitor what is going in and out (closes the circuit loop) from everything attached this way.

 

If you have anything bypassing the shunt and attached to the negative side of the battery directly then the battery monitor will never see this.

 

Picture the battery as a loop, positive out to load and returns as ground back to the battery.  It takes both to complete the circuit.

 

So the ground from the battery should be already grounded to the camper frame at the breaker/fuses location by a buss bar.  Also note that at the buss bar the power inverter has a wire that connects to it and then goes to the battery negative return.  If your camper has standard factory wiring then you already have a attached wire from the camper frame to the battery wired properly, just attach that wire to the input side of the shunt as that is the only negative wire from the camper.

Love this explanation... thanks!


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#12 pvstoy

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Posted 05 March 2019 - 10:08 PM

No worries Paul,  In a lousy weather funk today maybe the blood sugar is low.  I agree about English language how it can be.

 

Thanks Vic.

 

Kinda let loose and rambled on in the other post....Time for a food break, or nap......


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Patrick

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#13 ntsqd

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Posted 06 March 2019 - 01:18 PM

I vote for nap. Then again, I'll always vote for nap.

 

To me "ground" means exactly that, but it doesn't automatically refer to any specific item, wire, or cable in isolation, but it could depending on context. It is simply the side of the circuit on the Negative side of the load in the singular sense and all of the loads in the plural sense. Some books on low voltage DC wiring refer to a "ground(ing) system". I guess that works too, just seems overly wordy to me.

 

Given that the PO is dealing with a shell model there may not be any pre-existing wiring? Assuming that there is not, then I see no need or reason to have to ground to the camper or the truck for grounding's sake. If the truck or camper frame is used as part of the ground side of any particular circuit, then it will need to be grounded, but if each charge source and load added to the camper has its own ground wire that is brought back to a ground bus or the loads side of the shunt then there's no need to ground to the truck or camper.


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Thom

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#14 smlobx

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Posted 06 March 2019 - 10:57 PM

I vote for nap. Then again, I'll always vote for nap.....


I don’t have anything substantial to add to the conversation but I have to say this was the funniest thing I’ve read today!
Thanks for the laugh...
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#15 pvstoy

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Posted 07 March 2019 - 12:18 AM

Late lunch was had and a nap followed.... life is good ;) naps are great!

Thom good points and agree with your comments.
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Patrick

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#16 roverjohn

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Posted 11 March 2019 - 06:40 PM

The OP doesn't seem to mention having a charge controller. If he had one there might not be a need for the Victron  as a good one will usually show power usage if you think that's important.

 

Is it just me because I find it odd that you would want to chassis ground the neg lead of your panel. What would be the purpose of that?

With any chassis ground you're likely connecting dissimilar metals together just to save a little wire?


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#17 Vic Harder

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Posted 12 March 2019 - 12:27 AM

The OP doesn't seem to mention having a charge controller. If he had one there might not be a need for the Victron  as a good one will usually show power usage if you think that's important.

I am not presently aware of any charge controller that includes a shunt for accurate state of charge readings.  Providing the right charge from you panels is what the controller is responsible for.  Battery and power usage is what your Battery Monitor is for.


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#18 CougarCouple

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Posted 12 March 2019 - 12:54 AM

Roverjohn I believe as good practice both are done.

Russ
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#19 ntsqd

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Posted 12 March 2019 - 02:39 AM

The solar panels on both the install that I did and the Professional Install on the Cuchara that we just bought both only connect their grounds to the solar controller and nowhere else. I've never seen anything that suggested the solar panel ground be connected to chassis/camper ground and I dimly recall reading somewhere a long time ago specifically to NOT do that. If I could only recall here that was I'd dredge it up or prove my memory faulty.


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Thom

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#20 pvstoy

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Posted 12 March 2019 - 04:02 AM

and my solar install run from panels to charge controller to battery positive and negative to shunt to battery negative.  Of course all grounds attach to the shunt then to the battery, so the camper has a negative buss bar attached to camper frame that is also attached to the same shunt terminal.  If it was not for FWC to use the aluminum frame as grounding some stuff you would not need ground to the frame at all.


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Patrick

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