144 replies to this topic

[Stalking Light]

Retired is good.  I had to wait 7 years after I retired to get my $10 lifetime pass, but I was at a park office on my birthday when I turned 62.  Even at $80/year it's not a bad deal.

 

A couple of summers ago I volunteered at Hovenweep and was surprised how many people were unaware of the senior pass, I sold a lot of them but it was sometimes touchy asking folks if they were old enough. 

Edited by Stalking Light, 14 June 2015 - 12:35 PM.

[Kodachrome]

Wow, quite a good topic, lots of good stuff for sure, I stumbled upon it looking for info regarding the amount of charge coming from the alternator. 

 

A quick question though, I run two independent solar charging systems each with their own battery. Am I safe to assume that the Trimetric meter can only used on one at a time? 

Edited by Kodachrome, 06 June 2016 - 07:53 PM.

[DrJ]

I have never used that function, but I believe the Trimetric Monitor can look at different battery banks.

 

It requires wiring the battery banks in a different way to isolate them, but you may have already done that.

 

There is actually way more information from the Trimetric than most of us would ever use.

[photohc]

Actually, the Trimetric Monitor depends on a Shunt Resistor to accurately determine the current going in/out from the battery. If you want to use on different battery banks, that introduces a couple of problems. First, you need to be able to switch out the shunt resistor from one bank to another and 2nd, both battery banks must be identical as the parameters set in the Trimetric is specific to the battery capacity being measured. 

[DrJ]

Photohc,

 

You are correct that the shunt is required to accurately measure the amperage and voltage of your battery bank.

 

A second battery bank can be monitored in the system but in not quite the same amount of details.

http://www.bogarteng...ns1-27-2016.pdf

 

At the last page of the manual there is a option to attach wire B2 to a 2nd battery bank.

 

This would only measure voltage of that battery bank but that's about it.

 

Would that still be helpful in your system?

[K7MDL]

Ran across the Balmar SmartGauge Battery Monitoring System today.

 

It does not require a shunt. They make some good stuff for boats, Been looking at the Trimetric for a while now, but might have to pull the trigger on this for my Hawk at this price though.

 

It is on deep discount this week at Defender for $260, within range of the Trimetric unit. Normally discounted at $320.  Link here.  Deal probably expires by July 5th. Time to get off the fence :-).

 

One application I can see is to use it as a battery LVD (Low Voltage Disconnect) function by inserting a relay in line with the main power switch and controlling it with one of the unit outputs.  I used to design these things for telephone switching office power plants (think of 24 200-400amp 48VDC chargers in parallel) and LVD, HVD, and LV and HV alarms were mandatory features to protect the batteries or charger mishaps.  ACR sells a LVD unit, but this route could be more cost effective (unless you own a Trimetric already).

Edited by K7MDL, 30 June 2016 - 04:33 AM.

[K6ON]

Being an old analog guy (old being the operative word here), here's how I monitor solar charge and camper current use. The far left meter is camper load, center is battery voltage, and right is solar charge current. The meters cost $18.00 total on eBay and a couple hours of my time. I also have a 1.5KW inverter in the camper which, when it's on and under load, draws about 110 amps, it's not metered. In the truck I have an air compressor that draws over 100 amps, and high power radio amplifier that also draws well over 100 amps. I have 5 batteries in parallel (about 500 amp hours), so I'm not too worried about low camper voltage :-). All the batteries and the camper are tied together with welding cable and very large Anderson Power Pole connectors.

 

 

 

 

[DrJ]

500 AMP Hours of battery.

That is very impressive.

 

And I love your monitor system - old school but very effective.

[Vic Harder]

Love the analog too.  and wow, that's a lot of batteries!

[ski3pin]

Being an old analog guy (old being the operative word here), here's how I monitor solar charge and camper current use. The far left meter is camper load, center is battery voltage, and right is solar charge current. The meters cost $18.00 total on eBay and a couple hours of my time. I also have a 1.5KW inverter in the camper which, when it's on and under load, draws about 110 amps, it's not metered. In the truck I have an air compressor that draws over 100 amps, and high power radio amplifier that also draws well over 100 amps. I have 5 batteries in parallel (about 500 amp hours), so I'm not too worried about low camper voltage :-). All the batteries and the camper are tied together with welding cable and very large Anderson Power Pole connectors.

 

Solar Power.jpg

 

Well done and KISS