I made it home for ID with my boat. The trip was long(42 hrs). I have one bad battery that the orginal owner is replacing this week. It has a dual battery system with solar, o.b. motor charger, and 120 volt charger. I have it back out of the water to replace the battery and maybe put a dc amp meter on the boat so that I'll not run my batteries down without cranking the motor. I have radio, cd, coffee maker, lights, depth, knot, and just the basic mast light and running lights. We are planning a long weekend this weekend on the water. It also has a battery switch with 3 positions( 1, both or 2). I'm will be getting into this hard this week to try to figure out just what I have. Due to the owner's husband passing on, I'm still a little unclear on how this set up works. Has anyone installed a amp meter on this type of set-up and would you install a meter on one or both batteries. Thanks
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Meter
I would think that the ampmeter would would be located "downstream" of the battery selector switch. That is between the switch and your electrical panel. That way it would always be metering the current no matter what battery use option was selected. That's my guess. Now let's hear from someone who actually knows what they're talking about.
Ron Mehringer s/v Hydro-Therapy
I would think that the ampmeter would would be located "downstream" of the battery selector switch. That is between the switch and your electrical panel. That way it would always be metering the current no matter what battery use option was selected. That's my guess. Now let's hear from someone who actually knows what they're talking about.
Ron Mehringer s/v Hydro-TherapyLink 20
You might want to check out a Link 20 battery monitor. It monitors two batteries and keeps track of voltage and amperage flow so you can tell how much of the capacity you have used. Installation is fairly simple, you just connect each neg. terminal to one side of a shunt and then the common negative runs from the other side to the neg. bus bar. There are cheaper/simpler alternatives that will show you battery voltage or amp flow at a given moment but the Link 20 also accumulates the number of amp hours removed from the battery and projects how many hours until it's drained. Pretty handy...
You might want to check out a Link 20 battery monitor. It monitors two batteries and keeps track of voltage and amperage flow so you can tell how much of the capacity you have used. Installation is fairly simple, you just connect each neg. terminal to one side of a shunt and then the common negative runs from the other side to the neg. bus bar. There are cheaper/simpler alternatives that will show you battery voltage or amp flow at a given moment but the Link 20 also accumulates the number of amp hours removed from the battery and projects how many hours until it's drained. Pretty handy...
Condition of your batteries
Brian, I use a "Link 10" to monitor my 220amp house batteries that consist of two 6v golf cart batteries connected in series. It works great for this purpose, but is fairly expensive to purchase (~$200) and fairly complicated to install. For my starting battery, I simply use a digital voltmeter (~$30) that gives a fairly good approximation of battery capacity based on voltage. You could install a single pole double throw switch that would allow you to use one digital voltmeter to read the voltage of either battery. In connecting the meter or switch to the battery it is a good idea to place a 1 amp fuse or circuit breaker in the battery circuit for safety. Hope this helps, Bernie
Brian, I use a "Link 10" to monitor my 220amp house batteries that consist of two 6v golf cart batteries connected in series. It works great for this purpose, but is fairly expensive to purchase (~$200) and fairly complicated to install. For my starting battery, I simply use a digital voltmeter (~$30) that gives a fairly good approximation of battery capacity based on voltage. You could install a single pole double throw switch that would allow you to use one digital voltmeter to read the voltage of either battery. In connecting the meter or switch to the battery it is a good idea to place a 1 amp fuse or circuit breaker in the battery circuit for safety. Hope this helps, Bernie
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