Installing Battery Monitor

[Juice6576]

Purchased a Balmar Battery Monitor. Looking for installation advice. I have 2 4D House Batteries and all battery grounds connect together under the helmsman seat at a negative bus bar. Mounting the shunt is supposed to be within 12 inches of battery, and all loads are supposed to come off on the load side of the shunt. If I put the shunt in one of the battery lockers, I believe I will only monitor one bank. Their is a short jumper to a negative bus under the locker, but putting the sump there would miss several loads like the windlass, thruster and second bus bar. My other thought is to bring both house battery terminals to the battery side of the shunt, and run a jumper to the bus bar. This last option seems like the one to go with.

 

[Captain Larry-DH]

Are those two batteries wired in parallel as one bank? Or is one the house, and the other for engine start? If the latter, only hook up to the “house” (you will only monitor the “house“ bat and loads). If the former, then bring the negative cables together at the shunt, so everything goes through the shunt.

 

[Juice6576]

Are those two batteries wired in parallel as one bank? Or is one the house, and the other for engine start? If the latter, only hook up to the “house” (you will only monitor the “house“ bat and loads). If the former, then bring the negative cables together at the shunt, so everything goes through the shunt.

I have two house batteries (4D) in parallel and a separate Grp 24 for starting.

 

[Captain Larry-DH]

I have two house batteries (4D) in parallel and a separate Grp 24 for starting.

Just monitor the house batteries. You want to get the shunt close to those. Ignore the starting.

 

[jssailem]

If you bought the newest Balmar SG200 monitor, you can monitor both the House and the Starter batteries.
See the set up.

 

[MikeHoncho]

Make sure your alternator neg also goes to the shunt if it is a terminal type. I missed this one when I installed mine.

 

[karellen]

Just purchased this monitor as well. Keep putting it off because I'm not looking forward to fishing that SmartLink cable...

 

[Ward H]

If you bought the newest Balmar SG200 monitor, you can monitor both the House and the Starter batteries.
See the set up.
View attachment 196655

Two clarify, that set up only monitors the voltage of the house and starter batteries, not amperage.

This last option seems like the one to go with.

That's what I would do. As Larry said, skip the starter bank but if you really wanted to you could add a second shunt and choose which bank your viewing on the display.

 

[MikeHoncho]

Two clarify, that set up only monitors the voltage of the house and starter batteries, not amperage.

I'll have to beg to differ. It monitors voltage and amp of the house and volts only of the aux or starter batteries.

 

[Ward H]

I'll have to beg to differ. It monitors voltage and amp of the house and volts only of the aux or starter batteries.

Yes it does. I worded my post badly. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[Juice6576]

Just monitor the house batteries. You want to get the shunt close to those. Ignore the starting.

My boat has a comment ground system. This is the common ground bus. 2 of the cables are the negative leads to the house batteries.

 

[WasabiRush]

I just completed installation of the SG200, along with a new MC-618 regulator with the bluetooth dongle. It seems to be working fine so far. I still need to do advanced config of the regulator though. I did notify Balmar their instructions come up a bit short in a few places. For example, they use a different gauge wire for the Aux battery monitoring than for the primary, yet they don't mention it or what size fuse to use. Sure, I was able to determine what gauge it was and (educated) guess at the fuse, but feel the instructions should have mentioned it.

 

[Juice6576]

completed my install. I submitted an article in the MH-37 mods folder. Should come up in a couple days once approved.