Is it safe to mount a charger's temperature-sensor on a smaller terminal bolt? Reading @Maine Sail's charger-installation article , I see: "Any terminal mounted temperature sensor also needs to be connected directly to a negative terminal, and not the positive terminal." I hadn't thought about it before, but that makes good sense.
My Lifeline batteries use asymmetric terminal bolts (M10 ~3/8" for the positive and M8 ~5/16 for the negative). And my temperature sensors' lugs are for 3/8" (both the Rogue solar controller and Sterling shore power charger). So I had mounted to the positive; I'll definitely change that.
It's generally bad form to use an oversized lug on any terminal. For any other wire, I'd cut off the lug and replace it with the right size. But I can't do that to a temp-sensor
)
Is there some form of adapter I should know about? Or is this an exception to the always 'use the right size lug' rule? Naturally, the sensor lugs go on last (highest current first, and lowest current last - these are 0 current, so definitely on top). Is that safe in this case? Or will the oversized lugs prevent a solid connection for the current-carrying lug on the bottom of the stack?
Or do I just tape the sensors to the side of a battery? (That seems trouble-prone too).
My Lifeline batteries use asymmetric terminal bolts (M10 ~3/8" for the positive and M8 ~5/16 for the negative). And my temperature sensors' lugs are for 3/8" (both the Rogue solar controller and Sterling shore power charger). So I had mounted to the positive; I'll definitely change that.
It's generally bad form to use an oversized lug on any terminal. For any other wire, I'd cut off the lug and replace it with the right size. But I can't do that to a temp-sensor
)Is there some form of adapter I should know about? Or is this an exception to the always 'use the right size lug' rule? Naturally, the sensor lugs go on last (highest current first, and lowest current last - these are 0 current, so definitely on top). Is that safe in this case? Or will the oversized lugs prevent a solid connection for the current-carrying lug on the bottom of the stack?
Or do I just tape the sensors to the side of a battery? (That seems trouble-prone too).
