Wiring & Installing A Battery Monitor
- Thread starter Maine Sail
- Start date
No wingnuts - just nuts
Also, seems that using these I would be going to a smaller stud, and hence ring size so I also need to change the terminal ring on the cable ( or make up a new cable if not long enough )-- i.e. going from 3/8 (M10) - battery post to 5/16 (M8) on the fuse terminal.
The chargers are supposed to be wired to the downstream side of the shunt? Did I miss that in the instruction manual?
I have 2 matching battery chargers. I ran one to each end of my 5 battery bank so I would get a more even flow of current to the whole battery bank. Wired direct to pos & neg terminals. That messes with the Victron 600?
Thanks MS
I have 2 matching battery chargers. I ran one to each end of my 5 battery bank so I would get a more even flow of current to the whole battery bank. Wired direct to pos & neg terminals. That messes with the Victron 600?
Thanks MS
Yes it will not read the chargers if they are in front of the shunt. Same for any other shunt based battery monitor too...
"Will not read the chargers"...why does the battery monitor need to read the chargers?
These are AC powered Xantrex Tru-Charge 40+ chargers. Not the alternator charger.
I'm confused (surprised?)
These are AC powered Xantrex Tru-Charge 40+ chargers. Not the alternator charger.
I'm confused (surprised?)
Anything that MAKES or USES electricity, wires to the one side of the shunt. Anything that STORES electricity (the batteries) is wired to the other side of the shunt. Thus all charging or discharging of the batteries goes through the shunt/monitor. I'm part way through installing my V600.
The battery monitor, in order to "monitor" the state of the bank, MUST see/read/measure all current flowing into or out of the bank.
If the chargers, solar, wind or alternator bypass the shunt you could still be reading 50% state of charge when you are actually at full charge. Every last electron needs to pass through the shunt in order for these devices to work as intended.
Somewhere I read about splitting the 2 AC charger feeds to the 2 ends of the battery bank. So I ran one charger to one end and the other charger to the other end. Can I leave my hot leads one at each end of the battery bank & wire both negatives to the proper end of the shunt? The chargers are located close to the shunt which is at one end of the 5 battery house bank. My negative buss bar is not near the shunt.
I read that as you have 2 different charges feeding the same batteries? Not a really good idea. Same as a battery charger and alternator feeding at the same time- they can counteract each other and make false readings and voltage supplies.... Or is that you have 2 feeds from the same charger?
I checked with Xantrex as well as a marine electrical technician. Wiring 2 of these Truecharge 40+ chargers to one bank is perfectly fine. It may not be good for some of the 'dumb' chargers but for the models I have it's good. I've since run into many cases of others doing the same thing. Smart chargers can do this.
Maine Sail, I installed the V 600, and as you said, it was very easy. I am, however having a little trouble programming it. The manual just isn't very forthcoming on this. Surely it isnt just a matter of holding the setup button for three seconds? Is there some info somewhere on how to do this properly for someone like me who barely know his positive from his negative?
While the manual is a little hard to "get" it is certainly a must understand. Give it a few reads then try it again. Perhaps the most important item is to program your Ah capacity of the bank.
I just powered mine up yesterday. Got any tips on what you did for AH? Yeah, the book seems vague.
You want to program in the Ah capacity of the total bank. So if you have two deep cycle batteries rated at 105 amp hours then your bank capacity is 210. DO NOT use reserve capacity, MCA or CCA. It must be the batteries 20 hour amp hour rating.
Who's batteries, brand, model etc.?