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Post by Graham on Oct 22, 2016 16:40:41 GMT
Agree ^^^^^^
I would leave it at the default setting for the moment
Are the batteries sealed or open (wet)
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2016 16:43:10 GMT
Hi, 4x 110 Ah cheap leisure batteries (not sure on manufacturer) fitted 2 months ago . The mains charger has a float voltage of 12.7 Volts. 12.7 is very low, do you mean 13.7? Anyway the purpose of the float voltage setting on the monitor is so that it can tell the difference between still being on charge, and the slowly decaying voltage that happens when it's no longer on charge, and it's all to do with the way it synchronises itself to 100% State of Charge (SoC). The general idea is that the gauge will go to 100% SoC when the batteries are on charge (voltage above the set "float voltage") and the current has fallen below the % of capacity also set in the monitor (F1.1). If the set float voltage is too low in the monitor, when you stop charging mid-charge the current will fall to zero and the monitor will reset to 100% because the residual voltage is above the float setting. If it is set too high then the monitor may never get to 100% because when the charging float voltage falls below the set value, the monitor thinks the batteries are no longer in charge. The default is 13.2 which is probably a pretty good starting point, you can change it if you getbeither of the problems I mention above. Sorry, it meant to read 13.7 Volts as the mains charger float voltage, I changed the default from 13.2V to 13.8V, but the confusion lies with the three different chargers, which I guess have differing float voltages. I guess I could set it to the highest of the three (although I am not sure what this is) . Should I change it back to 13.2V? your post suggest I probably should.
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Post by Telemachus on Oct 22, 2016 16:43:14 GMT
Thanks for the welcome smileypete. Not sure if I have a high power charge source! would you consider the battery monitor in question a suitable ammeter (assuming I have correctly installed it)? Yes it will be fine. Which shunt did you get, the standard 500A one?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2016 16:51:59 GMT
It is a 500A shunt, but not the one they supply with the monitor, think it is a Victron one!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2016 16:53:15 GMT
Agree ^^^^^^ I would leave it at the default setting for the moment Are the batteries sealed or open (wet) Open batteries
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Post by Telemachus on Oct 22, 2016 16:56:10 GMT
It is a 500A shunt, but not the one they supply with the monitor, think it is a Victron one! Ok just be careful that it is a 50mV one, not a 75mV one. If the latter you would need to put something different in F6.1
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Post by smileypete on Oct 22, 2016 16:58:20 GMT
Something that can be done with Smartgauge and amp hour counter, is monitor how many Ah you get from a full charge to say 50% charge, to get an idea of available battery capacity. If this is dropping rapidly then something is wrong with the batt charging side of things, and needs remedial action. Seems that when becoming off-grid liveaboard, often one (or more!) sets of batts get trashed as a rite of passage - wonder if Quaysider is reading?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2016 17:08:59 GMT
It is a 500A shunt, but not the one they supply with the monitor, think it is a Victron one! Ok just be careful that it is a 50mV one, not a 75mV one. If the latter you would need to put something different in F6.1 It is 50mV (500A).
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Post by Telemachus on Oct 22, 2016 17:10:54 GMT
Ok just be careful that it is a 50mV one, not a 75mV one. If the latter you would need to put something different in F6.1 It is 50mV (500A). That's good.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2016 17:18:51 GMT
Thanks all for the speedy replies.
It seems the consensus is to leave it at default setting or ignore altogether.
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Post by Telemachus on Oct 22, 2016 17:29:43 GMT
Thanks all for the speedy replies. It seems the consensus is to leave it at default setting or ignore altogether. No I wouldn't "ignore it altogether". It is important to have the monitor resetting to 100% at the right time so that the SoC and AH consumed figures are valid. As SPt says, if you compare the monitor SoC reading with the Smartgauge SoC reading you can monitor the actual capacity of the batteries. If the Smartgauge reading is falling significant faster than the monitor's, that a sign of losing capacity. But the default setting will probably be fine.
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Post by Graham on Oct 22, 2016 17:39:20 GMT
Only one but, don't forget the smartgauge is not accurate while charging, so when it say the battery is charged to 100% it probably is not correct. Check the ammeter and see if the current is plus and around 1% of your battery capacity. Leave it an hour and if it is still at about 1% then that battery is effectively at 100%.
You can go on charging for ever, when is a battery fully charge is an argument that has been going on for a long time. The aim is to get the charge level high enough to reduce the battery sulphation and extend the life as best as can be achieved
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Post by Deleted on Oct 22, 2016 19:01:16 GMT
Something that can be done with Smartgauge and amp hour counter, is monitor how many Ah you get from a full charge to say 50% charge, to get an idea of available battery capacity. If this is dropping rapidly then something is wrong with the batt charging side of things, and needs remedial action. Seems that when becoming off-grid liveaboard, often one (or more!) sets of batts get trashed as a rite of passage - wonder if Quaysider is reading? Thanks Pete, could you expand a bit on how to do this, and if the result could then be plugged back in to the battery monitor as a more up to date battery bank capacity figure. I guess you have to be pretty sure that the batteries are actually charged to 100% before starting the test
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Post by smileypete on Oct 24, 2016 19:42:10 GMT
Something that can be done with Smartgauge and amp hour counter, is monitor how many Ah you get from a full charge to say 50% charge, to get an idea of available battery capacity. If this is dropping rapidly then something is wrong with the batt charging side of things, and needs remedial action. Seems that when becoming off-grid liveaboard, often one (or more!) sets of batts get trashed as a rite of passage - wonder if Quaysider is reading? Thanks Pete, could you expand a bit on how to do this, and if the result could then be plugged back in to the battery monitor as a more up to date battery bank capacity figure. I guess you have to be pretty sure that the batteries are actually charged to 100% before starting the test Sorry for the late reply. Sounds good, just: 1. Charge the batts as fully as poss 2. Reset amp hour counter 3. Use batts until 50% reached on Smartguage (without further charge eg from solar) 4. Available capacity will be 2x what the amp hour reads. Without a Smartguage, a ballpark figure could still be arrived at using the batts 'resting voltage' but it's a lot more hassle.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2016 19:47:05 GMT
Thanks Pete, could you expand a bit on how to do this, and if the result could then be plugged back in to the battery monitor as a more up to date battery bank capacity figure. I guess you have to be pretty sure that the batteries are actually charged to 100% before starting the test Sorry for the late reply. Sounds good, just: 1. Charge the batts as fully as poss 2. Reset amp hour counter 3. Use batts until 50% reached on Smartguage (without further charge eg from solar) 4. Available capacity will be 2x what the amp hour reads. Without a Smartguage, a ballpark figure could still be arrived at using the batts 'resting voltage' but it's a lot more hassle. Many thanks. I will give it a go a couple of times, and use the figure to feed back into the battery monitor. Cheers
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