Main battery monitor

[mr_mojo97]

Hey all

I recently fitted an Ablemail AMT12-2 battery maintainer from my solar powered leisure batteries to the main battery. Now, I have a Victron bluetooth charge controller which monitors the leisure batteries, the state of which can be checked via the app, which is cool, however is there a way to check the state of the main battery using a similar app and bluetooth module like a shunt type thing? Ablemail do a bluetooth unit with an app but I beleive this is also only for the leisure batteries. I know I can check with a battery tester but thats a pain.

Any ideas?
Thanks
Les

 

[RogerIvy]

A Victron Smartshunt can be connected to show voltage of leisure and starter battery using the app.

 

[autorouter]

I presume by charge controller you are referring to a Victron solar charge controller. This only monitors the voltage of the battery, not the total amp-hours into and out of the battery. Of course it tells you how much solar charge is going into the battery, but doesn't register the alternator charging, ehu charging or discharging by any loads. And the voltage can be inaccurate due to the voltage drop along the power wires.

A Victron Smartshunt can be wired ito the leisure battery negative terminal, and will register everything going into and out of the leisure battery. Once it knows the percentage state of charge, it will keep track of the state of charge by counting the amp-hours in and out of the battery. This method is much more accurate and reliable than just measuring the voltage.

The SmartShunt displays the data on an app, so is very convenient. Also it can communicate with the Victron solar controller, so the controller can use the exact voltage to compensate for voltage drop along the wires.

Once you have the SmartShunt installed, there is an extra wire that can be used to monitor the voltage of the starter battery. Note that it only measures voltage, not amps or anything else. But that is usually enough information for monitoring the starter battery. This voltage will also show up on the SmartShunt app.

 

[Ray-Vic]

Victron do these which may help. You can run it independently on your cab battery (which I think is what you're looking for), or you can put it on your hab battery and connect it to a VE.Smart Network with your charger to optimise performance.