Hi all-
I've been thinking of adding a capacity / energy meter to the DC side of my batteries. We already spot-check usage of fridge & larger tools using the AC plug-in meters, but I run my lighting on the battery directly to avoid kicking on the inverter just for that.

I see things like this: https://invertersrus.com/product/spartan-power-battery-monitor/. The price is right it looks like they do the job - but so far things in this price range I've found don't have data outputs. This one in particular also only has a running time of 999 hours (41 days) before the counter overflows, and it's not clear what happens to the capacity measurement at that point.

The Victron SmartShunts are far more pricey - and they talk to the Victron apps & devices.

Any suggestions or experiences around here with similar devices that DO have a data output?  I could DIY one with a shunt, a current sense amplifier and ANOTHER Arduino... but I'd rather just plug in a box - I have too many projects already :/

Cheers,
R

Meter

these are cheap and quite good.. shows everything ish...

Be careful with the meter you posted, a lot of the time they are only dumb meters, as they DON'T count charging and discharging separately it just sees current flow..

I tried one of these which seem to be the same as above...

Fair enough... they seem suspiciously cheap. However, I do not need bidirectional accumulation since my charge and discharge wiring meet at the literal battery terminals. I don't have a place to measure both, but that's ok because I can subtract charge capacity measured from the MPPT later. That's one reason I want data output.

The first one you linked - do you know how long it accumulates for? The manual also says 999 hours so it would seem to have the same problem as the one I noted.

R
Edited 2024-03-06 07:32 by flyingfishfinger

Im unsure what you mean by hours ? could you please clarify??

Ive attached a photo of my system after a night... they seem to be pretty spot on..





The one on the bottom is the original and is about 5+ years old, the top one is about a year old...

Thanks for the pics though! You also mentioned that you tried one of the "dumb" meters similar to my original suggestion - what was your experience with that?

As for the hours thing - I meant that in the manuals for both devices it says the time counter runs out / resets after 999 hours, which is 41 days. So I was wondering if the capacity count ALSO resets back to zero after 41 days, since it needs a time measurement to make that calculation.

R

No, the current measurements never " run out " .. ive never even noticed the " time " on them, as i don't use that feature. maybe its for people who track running time or something.

the other meter seemed quite good, just was completely useless to me as it ONLY recognises current flow, charging/discharging reads the same.

hope this helps...

Do you know if these can work "just" as accumulators? I.e if I don't set the battery capacity is there a way to monitor only energy consumed? I don't WANT to do battery tracking, actually...

R