I made up my battery system using inexpensive digital meters from SURE ELECTRONICS ebay/china. These three meters monitor the DC VOLTAGE of my two battery banks and the DC being drawn or provided by the Trailer system. They generator read the same DC VOLTAGE since I have them switched together feeding my trailer system.
My three meters are mounted in one of those speciality 3-gang switch covers and all is mounted vertical in a regular PVC electrical switch box... The three meters fit perfect behind the 3-gang switch panel and I have them rubber cemented in place. I also have included an ON/OFF switch for each meter as sometimes being on is brighter than a night light.
This panel is mounted near my OFF-ROAD POPUP entrance door just below the Jensen AM/FM Radio shown here. I need to get a photo of it mounted...
The SURE ELECTRONICS DC AMPMETER model ME-SP230 is a +/- 70AMP model and uses HALL EFFECT DC current sensor module where the main 4AWG DC FEED line to the trailer is routed through the current sensor head. There is no high DC current shunt used with this meter. This DC current sensor monitors how much current is being drawn from the two battery banks being used by the trailer systems as well as how much current is being drawn by the batteries when being chargerd by my PD9260C Converter/charger unit when in boost 14.4VDC charge mode.
This is where my BATTERY DC MONITOR panel is wired into my battery bank system
This is my best resource being used when camping off the power grid. I can watch my battery DC VOLTAGE slowly start dropping down when using all of my desired 120VAC and 12VDC items during the evening. The battery banks capacity is all planned out to provide the power I want to have during the one day/night camping run and at 8AM the next morning when my battery read around 12.0VDC I will want to re-charge my battery banks to 90% charge state in as little as three hours time using smart-mode charging technology with my trailer shore power cable connected to 2KW Honda Generator using a RV30A-15A long cord adapter.
Once re-charged we can do all of this over again for the next day/night camping run from the batteries.
Works great for us... We get to use almost everything in the trailer except the air conditioner and high wattage microwave of course.
I might add I really should have used the BOGART Monitor system talked about in the above post but my setup was about $60 less to purchase all of the parts and three meters always ON to view without switching. The part I really would like to have that the BOGART model has is the settable ALARM that will indicate when the batteries are approaching 50% charge state. All of the battery history stored with the BOGART model would be very useful as well.
NOTE: Looks like I'm loosing it haha... I have already put in my two cents here... At least I said about the same thing in both entries... Getting old is so much fun... Thought this post sounded familiar...
Roy Ken
