Battery monitor

Why?

The Victron is more accurate, less expensive, and has a smaller "footprint".

caysea7254 wrote:
Ok thanks everyone, we decided on the Trimetric.

Ok thanks everyone, we decided on the Trimetric.

Hi lawrosa,

No, I don't have one. When I was setting up, there was no North American distribution and they did not seem to want to take my money.

One caveat is that the smartgauge is not reliable with LI batteries.

I do use a watt meter, which can "count" if I so wish.

The Victron gauges do allow for Peukert calculations so that makes them better than the trimetric.

pianotuna wrote:
Hi Njmurvin,

In point of fact the only meter that stays accurate is the smartgauge. All the others "drift" because battery capacity is a moving target. (Sorta like Linus and the football).

And because of peukert's law.

Pianotuna do you have the smartgauge? Can you tell us about how it works if you do?

Hi Njmurvin,

In point of fact the only meter that stays accurate is the smartgauge. All the others "drift" because battery capacity is a moving target. (Sorta like Linus and the football).

I have the Trimetric and the matching charge controller. Yeah it's not the most user friendly device made. But it appears to be well made and accurate. Once set up, it's really easy to see where your SOC is and how much you're getting from your solar panels. You can also monitor what you're using at night. No comparison to the nearly useless GoPower unit that it replaced.

I just purchased the Victron 712 after looking at the alternatives. $229 on Amazon and it comes with built in BlueTooth so you can pull up all the data on a smartphone or tablet. It also has improved electronics so the power draw from the monitor itself is really low. Trimetic is a good unit, but it seems like they haven't kept up with the current technology.

Jus my $.02

Grouchy

Smartgauge or Victron are both better than Trimetric.

I spend the money for an amp-hour counter on more batteries.

I do monitor voltage and use a watt meter.

I'd go with depend...
What system are gonna be added. Like me I for my scenario I use the Trimetric and it's solar charge controller.
And what info do you need from the Battery monitor ? Because you coud go whit the 20$ from ebay and it might just do the trick.

https://www.amazon.com/bayite-6-5-100V-Display-Multimeter-Voltmeter/dp/B013PKYILS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1518876299&sr=8-3&keywords=12v+battery+monitor