battery monitor
Would this be a good purchase?http://www.walmart.com/ip/15137663?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=3&adid=22222222227009075049&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=40839218672&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=78652684352&veh=sem
Forum Discussion
I think the voltmeter is the only easy, practical way to measure the state of charge. The thing to keep in mind is that the voltage reads too high for hours after any charging - solar, engine or generator. With solar charging you have to wake up early to get a good reading. Voltmeters are inexpensive - I bought some on eBay from China that were only about a dollar and had a calibration potentiometer so I could make it pretty accurate. Also got some of these handy ones that plug into a cigarette lighter. They were out an average of two tenths of a volt, which is quite a bit for battery charge indicating. I wrote the correction on each one and found them quite useful.
You can use a hygrometer (well under $10) but that involves opening the caps on the battery and drawing out some liquid. In my case I can't do that without taking the battery out of the compartment.
The battery monitor measures the amp hours drawn from a battery so you get a pretty good idea how many need to be put back to fully charge it. I use a cheap one from eBay and believe it is reasonably accurate for a couple of days after being reset when fully charged.
You can use a hygrometer (well under $10) but that involves opening the caps on the battery and drawing out some liquid. In my case I can't do that without taking the battery out of the compartment.
The battery monitor measures the amp hours drawn from a battery so you get a pretty good idea how many need to be put back to fully charge it. I use a cheap one from eBay and believe it is reasonably accurate for a couple of days after being reset when fully charged.
