BFL13 wrote:
I have learned with mine that if you leave it at 14.8 till amps get down to nothing much (so near 100%) before you drop to 13.x for your Float, that the SG will be up at baseline, and you will hardly ever have to do an "overcharge" (You can't do that with a 13.8v converter, the SG never gets that high, and a regular three stager will drop to 13.x too soon. The trick is to leave it up at 14.8 till it is done and then lower it.
That's kind of where I'm thinking the Kill a Watt might answer the same question for me. On my fully charged (as verified by a hyd dip) batts with the Boondocker set to 14.8V the Kill a Watt was still showing about a 30W draw. I'm thinking I could use that 30W as a baseline. Once it drops to 30W, I'm done.
Of course I could just get an ammeter too. This one would probably be just fine:
US FT08 RC 150AIt's only $15 so I may just get it anyway. My concern is what AWG they are using and how to make some really good connections if I splice this in.
One option would be to charge with only the jumper cables (like I'm doing now) during high amperage bulk charging. Then, once it tapers and I'm not so concerned with the AWG, put the watt meter in line to monitor charging amps.
