pigman1 wrote:
Good information. I've been debating if we should be using a Trimetric or not. We have four 140w panels and a Morningstar Tristar MPPT controller. The Morningstar remote panel gives us a lot of info, but I don't know what else I could use. Besides current in/current out, what other info does the Trimetric give you that the solar charger does not? Sort of hate to spend that much for just a fancy ammeter.
The Trimetric gives you the total of what crosses its shunt in and out of the battery bank in amps and AH. It also is a voltmeter. You can use it to get an idea of how far down the batteries are and how things are going on a recharge. This covers everything happening in the rig that is on battery. The solar monitor only gives you what the solar is doing.
The solar shunt is placed upstream of the Trimetric shunt so the Trimetric includes the solar. However the Trimetric only shows battery, so when the batteries are near full and there is extra solar, all you see on the Tri is the part of the solar amps that are charging the battery while the total solar amps that might be running other rig loads shows on the solar monitor.
Actually if you only had one monitor it should be the Tri and it is the solar monitor that is of limited use.
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BTW, fixing the solar connection as mentioned earlier did not change the output showing so the Heat vs MPPT situation previously reported stands.
