For those of you that have both a Battery Shut Off and a Trimetric Battery Monitor, do you use the shutoff after each camping trip and re-program the Battery Monitor after turning the batteries back on or do you only use the shutoff at the end of the season when your camper will be in storage for a while? It seems to me that using the shutoff between trips and having to re-program the battery monitor each time would be a pain in the neck, especially if you take several trips each camping season. I plan on leaving my shutoff alone when I return home and having my camper plugged into shore power in-between trips to avoid having to do the re-programming but I've read a couple of articles where some re-charge their batteries when they return home and then shut them off and re-program the battery monitor when departing on their next trip. Just trying to get a feel for what others do. Thanks in advance!

I don't use a shut off, but on shore power the Tri AH counter keeps running and at 13.6 volts that means the AH count keeps rising. (The batteries take amps just to keep charged) So the drill is to reset the AH counter every time you start out on a new trip. That is if you have disabled the auto-reset because you have solar.

Are you sure you lose your settings? My Victron doesn't as it saves it into flash memory, I would have thought the Trimetric would work the same way.

I don't know for sure if I would lose my settings. I just got it and I'm in the process of installation. I just assumed if no power was going to it that it would lose the previous settings that were entered. I haven't read about any internal flash memory nor have I seen anything online about that. I better send an email to the company and ask about that.

I disconnect my batteries after every trip. The Trimetric keeps its settings.

If you disconnect the Tri pos from the battery power the display goes black. Restore 12v to the Tri and you get your three zeros. The AH counter has reset even if you have disabled auto-reset. But your programmed settings are still good, such as that auto-reset disabling.Your rig's battery disconnect can leave the LP alarm and radio memory still on. Plus some other items remain live. You can attach the Tri 12v line either side of the disconnect switch, so on the battery side the Tri display stays lit, and is another parasitic draw. No big deal. If you need to cut off the parasitic draws that badly, you disconnect the battery bank itself (But first disconnect your solar panel from the solar controller using the switch you cleverly installed for doing that.)

Trimetric Battery Monitor with Battery Shutoff | Good Sam Community

BFL13
Explorer II
Apr 13, 2017
As stated above, the battery neg to shunt would be where your neg shut off switch goes in order to shut off everything.

But that means that switch has to be rated for the total amps on that line. All the individual neg wires, each with its own amount of amps, go to the buss, and then all the amps total is on the line from the buss (via the shunt) to that one line to the battery neg.
Switches have amps ratings--for 12v and 24v. Be sure it is the 12v amps rating you are going by.
RobWNY
Explorer
Apr 13, 2017
Everything is wired as it should be to monitor and work correctly.
BFL13
Explorer II
Apr 13, 2017
You will want to disable the auto-reset of the AH counter when using your solar. Otherwise it auto-resets as soon as the charging stops every time when it gets too dark for solar. Drive you crazy trying to keep track of your AH/battery state. The Tri instructions explain how.
CA_Traveler
Explorer III
Apr 13, 2017
It remembers the settings. I have a full disconnect battery switch and it's back up and running when the battery is connected.
RobWNY
Explorer
Apr 13, 2017
I got this response from Bogart Engineering. "The TM-2030 will retain most of the settings when powered off; however, it will not retain the State of Charge. When powered back on, the monitor will relearn the state of charge if the system goes through a complete charge cycle; or you may manually reset the TM-2030 when the batteries are 100%"
scrubjaysnest
Explorer
Apr 13, 2017
Ours is powered all the time along with our charge controller as we keep at least one solar panel connected at all times.
CA_Traveler
Explorer III
Apr 13, 2017
RobWNY wrote:
I got this response from Bogart Engineering. "The TM-2030 will retain most of the settings when powered off; however, it will not retain the State of Charge. When powered back on, the monitor will relearn the state of charge if the system goes through a complete charge cycle; or you may manually reset the TM-2030 when the batteries are 100"
Unfortunately the unit is unaware of battery self discharge so other than short periods w/o power it needs to relearn SOC anyway.
Rbertalotto
Explorer
Apr 13, 2017
I have one and never disconnect the batteries. The shut off is only there for an emergency. Solar panels keep working right through the winter to keep batteries charged.

http://rvbprecision.com/rv-projectshttp://rvbprecision.com/rv-projects

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