Question on battery monitor for my solar setup.

[Tricon]

Hey all, have a quick question. I bought this battery monitor on Amazon. The display panel is wireless and just powered by USB so I went for it since it gives me a lot of options for mounting.

DROK Multimeter Displayhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M5CWR2P/ref=sr_ph_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1490893574&sr=sr-1&keywords=drok

I'm not really sure how I should wire this up. Right now I have 2x160w panels going to my controller in the front storage bay, then the controller going directly to my batteries in the front A-frame.

I believe this is the proper wiring diagram, but unsure of how I should actually go about this. Is my battery the power supply and the load the charge controller? I usually have no issues with this stuff but for some reason this is stumping me. Any insight is greatly appreciated!

[MrWizard]

The shunt is on the sensor transmitter
That part has to be mounted at the battery
Has nothing to do solar controller
Is going to monitor what goes in & out of the batteries
It has to be mounted and wired at the batteries
Attach main shunt heavy connection to battery neg , ground cable on the other heavy stud
Then run the power wire to the positive post of battery
Load is the whole RV

[hedge]

yes, KD4UPL is exactly right, these are amp counters so it can't really know the state of your battery if it doesn't see all amp traffic. I thought you already know this and just wanted to measure the amp output of the controller.

[KD4UPL]

That's the same thing. That puts the battery on one terminal and all the other things on the other thru that one wire hooked to the frame.
That will work.
I thought you were still thinking of hooking it up only to the charge controller and nothing else.

[Tricon]

My battery is just grounded to the frame. Everything else is grounded to the frame elsewhere or panel. How would I wire all these systems to a single point?

I was just going to take the lead off the battery negative post and attach it to the shunt, then shunt to the frame. How else would I do this?

[KD4UPL]

I don't think you do. This battery gauge is USELESS if it doesn't monitor both the in going and out going current at the battery. If you only measure the charge controller's input to the system and don't measure the draw of the RV an inverter then the gauge will always say your battery is full. It does not calculate "battery level" based on the voltage. It calculates it based on the size of the battery bank, the current in and out, and the length of time the current goes in or out.
It must be installed with one terminal connected to the battery negative and nothing else. The other terminal gets connected to every other negative: inverter, charge controller, and 12v loads.

[Tricon]

I have an el cheapo PWN until I can get my hands on a Morningstar MPPT. Should be a couple months before I get it.

I don't care what my inverter loads are, just the battery level and solar charging status for now. If I later want to monitor the entire system I can rewire it for that. Thanks for all the help, I believe I know the path forward now.

[hedge]

yes you could install it for just the charge controller.

It doesn't need to be installed near the physical devices, just this shunt must be between the devices negative connection and the battery if you want to measure them.

What charge controller do you have? many have an add-on meter option that may give you that info and then this could be your 'entire system' monitor.

[2oldman]

Tricon wrote:
a) my inverter and other loads are quite a bit away from where my charge controller is. b) If I hook it up at the controller, it should still give me battery and solar charging stats correct,c) it just won't know the status of any other part of the system? If so, I'm ok with that.

a) I don't know what that has to do with installing a shunt at the batteries

b) it will give you amps into the battery when the solar is working, but won't tell you anything about amps out of the battery, like at night. It may tell you the battery voltage. I'm not sure.

c) Nope. You're kind of defeating the purpose of the unit by not installing it properly.

[Tricon]

hedge wrote:

2oldman wrote:

I just installed the Victron unit (which is amazing since it's bluetooth to your smartphone) and it also required installation of a shunt as you pictured above.

I have the Victron with the BT dongle as well, I't's great being able to check it with your phone from outside or within quite a ways of the camper instead of having to go look at the meter. My meter is hidden away in a cabinet

Hmm, my inverter and other loads are quite a bit away from where my charge controller is. If I hook it up at the controller, it should still give me battery and solar charging stats correct, it just won't know the status of any other part of the system? If so, I'm ok with that.

[hedge]

2oldman wrote:

I just installed the Victron unit (which is amazing since it's bluetooth to your smartphone) and it also required installation of a shunt as you pictured above.

I have the Victron with the BT dongle as well, I't's great being able to check it with your phone from outside or within quite a ways of the camper instead of having to go look at the meter. My meter is hidden away in a cabinet

[hedge]

I looks to me like it installs like any other meter, just before the final ground connection to the battery bank.

-top left large bolt to the battery negative terminal
-top right large bolt to to negative of all other loads, you may need a bus bar instead of putting all grounds on that 1 terminal
-small top left screw terminal to battery positive, it requires a small amount of power to operate.
- no idea on the jumper wire though

you have to run everything through the shunt or it won't be able to measure everything and won't be accurate.

maybe someone that has one will come along to verify

[2oldman]

Is that picture the only installation instruction?

I just installed the Victron unit (which is amazing since it's bluetooth to your smartphone) and it also required installation of a shunt as you pictured above.

You simply need the negative from the battery going thru the shunt (your picture) to the coach. And yes, "power supply" is your battery. The "load" is not your charge controller.. it's the entire coach. I'm not sure what the extra + connection is for.

The meter will then communicate with the shunt to know exactly what's going in and out of the battery.