Dual Battery Monitor

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

The gain is so high I can't read it.

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What do you mean?

I got one of these, works great

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12-volt-g...item3f0e32db0e

[MidLifeCrisis Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close MidLifeCrisis]

Too big bananas

[MidLifeCrisis Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close MidLifeCrisis]

Rabs, got an update??

[Noobie Banned Find all posts View Profile Close Noobie]

Piggy made me

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

Too big bananas

Yeah, I get that a bit

[Prado BB Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Prado BB]

Solved my dual battery monitor problem! Picked up an LCD monitor that shows voltage as per the picture. Will rig up an On-Off_On switch and hey presto, dual battery voltage meter.

Just have to rig it up.

I have one of these in the back of the car and the LCD has well, no more L so there is no CD! Can't read it anymore, it's about 1.5 years old!!!
Think I might get one of the American VDO type ones.

[MidLifeCrisis Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close MidLifeCrisis]

Finally installed the dual battery monitor and can cross this one off my list.

[1coolbanana Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 1coolbanana]

Nice one MLC, nice and compact, I like that
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BTW, heres another "My Family" sticker Im sure you will appreciate

Dont click on the link if too precious and easily offended!!

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/120801883...84.m1423.l2649

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

Dont click on the link if too precious and easily offended!!

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/120801883...84.m1423.l2649

Hahaha ................................ Love it!
That'd look great on the emblazoned on the back of a tyre cover.

[D4D Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4D]

I have one of these

[MidLifeCrisis Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close MidLifeCrisis]

Nice D4D. This has been a pain in the above sticker project. Wanted something very small but failed. Anyway damage to dash is minimized and it all works thanks to my mate Matt.

1CB I saw that sticker on an fleabay search, had a chuckle and thought, nup, SWMBO will make me take it off and then apologise to the next 200 cars to drive pass. On the other hand she loves the one of the 4x4 running over a scattered family lol.

[Lazy Eye'd Mike Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Lazy Eye'd Mike]

Mate,

I just put in one of these into that very square, trimmed down the face plate as there was about 5 mm gap left underneath the meter.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/290603067...#ht_2397wt_682

I installed a $5 on-off-on switch and can check the voltage of both batteries (used non switchable supplies so I can leave it on to check the battery levels without the keys). The voltmeter reads about 0.05V high and is self powered, so no need to run 4 wires. It is not too bright to have running at night.

Looks good, works well, $15 all up and about 1 hr install. In hindsight I would have bought one for the back at the fridge plug and one for the camper as well.

Hope this helps.

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this info but a follow up on the monitors I bought. Just came back from our usual couple of weeks of camping before Christmas and the numbers are in.

On average the NL Weekender 52L used 17Ah per day. Now this has to be taken in the following context. The car has maximum legal tint all round, the rear windows were open during the day if it was hot and sunny and front and rear sunshades were fitted. 100W solar panel on the roof rack to feed the battery. Fridge pretty much full and set to -2C. The fridge was only opened a couple of times per day to get meat etc (could be a rum based product or three) for the day as we have a 3 way running on gas in the camp which is the go to fridge for milk, butter etc.

We had some inclement weather in that period and the overall result was if sunny the solar panel put back during day light what the fridge consumed over 24 hours. When it was overcast with a few showers the solar panel managed 50 ~ 75% of that. Obviously nothing on the two days that rained though the fridge consumed far less with 10Ah the minimum.

I run a 120 Ah AGM auxiliary battery and based on this use I could get an easy two+ weeks without running the motor or worrying about the battery condition. Realistically much more if it remained sunny. The output from the solar panel which is now 3 years old was better than I expected and has the secondary benefit of helping to keep the inside of the car much cooler when the sun is shining.

The best part was being able to see exactly what voltage the fridge was seeing and getting a feel for how much charge the battery had. As far as I could tell the auxiliary never fell below 80% with the lowest reading a touch over 12.5V under load. I don't think that is just surface voltage reading but happy to be corrected. Highest instantaneous current draw 4.8A with 0.2A draw to keep the data panel readout alive. Typically 40W when the fridge was running.

I have no idea how that compares with any other fridge or even against any claims that NL may make, this is just my real world information from a couple of weeks bush camping.

Michaelo

[Lorenzo Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lorenzo]

my uhf radio includes volt meter (on the hand piece) and since it's hooked up to the 2nd batt it also monitor it...just a thought for some of you who would like to save some $

You are a bloody legend! I've been trying to work out a way of monitoring 2nd batt without having to lift the bonnet nor using an unsightly bulky meter that would have to sit somewhere on the dash... You also gave me something to do tomorrow (rewire uhf to aux batt).

cheers mate!

[oceanrunner Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close oceanrunner]

Finally installed the dual battery monitor and can cross this one off my list.

where do i get one these?