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Battery monitor error?


frahkn

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Just now, Mike the Boilerman said:

Given what you say is so important, why does the Smartgage display an incorrect value during charging? Surely the display should turn off. 

It’s an approximation. Fairly close, in my experience. Equally Ah counting gauges show an approximation of SoC during charge - they are not quite sure what is 100% until it is determined by charge voltage and current into battery. That said, the charging SoC on the Ah gauge has a smaller standard deviation than that of a Smartgauge.

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1 minute ago, nicknorman said:

It’s an approximation. Fairly close, in my experience.

 

Not in mine. Have you forgotten it was badly out of calibration for a while before I discovered this fact? 

 

Notwithstanding that, had the manual made it clear how important it is not to rely on the displayed value during charging, I would not have relied on it and would not have wrecked my new battery bank. 

 

 

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55 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Smartgauge should be used for what it was designed for - to give you a pretty good indication of SoC whilst discharging. It can only guess the SoC whilst charging so, as I wrote above, use charging current and voltage to reasonably accurately determine ‘full’. 

Absolutely :)

Perhaps Smartguage should make clear what it was designed for then. It shouldn’t really have any reading above about 80% except, perhaps, for a row of question marks.

 

Instead, it shows readings up to, and down from, 100%, and is marketed as:

 

SmartGauge battery monitor. Super simple installation, highly accurate state of charge meter.

 

Given that you need something to monitor charging current and voltage to determine when full, something that can also tell you when to start charging, there seems little point in buying a Smartgauge.

 

Faced with a choice, and the money to buy only one monitor, a NASA BM1 or BM2 would be a better buy. With hindsight, if I had more money to spend at one time, I’d buy the Victron BMV712. There is a Chinese monitor similar to the Victron, which doesn’t have the Bluetooth remote facility for about £40 for the more budget conscious.

 

 

1 minute ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Not in mine. Have you forgotten it was badly out of calibration for a while before I discovered this fact? 

 

Notwithstanding that, had the manual made it clear how important it is not to rely on the displayed value during charging, I would not have relied on it and would not have wrecked my new battery bank. 

 

 

Had the marketing made it clear, I wouldn’t have bought one!

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2 minutes ago, Richard10002 said:

Had the marketing made it clear, I wouldn’t have bought one!

 

Same here! 

 

As it was, I was convinced by both that marketing claim AND the hero worship on here of the device. 

 

Only when mine messed up my battery bank was I blamed for believing the marketing lies and failing to read and fully grasp that oh-so-important paragraph on page 29 of the manual contradicting the marketing claim. 

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12 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Not in mine. Have you forgotten it was badly out of calibration for a while before I discovered this fact? 

 

Notwithstanding that, had the manual made it clear how important it is not to rely on the displayed value during charging, I would not have relied on it and would not have wrecked my new battery bank. 

 

 

It was faulty, yes. But if you had a car that had a flat tyre, would you complain that the 0-60 figure in the advertising blurb was misleading, or would you get the puncture repaired?

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10 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

It was faulty, yes. But if you had a car that had a flat tyre, would you complain that the 0-60 figure in the advertising blurb was misleading, or would you get the puncture repaired?

 

I repaired it myself, but only once the death of my batteries prompted me to investigate and discover the fault. The disclaimer on Page 29 didn't seem to be fully explain what had happened. Anyway you sent me the instructions explaining how to DIY calibrate it! Remember?

 

The tyre analogy isn't valid. A flat tyre is blindingly obvious. A SoC displayed by a Smargauge 30% lower than the true SoC, isn't. Not at first anyway!

 

 

 

Edited by Mike the Boilerman
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I'd go for the NASA or the BMV712. You get all you need from the BMV712 and you can access it from a phone. A Smartgauge only gives you some of the information.

I doubt your current gauge is that bad though. Try disconnecting it and reconnecting as advised above.

 

Do what I said in my previous post and you can then see if you need a new one.

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2 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I repaired it myself, but only once the death of my batteries prompted me to investigate and discover the fault. The disclaimer on Page 29 didn't seem to be fully explain what had happened. Anyway you sent me the instructions explaining how to DIY calibrate it! Remember?

 

The tyre analogy isn't valid. A flat tyre is blindingly obvious. A SoC displayed by a Smargauge 30% lower than the true SoC, isn't. Not at first anyway!

 

A flat tyre isn’t blindingly obvious, you can’t see it from inside the car. You can only ascertain it by the car’s behaviour.

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