Smartgauge

[matty40s]

Maplins have started to stock the Smartgauge by Merlin (better known as wizard gibbo). They retail at £140. Is this competitive or can you get better through chandlers/other suppliers.

I have to get one reay for my new batteries.

[Neil TNC]

Maplins have started to stock the Smartgauge by Merlin (better known as wizard gibbo). They retail at £140. Is this competitive or can you get better through chandlers/other suppliers.

I have to get one reay for my new batteries.

 

What will Gibbo say! ... Merlin have gone all commercial.

It was bad enough when they did the flush panel ones we had been craving for years.

We will no longer be smugly special

(NA did remember to nick Mrs TNC's Smartgauge off her Wildernii)

[alan_fincher]

I suspect the only time they come up significantly cheaper has been when there has been the occasional person who decided they were not for them, and sold them on.

[Grace and Favour]

If you buy Maplins online - - use TopCashBack for a 6% rebate off all the Maplins stock

[Top cat]

I've been thinking about getting one are they any good ? At the moment I'm using a voltmeter and as we usually move on every day and don't hammer the batteries. Given our usage would a smartgauge tell me anything useful ?

 

Regards

 

Terry

[bottle]

Hi Terry

 

Biased opinion, I have one, it does exactly what it says on the tin paperwork.

 

Read the manual and truly understand what it is telling you though.

 

ps. I think it would give you a far more accurate state of charge than a voltmeter, unless you are an expert in reading voltmeters and testing batteries correctly.

[Gibbo]

What will Gibbo say! ... Merlin have gone all commercial.

It was bad enough when they did the flush panel ones we had been craving for years.

We will no longer be smugly special

(NA did remember to nick Mrs TNC's Smartgauge off her Wildernii)

 

Yes it was much more fun when it was an exclusive owner's club. Now every man has dog has one.

 

(PS. It was me that did the flush mount one - after being badgered by people)

Edited September 14, 2010 by Gibbo

[Denis R]

I've been thinking about getting one are they any good ? At the moment I'm using a voltmeter and as we usually move on every day and don't hammer the batteries. Given our usage would a smartgauge tell me anything useful ?

 

Regards

 

Terry

I've had one fitted a couple of years now and in all honesty can't imagine how I survived without it. I've managed to stretch a set of batteries by about a year by using the Smartgauge to inform my charging regime, and from my experience it will tell you one of two things:

Your battery use is being adequately compensated for by your cruising pattern

Or, you've underestimated the demand you're putting on your batteries by orders of magnitude...

 

As an aside, I've been puzzled to know how the odd user 'can't get on with a Smartgauge', there's not actually a lot to have to 'get on with'...

[barroca grande]

I have a smartgauge and it keeps coming up with an E03 error but my electrician can't understand why.

 

It does it when I have to go hard astern (to clear prop etc)

 

It does it after 4/5 hours boating when the batteries are at 100% and appears to be like Scotty (we canna take much more of this ...)

 

It does it when the boat is empty everything all switched off and the only thing working is the solar panels. (The solar panel controller thingy says everything fine)

 

When the E03 goes the battery banks are registering 14.something volts (per smartgauge). Could it be set too sensitive?

 

I am not an expert on electrickery and tend to glaze over when the subject comes up.

 

The batteries are 6 x EverExheed 110ah deep cycle gel.

 

Back in July I left the fridge on and only one solar panel going for the month in order to deep cycle the batteries and the smartgauge read C14 after a month. Does that mean the batteries went down to 14%?.

[Neil TNC]

Yes it was much more fun when it was an exclusive owner's club. Now every man has dog has one.

 

(PS. It was me that did the flush mount one - after being badgered by people)

 

Do you do flush conversions for badgers?

[Gibbo]

I have a smartgauge and it keeps coming up with an E03 error but my electrician can't understand why.

 

It does it when I have to go hard astern (to clear prop etc)

 

It does it after 4/5 hours boating when the batteries are at 100% and appears to be like Scotty (we canna take much more of this ...)

 

It does it when the boat is empty everything all switched off and the only thing working is the solar panels. (The solar panel controller thingy says everything fine)

 

When the E03 goes the battery banks are registering 14.something volts (per smartgauge). Could it be set too sensitive?

 

I am not an expert on electrickery and tend to glaze over when the subject comes up.

 

The batteries are 6 x EverExheed 110ah deep cycle gel.

 

Back in July I left the fridge on and only one solar panel going for the month in order to deep cycle the batteries and the smartgauge read C14 after a month. Does that mean the batteries went down to 14%?.

 

Something, somewhere, is causing the voltage to briefly rise above the safe limit for the selected battery type. It could be a sluggish regulator in the alternator that gets fooled when you suddenly increase the revs to........

 

"go hard astern (to clear prop etc)"

 

This could cause an increase in alternator (and thus battery) voltage. It has to remain above this voltage for 15 seonds so if you hang around long enough you should see it on the display.

 

It could also be something to do with your solar panels.

 

Either way, the issue is that something is forcing the battery voltage high. When you see E 03 it doesn't mean "the battery voltage is high" it means "the battery voltage has been high sometime since you last cleared an error". So when you see it, it could have actually happened ages ago.

 

If you are absolutely certain that the situation is not remaining for long periods of time you could safely turn that error off in the setup menu (see owners manual).

 

Yes, if it went down to C14 your charge status went down to 14% - not good for the batteries!

Edited September 14, 2010 by Gibbo

[GSer]

I'm running a smartbank/smartguage set up along side a victron battery monitor, initially they returned similar figures but now they are at times 10%-15% adrift from each other, the victron would read 100% charged while the SmG/SmB would read 85%.

I guess this proves the capabilty of the latter unit to 'learn' charge patterns.

 

Good stuff indeed

[Gibbo]

I'm running a smartbank/smartguage set up along side a victron battery monitor, initially they returned similar figures but now they are at times 10%-15% adrift from each other, the victron would read 100% charged while the SmG/SmB would read 85%.

I guess this proves the capabilty of the latter unit to 'learn' charge patterns.

 

Good stuff indeed

 

Assuming nothing else has changed, and that this is just down to normal battery ageing you could reduce the battery capacity in your Victron bit by bit and after a while you'll find a capacity setting where they start to agree somehwat better. That will be your actual battery capacity. It's one of the big problems that really messes amp.hour counters up.

[WotEver]

As an aside, I've been puzzled to know how the odd user 'can't get on with a Smartgauge', there's not actually a lot to have to 'get on with'...

My opinion (and it's just that - an opinion, which is mine and belongs to me) is that those folk are the ones who bullishly refuse to accept what SG is telling them and therefore dismiss it as 'a load of rubbish'.

 

Tony

[barroca grande]

Thanks Gibbo. Re the C14 it took three days moving the boat before we got the C100 again from memory we got to c98 on the second day! (I dont like to run the engine without moving the boat although in future I might have to occasionally - mainly for hot water as that is currently my defining requirement as after two days it has gone cold)

 

This time when I left the boat I didn't leave the fridge on so of course got the E03 instead. I appreciate it is when it spikes and therefore possibly when we get a shot of brilliant sunshine but the electrician has checked the solar panel set up and it is fine which is why we think maybe the smartgauge is set too high (or low) so that it is triggering the E03 at what would be acceptable voltage. Is there a way of fine tuning it? If so I will ask John to get in touch with you direct as I won't understand it all. I wouldn't want to remove the error message facility as it is obviously saying something important we just don't currently see why.

 

When we were still fitting out the boat it got triggered everytime I started the engine in the early days. At least it doesn't do that anymore.

Thanks again.

[Gibbo]

Thanks Gibbo. Re the C14 it took three days moving the boat before we got the C100 again from memory we got to c98 on the second day! (I dont like to run the engine without moving the boat although in future I might have to occasionally - mainly for hot water as that is currently my defining requirement as after two days it has gone cold)

 

This time when I left the boat I didn't leave the fridge on so of course got the E03 instead. I appreciate it is when it spikes and therefore possibly when we get a shot of brilliant sunshine but the electrician has checked the solar panel set up and it is fine which is why we think maybe the smartgauge is set too high (or low) so that it is triggering the E03 at what would be acceptable voltage. Is there a way of fine tuning it? If so I will ask John to get in touch with you direct as I won't understand it all. I wouldn't want to remove the error message facility as it is obviously saying something important we just don't currently see why.

 

When we were still fitting out the boat it got triggered everytime I started the engine in the early days. At least it doesn't do that anymore.

Thanks again.

 

It's not just "spiking". It has to stay above the high voltage for 15 seconds.

 

The actual voltage varies depending upon the time it stays high for. It's also different for each battery type. But yes, it can be tweaked, via a hidden menu with lots of cryptic codes and gibberish in it

 

My opinion (and it's just that - an opinion, which is mine and belongs to me) is that those folk are the ones who bullishly refuse to accept what SG is telling them and therefore dismiss it as 'a load of rubbish'.

 

Funny, that's my opinion too. Except it's not just an opinion. I absolutely know it to be a fact

[NB Alnwick]

I think we are extremely fortunate in that 'Smartgauge' was developed by a boater and member of this forum. We have had ours fitted for just over eighteen months or so and it has already paid for itself in terms of the money that might otherwise have been spent on replacement batteries and the fuel that the engine or generator might have used unnecessarily charging batteries.

[Proper Job]

I'll second what Graham say's.

 

Since fitting one I have drastically reduced the run time of my generator for battery charging. I now confidently keep the battery SOC between 50% and 85% during the week and often get them charged up to 100% when out cruising at weekends.

 

An invaluable bit of kit for every boater and a must have for any live aboard

[smileypete]

Hi Terry

 

Biased opinion, I have one, it does exactly what it says on the tin paperwork.

 

Read the manual and truly understand what it is telling you though.

 

ps. I think it would give you a far more accurate state of charge than a voltmeter, unless you are an expert in reading voltmeters and testing batteries correctly.

Maybe, but out of interest are there any of the happy Smartgauge users out there, who had a decent panel voltmeter and ammeter before getting the Smartguage?

 

cheers,

Pete.

[mrsmelly]

Yes it was much more fun when it was an exclusive owner's club. Now every man has dog has one.

 

(PS. It was me that did the flush mount one - after being badgered by people)

I havnt got one But I do have a dog..........

[GSer]

Maybe, but out of interest are there any of the happy Smartgauge users out there, who had a decent panel voltmeter and ammeter before getting the Smartguage?

 

cheers,

Pete.

 

 

I did have a heart interface on my old boat, which I then removed, i didn't replace it with anything, i'd got to know how long to charge each day just by seat of the pants guesswork and the odd inspection with a voltmeter and hydrometer. I lasted for 3 years with no apparant problems.

 

My new boat came with nothing but I wanted a simple battery condition guage, so I bought a victron unit along with the rest of the victron equipment. Then my split charge relay failed and I wanted to upgrade the flimsey item fitted and I'd seen the smart bank relay and felt at home with it's sturdyness so I purchased the SmB/SmG set up. It's very simple to use even technophobe Mrs GSer is happy with the 'one touch' simple readout.

 

Paul

[Proper Job]

Maybe, but out of interest are there any of the happy Smartgauge users out there, who had a decent panel voltmeter and ammeter before getting the Smartguage?

 

cheers,

Pete.

My instrumentation used to consist of an engine mounted oil pressure gauge, a red light to show that the alternator was charging and a hand held multimeter to check battery voltage.

 

The instrumentation upgrade added a smartgauge and an ammeter.

 

The engine room looks like a flight deck

[RLWP]

My instrumentation used to consist of an engine mounted oil pressure gauge, a red light to show that the alternator was charging and a hand held multimeter to check battery voltage.

 

The instrumentation upgrade added a smartgauge and an ammeter.

 

The engine room looks like a flight deck

 

Perhaps you should upgrade that ancient lump of cast iron in the middle of it to something more modern

 

Richard

[Neil TNC]

I havnt got one But I do have a dog..........

 

But do you let it run free on the towpath?

[Proper Job]

Perhaps you should upgrade that ancient lump of cast iron in the middle of it to something more modern

 

Richard

How dare you.......

 

I'll have you know that my skillet pan is virtually brand new......... and virtually unused