Smart Gauge vs Nasa BM-1

[alan_fincher]

........... and no teasmade.

Bugger !

 

And I was actually considering it, until you came up with that very serious limitation.....

[Gibbo]

Bugger !

 

And I was actually considering it, until you came up with that very serious limitation.....

 

 

I'll bring it up at the next meeting and see if they'll change their minds.

[bottle]

Do you want to test it on my boat.

[Gunna Do]

 

I'll bring it up at the next meeting and see if they'll change their minds.

 

Personally I'm glad it has no Teasmade. I have two of those both with blown kettle elements for which there are no longer replacements!

The add on unit sounds an excellent idea. It would save having to buy a whole unit if one had already got the smartgauge.

[nb Innisfree]

If you are happy with the existing then this may appeal to get rid of the eight and just buy four.

 

This will of course affect the amount of available amps, perhaps a power audit may help.

 

ps. I have six @ 24v... 339 Ah when new.

 

Trouble with four is that is the minimum recommended for our 3kva Victron, any lower and as you say we would struggle a bit with any peak load (in the summer we do sometimes use a 2.8kw instant water boiler)

 

ETA: just realised you may mean available ah not amps?

Edited February 22, 2011 by nb Innisfree

[Albion]

Personally I'm glad it has no Teasmade. I have two of those both with blown kettle elements for which there are no longer replacements!

The add on unit sounds an excellent idea. It would save having to buy a whole unit if one had already got the smartgauge.

 

Would it though? Gibbo hasn't said whether it will be backwards compatible. You might find that it's a totally different product. Watch this space, as they say, but I doubt Gibbo is going to give us too much detail about a new, as yet secret, product and why should he!?

Roger

[Tam & Di]

I think there is a case for both. I used a BM1 on a trans-atlantic sailing trip where I needed to watch power usage very closely. It was brilliant for my requirements then. Having gone through the decision wrangling that this OP is doing now, I chose the Smart Gauge for the Nb. Initially I was disappointed with it because the one feature that I wanted was a record of how much power each appliance was using. For example I don't know how much juice our fridge consumes. It's not in the literature (in recognisable form!) and it's very difficult to remove said unit and read the data tag. If Smart Gauge has this feature it would be as near perfect as could be. However it does exactly what it says and is definitely worth having. If I wasn't so tight, I would buy another BM1 as well!

 

 

Presumably you could turn off everything else and see what is happening for a while with just the fridge connected. Mine's a US variant of the Smart Gauge (if my understanding of what a Smart Gauge must be is correct) and I've done that to look at the power drain from e.g. leaving a tv or cd player on standby.

[Gunna Do]

Presumably you could turn off everything else and see what is happening for a while with just the fridge connected. Mine's a US variant of the Smart Gauge (if my understanding of what a Smart Gauge must be is correct) and I've done that to look at the power drain from e.g. leaving a tv or cd player on standby.

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately Smart Gauge only reads voltage or %charge. What I require is amps consumed which as another post suggests is obtainable from an auxiliary ammeter so I shall probably go that route - when I get around to it!

[Tam & Di]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately Smart Gauge only reads voltage or %charge. What I require is amps consumed which as another post suggests is obtainable from an auxiliary ammeter so I shall probably go that route - when I get around to it!

 

Ah, mine is different then - among other things it gives battery voltage, amps in or out, the %age charge currently held, and the time before the battery is flat based on usage over some period set by the user.

[bottle]

Trouble with four is that is the minimum recommended for our 3kva Victron, any lower and as you say we would struggle a bit with any peak load (in the summer we do sometimes use a 2.8kw instant water boiler)

 

ETA: just realised you may mean available ah not amps?

 

One battery would run the 3KVa Victron but only for a very, very short time at full load.

 

More batteries just mean that you can go for longer between charges but remember all that you take out must be put back, plus some, so whether it is taken from four, six or eight batteries, it is the same just the depth of discharge per battery is different.

 

It's like a bucket of water, if you remove the water via a small pipe (small load) it will last longer than if you tip the bucket upside down (large load)

 

I do not know how long the instant boiler would be actually 'on' but if for a very short time then four batteries may cope.

 

It is all about capacity, load and time of loading which then correlates to charging and time of charge.

 

This is getting a bit technical and my knowledge is running out fast.

[Gibbo]

Mine's a US variant of the Smart Gauge

 

?

 

The add on unit sounds an excellent idea. It would save having to buy a whole unit if one had already got the smartgauge.

 

Eh? I've never mentioned an add on?

 

It isn't anything along those lines.

 

Do you want to test it on my boat.

 

 

All the testing is done and finished. The remaining part is packaging and deciding exactly what features are going in there.

 

The actual methodology is debugged, tweaked and now fully operational.

Edited February 22, 2011 by Gibbo

[Tam & Di]

?

 

 

The term "Smart Gauge" led me to believe it would be much the same as mine, but mine does appear to be rather smarter, or perhaps just tells me more (post 34)

[Chris Pink]

The term "Smart Gauge" led me to believe it would be much the same as mine, but mine does appear to be rather smarter, or perhaps just tells me more (post 34)

 

Such heresy, tschk.

 

Expect to be flamed.

[Gibbo]

The term "Smart Gauge" led me to believe it would be much the same as mine, but mine does appear to be rather smarter, or perhaps just tells me more (post 34)

 

Right, that's an amp hour counter. I'll say no more.

[bottle]

Ah, mine is different then - among other things it gives battery voltage, amps in or out, the %age charge currently held, and the time before the battery is flat based on usage over some period set by the user.

 

 

The term "Smart Gauge" led me to believe it would be much the same as mine, but mine does appear to be rather smarter, or perhaps just tells me more (post 34)

 

Appearance is nice but smarter (Smartgauge) is better

 

It may do that but if that information is 'duff'..........................

 

Perhaps you would like to name this amazing gauge you have.

[nb Innisfree]

 

More batteries just mean that you can go for longer between charges but remember all that you take out must be put back, plus some, so whether it is taken from four, six or eight batteries, it is the same just the depth of discharge per battery is different.

 

Not just longer between charges, also lower depth of discharge = longer life.

I do not know how long the instant boiler would be actually 'on' but if for a very short time then four batteries may cope.

 

20 secs per cupful of (nearly) boiling water.

[tosher]

Yes it's costing more in fuel but that is always the case when absorption charging, with new batts we could nearly halve our daily charge time as we could just stay in bulk instead of being mostly in absorption as we are now, but more often than not we cruise for longer than that anyway so on balance we can stick with present batts. Gibbo reckons we have about 45% of our 480ah (24v) left which is still a reasonable amount, just the same as nearly 4 batts instead of our eight.

 

Difficult call but as batts are giving stable supply I think sticking with them is still ok for a while besides being a northern git I am a bit reluctant to spend money.

 

Any idea how he worked out the remaining capacity?? I seem to be in a similar position to you regarding failing battery capacity and would like to be able to confirm this before spending big. tosher.

[Justme]

With a small bank & a big load / amp draw wont the inverter be at risk from the V on the bank dropping whilst under the large load? Even if it is still well charged.

 

Much like a car bat that can drop to 10v whilst cranking the starter. Your 3kva Victron could be pulling over 250amps.

[nb Innisfree]

Any idea how he worked out the remaining capacity?? I seem to be in a similar position to you regarding failing battery capacity and would like to be able to confirm this before spending big. tosher.

 

No idea! I told him how many amps were going in and for how long before they started to reduce.

[Gibbo]

No idea! I told him how many amps were going in and for how long before they started to reduce.

 

We started from a known fully charged condition. Then a discharge, then a rest period, then a voltage reading. From that we could deduce (or rather guesstimate) the state of charge at thend of the discharge.

 

You then gave us your charge current figures over a fairly long charge period. The amps were integrated which allowed us to calculate how many amp hours had been thrown back in to return the battery from X% SOC to 100% SOC and from that we could calculate the battery capacity.

 

A lot of variables admittedly, but we got a decent ballpark figure which seemed to tie in with what you actually experience with your batteries.

[nb Innisfree]

We started from a known fully charged condition. Then a discharge, then a rest period, then a voltage reading. From that we could deduce (or rather guesstimate) the state of charge at thend of the discharge.

 

You then gave us your charge current figures over a fairly long charge period. The amps were integrated which allowed us to calculate how many amp hours had been thrown back in to return the battery from X% SOC to 100% SOC and from that we could calculate the battery capacity.

 

A lot of variables admittedly, but we got a decent ballpark figure which seemed to tie in with what you actually experience with your batteries.

 

Thanks again, I'll copy and paste that as a reminder.

[WotEver]

It's still some considerable way off but the prototype is right in front of me as I type

Bloody teaser...

 

Tony

 

Ah, mine is different then - among other things it gives battery voltage, amps in or out, the %age charge currently held, and the time before the battery is flat based on usage over some period set by the user.

What use is that, when the information is wrong?

[Chris Pink]

Appearance is nice but smarter (Smartgauge) is better

 

It may do that but if that information is 'duff'..........................

 

Perhaps you would like to name this amazing gauge you have.

 

What use is that, when the information is wrong?

 

 

aah the devotion of the disciples...

 

As the bible says

 

Yes, we may suffer persecution and shame from society. But we will receive eternal reward for our service to Gibbo in this life. This involves praise and honor from God, roles of responsibility in his coming kingdom...

 

your reward cometh, my sons

Edited February 23, 2011 by Chris Pink

[Gibbo]

Bloody teaser...

 

 

 

 

aah the devotion of the disciples...

 

As the bible says

 

 

 

your reward cometh, my sons

 

Were you born a prick or did it come with years of practice?

[WotEver]

Big teasing image

 

What are those big black things with 221 pressed into them that look like piezo sounders?

 

Tony