Newbie...Trojan t105

[Leon 12]

Gunna chuck em in the cut........

[WotEver]

 

If I am understanding your post, then your 100% capacity (as of today) is around 150Ah

You do not appear to be getting anywhere near recovering your 475Ah original capacity.

 

(7% = 10.8Ah, therefore 1% = 1.5Ah, therefore 100% = 150Ah)

7% usage is way too small a sample to judge capacity by. Leon will need to go down to <75% before he can begin to judge. 50% or even lower will be better.

[mrsmelly]

I bet you have got some well cosseted Trojans Tim

 

You just get your Missus to Fuss over them,after all they were probably her Birthday Present

 

Are you being rude?

Gunna chuck em in the cut........

 

Keep em for mud weights on the river sections.

[Alan de Enfield]

7% usage is way too small a sample to judge capacity by. Leon will need to go down to <75% before he can begin to judge. 50% or even lower will be better.

 

I know that, You know that, many others know that but 'Leon' seems extremely reluctant to do anything that is suggested he does, therefore we can only work 'with what we have'.

[Leon 12]

I'm going down to 50 % then I will see. Then a four month recharge lol.

[Leon 12]

I ain't been on the boat today, stay there four days per week, so going to take a while to get down, get home from work at 6 in bed for 9 up at four, day off thursday so on weds night,will leave lights on and force drop,then charge from 8 am back to full. And see the result. This might be a daft question, the smartgauge is connected on the far corner neg and pos on opposing corner in a series/parallel set of 6 batteries. The smartgauge will deffo see the whole bank???

It wasn't any statement of capacity just an update on status of equipment.

[Leon 12]

How does the smartgauge know what size bank it is on.?

[Alan de Enfield]

It wasn't any statement of capacity just an update on status of equipment.

 

I do find some of your posts more than a little confusing, why is this in the middle of a discussion about your batteries, and what does it mean ?

 

"...The input from solar was 0.24 kwh, the victron said 10.8 ah used, the smart gauge at 93%. Something to make me smile cratch cover and stern cover to be made..."

 

Are some words or punctuation missing ?

[Leon 12]

Answering more than one reply, the covers being made was something that is taking my mind off the battery thing that's all.

The capacity part was an answer to 'wotever'

[nicknorman]

How does the smartgauge know what size bank it is on.?

It doesn't, and it's not relevant to the Smartgauge since it only gives a % SoC. It doesn't need to know, nor can't know, what the percentage is of.

[WotEver]

This might be a daft question, the smartgauge is connected on the far corner neg and pos on opposing corner in a series/parallel set of 6 batteries. The smartgauge will deffo see the whole bank???

Yes, if it is indeed wired as you say. I presume your take-offs are from the same points? And that Smartgauge is securely connected directly to the battery posts and not to a bus bar or anything else?

 

It doesn't, and it's not relevant to the Smartgauge since it only gives a % SoC. It doesn't need to know, nor can't know, what the percentage is of.

Absolutely this. Smartgauge will tell you how charged the bank is with no reference to size. The whole purpose of discharging to 50% is so that you can then refer to the Ah counter to see how many Amp-hours you discharged to get down to 50%. Multiply it by two and you have the current capacity of the bank.

[smileypete]

Gunna chuck em in the cut........

I'd just do some EQ every fortnight or so and they should come right.

 

Oh and BTW there's also some good info on the US Battery website and also at The Battery FAQ

Edited February 20, 2017 by smileypete

[WotEver]

And battery university.

[cuthound]

And here

[WotEver]

And here

Well yeah

[Alan de Enfield]

It doesn't, and it's not relevant to the Smartgauge since it only gives a % SoC. It doesn't need to know, nor can't know, what the percentage is of.

 

It may not be the case with the OP, but I find that folks with little 'battery knowledge' cannot grasp the fundamental differences between Voltage (SoC) and Current (Ah capacity),

 

They work on a 'full' battery being 12v and the 'light being bright' and when the lights go dim, the battery is flat.

 

It is sometimes difficult to get them to accept that there are two factors involved, and that a tiny battery that can fit in the palm of your hand can still be 12v (12.7v fully charged), and a huge battery on the boat (too heavy to lift) is also 12v (12.7v fully charged)

 

To repeat Nick & others :

The Smartgauge doesn't need to know if you have a '12v watch battery', or a '12v Forklift truck battery', it is not measuring the battery capacity, (Ah) just the 'amount of volts' the battery is holding (SoC).

 

Other brands of monitors (such as the Victron BMV700) do work on 'size of battery bank' and you programme them with your 'best guess' as to the actual capacity of the bank (not the 'as new' capacity)

[mross]

 

It may not be the case with the OP, but I find that folks with little 'battery knowledge' cannot grasp the fundamental differences between Voltage (SoC) and Current (Ah capacity),

 

They work on a 'full' battery being 12v and the 'light being bright' and when the lights go dim, the battery is flat.

 

It is sometimes difficult to get them to accept that there are two factors involved, and that a tiny battery that can fit in the palm of your hand can still be 12v (12.7v fully charged), and a huge battery on the boat (too heavy to lift) is also 12v (12.7v fully charged)

 

To repeat Nick & others :

The Smartgauge doesn't need to know if you have a '12v watch battery', or a '12v Forklift truck battery', it is not measuring the battery capacity, (Ah) just the 'amount of volts' the battery is holding (SoC).

 

Other brands of monitors (such as the Victron BMV700) do work on 'size of battery bank' and you programme them with your 'best guess' as to the actual capacity of the bank (not the 'as new' capacity)

But batteries don't store volts! I think you will add to the confusion.

[Leon 12]

I think the comments are a tad unfair, you were all novices at one time. I haven't gone into boating blindfolded. I have researched and read and I have made schoolboy errors along the way. boating is a learning process.

[mrsmelly]

I think the comments are a tad unfair, you were all novices at one time. I haven't gone into boating blindfolded. I have researched and read and I have made schoolboy errors along the way. boating is a learning process.

 

Ya musnt worry most if not all peeps mean no harm but are as subtle as a flying hammer when it comes to responding. You have been getting good advice and some of the posters realy know their stuff re batteries and in some cases are realy anal about them but its good advice. It will depend on your take on batteries, to me they are precisely to be used as diesel and when they are knackered you bin them and fifteen minutes later have the new ones fitted. I will give you as aliveabord of long standing the BASIC battery facts and these are that wether you spend a million pounds or ten pounds on a battery they will last longer if you never take them to a low state of charge idealy above 12.3 is good and if you charge them every time they drop to such levels and do them at least daily if you are a liveaboard then they will survive well. I never try to go two days so if they have only dropped to say 12.4 by the morning I still will charge them that day, you should also fully charge them but then that alone is another can of worms and so is smartgauge etc etc etc keep on posting and give them some crap back

[Leon 12]

cheers dude. it aint the voltage or state of charge or specific gravity that concerned ne all it was, was the ah or relative small amount that I received. I do thank all for the advice.

[Leon 12]

Well folks slightly better, AH used 35. Voltage 12.64, Smartgauge 85% .I reckon a couple more good equalization charges and Trojans should recover. Smartgauge is an over priced voltmeter end of.

[MtB]

Well folks slightly better, AH used 35. Voltage 12.64, Smartgauge 85% .I reckon a couple more good equalization charges and Trojans should recover. Smartgauge is an over priced voltmeter end of.

 

 

It looks to me too as though the Smartgauge is a voltmeter but I disagree it is overpriced as it is more than a voltmeter. I think it has heavy smoothing so the fall in voltage during heavy current draw from the batteries is ignored and the display remains stable. How do you use your cheap voltmeter to assess SoC while the fridge is running for example?

 

The thing I suspect that really screws up the SG is solar. GIven we now know the SG is inaccurate during charging, is must be guessing for most of the time in summer. I suppose it gets a chance each night to correct itself though.

[WotEver]

Smartgauge is an over priced voltmeter end of.

An ignorant garbage opinion. End of.

[cuthound]

An ignorant garbage opinion. End of.

Agreed, the Smartgauge is clever because of the algorithms it uses to calculate SoC on dischsrge. Must have taken Gibbo years of research to make those reasonably accurate, and someone had to pay for his time.

 

My main complaint with the Smartgauge is that it looks cheap for its price. It needs a makeover so thst the display and buttons match the asking price.

[WotEver]

 

I think it has heavy smoothing so the fall in voltage during heavy current draw from the batteries is ignored and the display remains stable.

Way more than simple 'smoothing'. Different batteries will have different discharge curves and the same battery's discharge curve will vary as it ages. The algorithm will adapt on every discharge as Smartgauge learns the battery characteristics.

 

Why else would Enersys (possibly the world's largest battery manufacturer) select Smartgauge as its ONLY recommended battery monitor?

 

Well folks slightly better, AH used 35. Voltage 12.64, Smartgauge 85%

Still way too small a discharge to get any meaningful figures. As has been repeatedly pointed out.

 

Agreed, the Smartgauge is clever because of the algorithms it uses to calculate SoC on dischsrge. Must have taken Gibbo years of research to make those reasonably accurate, and someone had to pay for his time.

 

My main complaint with the Smartgauge is that it looks cheap for its price. It needs a makeover so thst the display and buttons match the asking price.

Yes. Literally thousands of battery discharge curves analysed and interpreted to establish the required algorithms.

 

I completely agree with the packaging observations. I suspect it's a case of "If it ain't broke..." but a posher case, display and buttons certainly wouldn't hurt.

 

edited to remove the hateful Elecsol word.

Edited February 22, 2017 by WotEver