Newbie...Trojan t105

[Leon 12]

Read the manual before installing, found it very numpty proof. People talk about the accuracy of it. I think in time it might prove my lack of trust as it I performed specific gravity tests  and it matched the voltage yet the smart gauge was lower. Hopefully it will become more accurate. I think I will utilise the victron more for an ammeter, volt meter and tail current. Electric cupboard looks good with it in..... Now that's sad. Maybe it's the ocd running through my veins.  

 

Why does this piece of equipment cause so much heated debate?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cuthound]

15 hours ago, Leon 12 said:

 

Why does this piece of equipment cause so much heated debate?

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you think the Smartgauge causes heated debate wait until you post about boat toilets

[WotEver]

5 minutes ago, cuthound said:

If you think the Smartgauge causes heated debate wait until you post about boat toilets

Or CMers...

[Tony Brooks]

17 hours ago, Leon 12 said:

Why does this piece of equipment cause so much heated debate?

Because may people who think they know about these things do not RTFM, do not make allowances for its acknowledged weak areas. In mikes case I am sure he has a fault/out of calibration unit while others have invested in what appears to be a more capable unit and would rather bury their heads in the sand re the units they bought and are intent on rubbishing others. Yet more who understand these thing have set their non-Smartgauges up properly and use them properly, fully understanding their shortcomings. Others who understand use an ammeter to do what the Smartgauge is most inaccurate at and a voltmeter and their heads to do what the Smartgauage is very good at. That is saying when the batteries are "fully charged" and needs charging respectively.

The Smartguage is not aimed at the latter groups and remains the easiest/ most easily understood method of telling the boater when their battery requires recharging but the above groups refuse to accept this.

Personally I use an ammeter and voltmeter but can not condemn the Smartgauge just because I do not use one.

Read back through the topics and you will see far more boaters get into trouble with  destroying batteries by consistently undercharging and the Smartgauge will go about 99% of the way to stopping that. Alternative gauges are likely  to make matters worse in the hands of the "average" boater.

[Leon 12]

Tony ,that was a wonderful and explanatory answer. I have the victron and also the smartgauge to which has to be calibrated then im sure it will be as they be say good to go. I am trying to look after the equipment as best as I can, however certain nievity has bitten me a little.

cheers leon

Since the equalization advice from all of you I am seeing a marked improvement in amp hours as monitored on the victron. Nearly double.

[Leon 12]

Boat toilets ehhhhhhhhhh. Well I constructed my own composting toilet. It works a treat

[rusty69]

8 minutes ago, Leon 12 said:

Boat toilets ehhhhhhhhhh. Well I constructed my own composting toilet. It works a treat

Composting toilets. Aren't these just overpriced bogs that do the same job as a portta potti?

[Tony Brooks]

11 minutes ago, Leon 12 said:

Tony ,that was a wonderful and explanatory answer. I have the victron and also the smartgauge to which has to be calibrated then im sure it will be as they be say good to go. I am trying to look after the equipment as best as I can, however certain nievity has bitten me a little.

cheers leon

Since the equalization advice from all of you I am seeing a marked improvement in amp hours as monitored on the victron. Nearly double.

In my view you have absolutely the best battery monitoring setup you could have PROVIDING you get the Victron set up properly and charge enough to get ti to synchronise every week or so. You will also able able to assess the actual battery capacity. That is something you can not do with voltmeters & ammeters or Smartguage & ammeter.

[cereal tiller]

23 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Composting toilets. Aren't these just overpriced bogs that do the same job as a portta potti?

No Handles on 'em though,harder to carry to the Sanitary Station

[Leon 12]

Hi Tony's, thanks for the reply, the victron is quite a great piece of kit but not understanding the parameters that you have to input for Trojans t105 is futile to some degree. Especially as they are still new and I'm trying to build up the capacity. Any help with the Bmv 700 would be great. 

Kind regards Leon.

Not if you build it yourself. The toilet cost  90 pounds all in. Once I put some photos on here you will see the work I've done.

 

[Leon 12]

You need a separator then the bacteria don't fight............KERPOW,

 

 

[Alan de Enfield]

2 hours ago, rusty69 said:

Composting toilets. Aren't these just overpriced bogs that do the same job as a portta potti?

Not at all - they are just buckets full of sawdust.

A Porta-Potty is a huge technological step forward

[rusty69]

16 minutes ago, Leon 12 said:

Hi Tony's, thanks for the reply, the victron is quite a great piece of kit but not understanding the parameters that you have to input for Trojans t105 is futile to some degree. Especially as they are still new and I'm trying to build up the capacity. Any help with the Bmv 700 would be great. 

Kind regards Leon.

Not if you build it yourself. The toilet cost  90 pounds all in. Once I put some photos on here you will see the work I've done.

 

Although I don't have a victron, I found this link useful when setting up my battery monitor. 

 

http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/battery_monitor

Think our last porta Potti cost 45 quid. 

Edited February 24, 2017 by rusty69

[rusty69]

2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Not at all - they are just buckets full of sawdust.

A Porta-Potty is a huge technological step forward

And a portta  Potti is a glorified bucket without the sawdust. 

Anyway it was supposed to be a joke based on the sg is a glorified voltmeter quote (obviously not v funny) 

[Leon 12]

I'm proud of my loo I will have you know......lol.

ok a question. But here's my set up.

sterling inverter charger connected to 500 amp bus bar  connected to sterling current limiting vsr pro con 140 amp connected to sterling 200 amp isolator switch and a big mega fuse. Does that sound ok....?

also what difference would swapping the 35 MM sq interconnects to 70 MM sq interconnects achieve?

i do understand there will be a voltage drop with each connection along the way..

[Leon 12]

15 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

And a portta  Potti is a glorified bucket without the sawdust. 

Anyway it was supposed to be a joke based on the sg is a glorified voltmeter quote (obviously not v funny) 

Lololololol

made me giggle.... Nice one

[rusty69]

Just now, Leon 12 said:

Lololololol

made me giggle.... Nice one

Did you see my link, worth a read if you have a minute. 

[Leon 12]

Yeah I've looked at that whole section however it conflicts with other people's views on setting the Bmv up. Capacity you can't put in without dropping to 50% to find out  what ah you have and until the Trojans are up to 100% capacity that will change with each cycle of charging. The peukert is I believe 1.24 for Trojans and charge efficiency of 94% while others said 89%??????

so a little not so straight forward. Arrrrrrrgh

[rusty69]

30 minutes ago, Leon 12 said:

Yeah I've looked at that whole section however it conflicts with other people's views on setting the Bmv up. Capacity you can't put in without dropping to 50% to find out  what ah you have and until the Trojans are up to 100% capacity that will change with each cycle of charging. The peukert is I believe 1.24 for Trojans and charge efficiency of 94% while others said 89%??????

so a little not so straight forward. Arrrrrrrgh

That's the trouble with battery monitors, they need accurate setting and constant recalibration. In a real life situation that is often extremely difficult, and a best guess at setting them up is probably all you can hope for. 

Think I gave you the wrong link before

 

http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/programming_a_battery_monitor

Edited February 24, 2017 by rusty69

[WotEver]

I don't know how many times I've posted this in this thread but here goes another one. 

Discharge your batteries at as close to C20 as you can until Smartgauge tells you that you're at 50%. Read off how many Ah you have used. Double it. That is the size of your bank today. 

Peukert exponent for T-105 is usually stated to be 1.25. 

[WotEver]

Charge efficiency is irrelevant - just use tail current to determine 100%. Experimentation with the entered CE figure will show when you're close. 

[Leon 12]

Hi wot ever, that's just what's happening at the moment, being discharged steadily.

 

cheers leon

[cuthound]

What rate are you discharging at?  It is important to discharge at the rate the manufacturer uses, typically C20 (a complete discharge over 20 hours) or sometimes C10 (a complete discharge over 10 hours).

Too high a rate will give an apparent lower capacity and too low an apparent higher capacity.

Edited February 25, 2017 by cuthound
Coz I'm a useless proofreader :( (thanks WotEver)

[WotEver]

14 minutes ago, cuthound said:

Too high a rate will give an apparent lower capacity and too high an apparent higher capacity.

Peukert in action

[cuthound]

Yup