My third SmartGauge...

[alan_fincher]

8 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Agreed. You don't need to have owned either to realise what a bad idea they are. ?

On this we can agree

[rusty69]

2 hours ago, cereal tiller said:

Was he Funky?

He was Smart! 

[smileypete]

Batt SoC shouldn't be an issue with plentiful solar this time of year.

 

This of course assumes that a proper power audit has been done (a common omission!)

 

(Surely three smartguages buys rather a lot of solar...)

[nicknorman]

On 05/07/2018 at 12:26, Iain_S said:

If you mean linearly with time, then I have to say neither of mine do. As expected, displayed  S.O.C. rises fairly quickly at the beginning, and then slows right down after 90% or so.

When I spent some time recording and plotting the SG reading vs the AH counter reading against time, the former was a straight line. However that might have been the latter portion of charging, say 80% to 100%. I’ll see if I still have the graph.

[Peter Thornton]

Just picking up on this topic having fitted a Smartgauge this morning, Obtained from Cactus, it works fine but wouldn’t enter the set up menu until I’d done a Factory Reset. It made me wonder whether it was a returned unit? It seemed to have been supplied with the Menu Lock active.

The only issue is that the letter T doesn’t display correctly. Anyone else noticed this?

Here’s my query:

The manual makes a lot of the learning process during the first few cycles. Is this learning retained if the power is cut? I notice that the SOC is lost after a power cut.

[rusty69]

5 hours ago, Peter Thornton said:

Just picking up on this topic having fitted a Smartgauge this morning, Obtained from Cactus, it works fine but wouldn’t enter the set up menu until I’d done a Factory Reset. It made me wonder whether it was a returned unit? It seemed to have been supplied with the Menu Lock active.

The only issue is that the letter T doesn’t display correctly. Anyone else noticed this?

Here’s my query:

The manual makes a lot of the learning process during the first few cycles. Is this learning retained if the power is cut? I notice that the SOC is lost after a power cut.

My manual p7 and p8 suggest not

[WotEver]

7 hours ago, Peter Thornton said:

 Is this learning retained if the power is cut?

No. But as it’s connected directly to the battery terminals the only time that’s likely to be an issue is if you replaced or rewired the bank. 

Edited October 29, 2018 by WotEver

[rusty69]

..... Or the fuse blows

[WotEver]

2 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

..... Or the fuse blows

But why would it? It’s not like it’s in any way stressed. 

[rusty69]

1 minute ago, WotEver said:

But why would it? It’s not like it’s in any way stressed. 

Hopefully it would/wouldn't, but is still a possibility. 

Edited October 29, 2018 by rusty69

[WotEver]

Just now, rusty69 said:

Hopefully it wouldn't, but is still a possibility. 

You’d soon know... the display would hint at the problem. 

[Sea Dog]

Just now, rusty69 said:

Hopefully it wouldn't, but is still a possibility. 

Or a badger might chew the wires...

 

[rusty69]

1 minute ago, Sea Dog said:

Or a badger might chew the wires...

 

More likely a squirrel. 

[Chewbacka]

2 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

More likely a squirrel. 

Or the rat that secretly lives in your bilge....................

[nicknorman]

13 minutes ago, WotEver said:

No. But as it’s connected directly to the battery terminals the only time that’s likely to be an issue is if you replaced or rewired the bank. 

Are you sure? All settings are retained in NVRAM and as far as I’m aware, this includes the learnt data. This is why you have to carry out a factory reset if you move it to a different battery bank.

 

As to the original question, it does seem odd that menu lock was activated. I’d be a bit suspicious. Try to check the displayed battery voltage against a known good meter. As to the t, do you mean a segment that you think should be illuminated, isn't? The 7 segment displays are primarily designed to display numbers. They can make a stab at some letters but not ideal. I would expect it to be able to display a lower case t reasonably well though.

[Dr Bob]

12 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

Or a badger might chew the wires...

 

...or a duck with a screwdriver.

[Richard10002]

27 minutes ago, WotEver said:

No. But as it’s connected directly to the battery terminals the only time that’s likely to be an issue is if you replaced or rewired the bank. 

Or disconnect and remove them every couple of months to check the levels and SG.

[WotEver]

4 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

All settings are retained in NVRAM and as far as I’m aware, this includes the learnt data.

Most settings are retained but not all. Specifically regarding SoC the manual states

following reapplication of power SmartGauge will continue to operate as previously so

given time it will catch up with the charge status of the batteries.

So SmartGauge will remember the characteristics of your bank but will still take a few cycles to accurately display SoC which to my mind amounts to much the same as ‘forgetting what it’s learnt’. 

 

The full description of repowering following power loss is:

If Primary alarms were set to operate on low charge status, then the alarm will have been disabled. Low or high voltage alarms will remain active. All the set points such as voltage or status activate and deactivate levels, low status timer etc will remain as they were, but an actual low status alarm will be switched off. Secondary alarms will remain as they were set prior to the power failure.

 

 

[Sea Dog]

Crikey, this seems like a lot of faffing around for something you don't trust anyway!

[WotEver]

19 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

it does seem odd that menu lock was activated. I’d be a bit suspicious. Try to check the displayed battery voltage against a known good meter.

Agreed. Simply measure across the battery posts (the same place SG is connected) and see if the voltage readings are identical. 

[nicknorman]

9 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Most settings are retained but not all. Specifically regarding SoC the manual states

So SmartGauge will remember the characteristics of your bank but will still take a few cycles to accurately display SoC which to my mind amounts to much the same as ‘forgetting what it’s learnt’. 

 

The full description of repowering following power loss is:

 

I think you are misinterpreting slightly. Yes the actual SoC is lost, but not the learnt parameters that are used to optimise the algorithm. I presume the decision not to “remember” the SoC was a deliberate one in case the battery SoC changed significant whilst it was disconnected (eg very flat batteries taken off for charge).

 

The “given time” bit refers to the need for the SG to re-synchronise with the actual SoC. Note that it says “given time” not “given cycles”.

[WotEver]

4 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

Crikey, this seems like a lot of faffing around for something you don't trust anyway!

???

 

What faffing? And who doesn’t trust it?

Just now, nicknorman said:

I think you are misinterpreting slightly. Yes the actual SoC is lost, but not the learnt parameters that are used to optimise the algorithm. I presume the decision not to “remember” the SoC was a deliberate one in case the battery SoC changed significant whilst it was disconnected (eg very flat batteries taken off for charge).

 

The “given time” bit refers to the need for the SG to re-synchronise with the actual SoC. Note that it says “given time” not “given cycles”.

You’re quite possibly (probably?) correct. 

[Peter Thornton]

25 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

Crikey, this seems like a lot of faffing around for something you don't trust anyway!

Our boat is a share boat and our owners fall into two camps: 

 

1. Owners who are intensely interested in batteries and spend a lot of time looking at numbers and voltages. 

2. Owners who would rather look at the view, don’t want to think about batteries on their holidays and just want to know when the engine needs running or they need to turn some lights off.

 

I’ve come to the conclusion that the Smartgauge is a great aid for the second group. 

 

It’s the first group (which includes me) who ask all the complicated questions and who would actually probably be better served by an Amp Hour counter.

 

26 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

I think you are misinterpreting slightly. Yes the actual SoC is lost, but not the learnt parameters that are used to optimise the algorithm. I presume the decision not to “remember” the SoC was a deliberate one in case the battery SoC changed significant whilst it was disconnected (eg very flat batteries taken off for charge).

 

The “given time” bit refers to the need for the SG to re-synchronise with the actual SoC. Note that it says “given time” not “given cycles”.

That’s more or less the conclusion I came to, but I wondered if anyone had evidence other than reading the manual?

[Sea Dog]

29 minutes ago, WotEver said:

What faffing? And who doesn’t trust it?

Well, checking the calibration is a faff and how can you trust it unless you know is right?  Pondering where you are with it because no-one really knows how it works is a nuisance, if not a faff. MtB has 3 he doesn't trust. Others agree.  Others don't. The post above points that out too. 

 

I don't have a dog in the fight though, as I went t'other way on battery monitoring. The above is one reason why I made that choice.

[Peter Thornton]

1 minute ago, Sea Dog said:

Well, checking the calibration is a faff and how can you trust it unless you know is right?  Pondering where you are with it because no-one really knows how it works is a nuisance, if not a faff. MtB has 3 he doesn't trust. Others agree.  Others don't. The post above points that out too. 

 

I don't have a dog in the fight though, as I went t'other way on battery monitoring. The above is one reason why I made that choice.

I don’t think the fitting and operation is a “faff”, it’s just that it looks as if there were some faulty units around. Mine reads exactly the same as a good quality meter I have and reads 12.8 on a fully charged bank, which suggests that all is well.