Training a new Smartgauge

[alan_fincher]

8 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Have you checked its calibration?

 

 

I don't have any meter with a very high guaranteed state if accuracy, so no, not really.

However I have several meters that are not totally crap either,and it broadly agrees with them, (and they with each other).  I say "broadly" because as you know SG will only display to the nearest .05V, and sometimes oscillates between a '0' and a '5' as that final digit.

 

Edited November 9, 2018 by alan_fincher

[MtB]

2 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

I don't have any meter with a very high guaranteed state if accuracy, so no, not really.

However I have several meters that are not totally crap either,and it broadly agrees with them, (and they with each other).  I say "broadly" because as you know SG will only display to the nearest .05V, and sometimes oscillates between a '0' and a '5' as that final digit.

 

 

Sounds as though your smartgauge (I don't like to use the abbreviation "SG" as it can also mean "specific gravity", leading to confusion when discussing batteries) is roughly right then. But if you keep the batts on float charge all the time they will eventually reach 100% after a week or two, which is probably why Electroquest go to float too early. They expect you to leave the batts on charge permanently.

 

Another problem is how does the software in the charger know when to switch to float, given the voltage remains the same during absorption and it does not know the capacity of the batt it is charging? I think the designers must be driven to switch really early in case it is a small batt being charged. They just don't know. 

[Jess--]

8 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

Thanks

 

Sounds like it's worth a try.

I only have LED lights internally, but suppose I could eave the tunnel light on, (with a sack over it, to stop countless people telling me I have left it on!

I've a thought that I might have a large ceramic based variable resistor in the shed somewhere, that might be the right number of ohms, and OK to pass 3 amps continuously.

Don't stick a sack over your tunnel light (apart from looking stupid you could melt the sack), your led lights will give a large enough load

 

If your charger drops into float at 3A and you want it to switch at 1A you only need a constant 2A load (a constant 3A load would prevent the charger from switching at all)