I'm using the Torqeedo, and it has a very nice panel on the throttle box. Displays both battery voltage and wattage.
HOWEVER... since it's just a motor, it obviously doesn't tell you anything about charging current for the system, which is a shame.
The one really big gripe I would have about the display is that it isn't backlit. At night - you can't see a thing.
I bought a clamp on meter at Harbor Freight, but all they had was AC. I didn't think anyone made a DC clamp on. Looking at Amazon, I see several that have decent reviews. So this may be the next new toy... :)
For my small, humble charger, it sounds like it would be MUCH more cost effective to just buy two $10 volt/amp meters and hook them up to the system. I know the $200 battery monitor systems would be much better, but that just seems like overkill for a 2 amp charger.
From: Arby bernt <arbybernt@yahoo.com>
To: "electricboats@yahoogroups.com" <electricboats@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2012 5:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Electric Boats] Re: Lead battery charging
Dear Matthew,
No e-boater should be without a clamp-on amp meter. Make sure you get one with a DC range, as most measure AC current only. No need to open connections that way, and you can use it in many other locations as well. Check eBay for DC Clamp Meters.
Arby
From: Matthew Geier <matthew@acfr.usyd.edu.au>
To: electricboats@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2012 3:38 PM
Subject: Re: [Electric Boats] Re: Lead battery charging
On 27/10/12 02:20, oak wrote:
> And even then, it's hard to tell whether the charger is putting out
> any current or not. I guess I should be able to put an ammeter in
> line with the charger and see what's going on.
>
Shouldn't you have an ammeter in the line anyway ? - knowing current
draw when running is probably even more important. And the smarter 'BMS'
systems measure current both ways and do calculations on charge state.
My TBS battery meter does that.
When I first connected it up, I had the sense wires to the shunt the
wrong way around, so it was measuring discharge as charge and vis, so it
wasn't giving me a run time figure. Took me a while to realise what i'd
done wrong as the currents it was measuring were sensible, just the
wrong direction....
> And even then, it's hard to tell whether the charger is putting out
> any current or not. I guess I should be able to put an ammeter in
> line with the charger and see what's going on.
>
Shouldn't you have an ammeter in the line anyway ? - knowing current
draw when running is probably even more important. And the smarter 'BMS'
systems measure current both ways and do calculations on charge state.
My TBS battery meter does that.
When I first connected it up, I had the sense wires to the shunt the
wrong way around, so it was measuring discharge as charge and vis, so it
wasn't giving me a run time figure. Took me a while to realise what i'd
done wrong as the currents it was measuring were sensible, just the
wrong direction....
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