victron monitor

[Navicula]

I have purchase this victron battery monitor and I have a question on the installation ....
the instructions are clear, but i dont want to screw this up...

I have 2 eight D batterys .(battery 1 and battery 2) and these instructions show how clear the installation is.

but these 2 eight D batterys are controlled by a selector that has 3 selections....battery 1....battery 2...and ALL...(and of course off)

does this change my installation........

[Sailmonkey]

you can only accurately monitor a single bank, or a single battery with a single shunt. As soon as you treat the two batteries as separate batteries, then you need two shunts.

[Navicula]

this is where I am confused....
the package comes with B2 (battery 2) cable as per the instruction, so doesnt this shunt do both batteries....

[AnchorageGuy]

Just install it according to the enclosed instruction if this is a two bank monitor. Be sure and go through the set up instructions or it will not provide accurate information. Chuck

[Sailmonkey]

If I remember correctly the 2nd battery is just a voltage monitor, not an amp hour counter.

Think of it this way. You have a single shunt in the negative lead to both batteries. You have the switch on all (on the positive leads) the current will flow equally to both batteries (making a lot of assumptions). Now let's say you then switch to the 1 position. You discharge to 50% then switch to the 2 position, and discharge to 80%. The meter will have seen 70% discharge, but not know really from where. Now you start the engine while still on 2, and motor for a length of time. 2 may be fully charged, but the meter will still show a state of discharge because the current that came out of 1 has nothing to do with 2.

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by Navicula

this is where I am confused....
the package comes with B2 (battery 2) cable as per the instruction, so doesnt this shunt do both batteries....

Battery #2 is voltage monitoring only. Battery bank #1 gets full monitoring.

If you want to treat those batts as "house" they need to be hard wired as such, if you want any level of accuracy from the monitor..

[Sailmonkey]

Never mind, I'm an idiot, I was working with outdated software......it appears that this will work with the dreaded 1-2-all switch.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

Never mind, I'm an idiot, I was working with outdated software......it appears that this will work with the dreaded 1-2-all switch.

Then again.......as MaineSail said, and what I had originally thought.......