Balmar SG-200 Battery Monitor

[rgleason]

Thank you Chris. Good questions John.

[witzgall]

Balmar is certainly open to listening to any and all product improvement suggestions, and I am sure that past requests will make their way into future products or product enhancements. Feel free to post any suggestions here, or through our technical support request page here: Contact Technical Support | Balmar


Chris

[lateral]

Seems there was a FW update in the last couple of days.
Anyone tried it?
http://www.balmar.net/sg200-upgrades/

[Wood]

I installed this last week. No issues on installation.

Hope to be in the water May 13th.

[Peeew]

I installed the update this week. Mine took a few tries and a phone call. One problem that I have is that I have two displays in different locations. In order to update my software I had to disconnect one display first then update in a specific order: App, display one, shunt, then reselect battery type, set rated amphours, then reboot and plug in display two and update display two. This worked.

[Peeew]

I am still hoping to see a 24 hour or selectable time period amp hour usage. This would really help for planning system upgrades and changes. I suppose that %SOC is a lot of the info but with varied solar input etc it just would be great to know what I use. Too many variables in my usage.

[lateral]

I still have to reboot SG200 or I can't use the bluetooth link for data transmission to iphone or make the menu active. Is that status quo for now?

Also, in the long term is the historical graphical representation of voltage and current
going to be available on phone via app or sent to cloud for download like the Victron 712?

[QaiLo]

The Balmar SG-200 requires a 2 1/16 hole. I know, I just bought one.

[ayates]

Originally Posted by QaiLo

The Balmar SG-200 requires a 2 1/16 hole. I know, I just bought one.

I believe the Balmar unit is actually designed to metric specifications, and thus the hole size can appear a little off in North America. Ideally you want a 53mm hole.


Allan.

[bcboomer]

My SG200 display freezes occasionally. Sometimes not for a couple of weeks, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day.
Their tech support said adding the Bluetooth dongle would allow updates that would fix that so I bought the Bluetooth.
Now, when I try to update the software as instructed I get an error that multiple devices are detected. I only have 1 display and 1 shunt with 2 battery banks.
When I try and use the gateway to display on my phone the SG200 freezes immediately.
Anyone else had this issue?

[two-rocks]

Mine was having issues after the update, so I called - spoke to a human without waiting. That’s good.

The display would lock up, or get stuck in nowhere land, while using the app. The support had me add the Bluetooth to the shunt (I had it on the back of the display). All has been good since. I have a LiFePO4 bank, and have been cycling to only about 50 percent for the last 10 or so days here in cold windy New England. Seems accurate and doing what I wanted.

[bcboomer]

I may try that. The instructions say that it shouldn't be near high current so I put it into the display.
I don't know if that will solve the multiple device issue.

[witzgall]

All,

Original (First firmware release) devices can only be upgraded when there is one original device on the network at at time. This affects devices with the following firmware.
DISPLAY v.2.00
BANK v.B.04

To upgrade, do this, after ensuring you have the latest app from the Apple or Google play store.

1. Disconnect the SmartLink cable from the display at the SmartShunt.
2. Plug the Bluetooth Gateway directly into the port you removed the cable from in step #1.
3. Ensure that the BT gateway is the ONLY device plugged into the SmartShunt.
5. Use the App to upgrade the Gateway, if it has an upgrade available.
6. Upgrade the SmartShunt software.
7. Plug the Display back into the SmartShunt, and the gateway back into the display (Typical configuration)
8.. Upgrade the Display.

You MAY need to pull the fuse between upgrading each device during this process.

If you have more than one SmartShunt or more than one display, use the rule "Only one original device on the network at a time when upgrading." and you will be able to upgrade all devices.

This is a one-time issue, as long as you give each device of the same type a unique name, you will be able to upgrade them in place going forward.

As always, if you have any issues with this, our tech support is ready to help.

Chris

[witzgall]

Glad you were able to receive some help. We only employ humans, so it is not surprising one was able to speak with you.

If anyone is having intermittent issues such as displays that freeze, no updates, odd network drop outs etc, then a cabling/connectivity issue is the #1 culprit. We have had a few users with connectors that are very tight, and they are not making a good pin-to-socket connection. If you have a very tight connection at the shunt, try using the other port if it is not occupied. The sockets in the deutsch-style connectors also need to be flush with the end of the connector:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHpg5b8hdu8&t=15s

Chris

Originally Posted by two-rocks

Mine was having issues after the update, so I called - spoke to a human without waiting. That’s good.

The display would lock up, or get stuck in nowhere land, while using the app. The support had me add the Bluetooth to the shunt (I had it on the back of the display). All has been good since. I have a LiFePO4 bank, and have been cycling to only about 50 percent for the last 10 or so days here in cold windy New England. Seems accurate and doing what I wanted.

[witzgall]

All,

We just released APP version 1.5.1 onto both the Google play store and the Apple Store.
This release addresses a few issues:

1. Fixed miscalculation of Time Remaining when discharge was less than C/20.
2. Corrected network issue causing APP to lose realtime data after many hours.
3. Improved SoC accuracy when battery is fully charged with very low discharge rate (below 1A)

There are no chemistry changes. When you update the SmartShunt, "New" Chemistries are loaded as well, but you don't need to reapply, since they are actually the same. (Due to the memory structure of the device, we just always need to reload them into storage, even if they are the same.)

Enjoy!

Chris