Balmar SG200 Battery Monitor System

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

It has a display & control unit that needs panel installation instead of a nmea2000 port so it doesn’t even make it to the list

Which battery monitors and coulomb counters have you seen that do have a NMEA2000 port or better yet output Signalk.

Victron BMV-712 doesn't
Mastervolt BattMan doesn't
Balmar SG200 doesn't
Simarine Pico doesn't

Genuinely curious as I'm coming up to replace mine in the next month or two.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

Which battery monitors and coulomb counters have you seen that do have a NMEA2000 port or better yet output Signalk.

Victron BMV-712 doesn't
Mastervolt BattMan doesn't
Balmar SG200 doesn't
Simarine Pico doesn't

Genuinely curious as I'm coming up to replace mine in the next month or two.

Victron can be connected to NMEA2000 using an adapter. The Maretron DCM100 is a direct NMEA2000 product.https://www.maretron.com/products/dcm100.php

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Victron can be connected to NMEA2000 using an adapter. The Maretron DCM100 is a direct NMEA2000 product.https://www.maretron.com/products/dcm100.php

Thanks for that. Will do some research. My BattMon Lite with 500a shunt is horrendously bad. I've had it read -200ah yet when charging see the voltage fly up to float level. It was poor with my FLA bank unless they reached 100% every few days, but is abysmal with my LFP bank.

[Sagittaire]

I installed an SG200 in March 2019 to monitor two 100Ah LiFePO4 lithium batteries. It didn't work worth a darn, so I contacted Balmar, and after much phone troubleshooting, they decided that I had a bad unit. They shipped me a new SG200 under warranty.

The new one didn't work much better than the original one. So I contacted them again and they said my problems were due to out-of-date firmware, and I could either ship the shunt to them to install updated firmware (not a pleasant option), or purchase a Bluetooth Gateway for $60 and update the firmware myself. So I got the Bluetooth Gateway and updated the firmware, a fairly easy process.

After a couple of charge/discharge cycles, it now seems to be working OK. But time will tell if it stays that way.

Cheers,
Mike