Smartgauge vs Mastervolt Easyview-5 vs Simarine Pico

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I'm not sure I would be all that interested in logging this data. I may be nerdy, but I have better things to do than obsess over the whole history of my batteries. I don't want to spend that much time with them.

It's gold dust! Just cos it's there doesn't mean you have to look at it every minute of every day But very likely will flag up any issues long before you'd stand a chance of noticing something was up just looking at the numbers.

Signalk will do it for you just by installing an influxdb database. Already apps to talk to victron battery monitors and victron bluesolar.

[john61ct]

Getting an accurate comparison on meters' SoC% accuracy requires running multiple CC load discharge tests, as you do for SoH/residual capacity.

Not something most boaters are equipped to do, even in the workshop on land, and even pretty ambitious for a professional.

Maine Sail's SmartGauge article
https://marinehowto.com/smartgauge-b...nitoring-unit/

This is the main thread on Balmar's new SG-200 unit, oft confused with the Merlin SmartGauge that they have been selling and supporting (well) in NA market for many years.
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...or-209056.html

IMHO should hold off on that, unless your House bank is LFP, or a specific model of lead that you see others have been happy with that meter's performance.

Maine Sail's article: https://marinehowto.com/balmar-sg200...ttery-monitor/

Like the Simarine Pico, firmware updates are likely to improve things in future.

Xantrex Link-Pro and Victron's 712-BMV are known-good SoC meters as well, if you want the Ah-counting approach.

Read these carefully first
https://marinehowto.com/programming-a-battery-monitor/
https://marinehowto.com/installing-a-battery-monitor/

While I was there, came across this:
https://shop.marinehowto.com/product...attery-monitor

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by ReneJK

if you move all the shunts to a different screen instead of the home screen you will suddenly see the Ah' . this feature is not explained in the manual but I think it has to do with display real estate and what can be shown at once

Thanks for the tip.

I tried this and it does give the AHr display that I prefer, but when I add the complexity of the three solar shunts (which is information I need) the amp hour capacity is lost.

Perhaps there is a workaround, but I have not found it yet.

BTW you can see on the photograph of my display that the current going into the batteries is displayed twice. It would be nice to replace one of these with the total of the solar shunts, which should be possible (without losing the individual numbers), but I have not figured out how to do this, so any hints would be great.

[ReneJK]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

Thanks for the tip.

I tried this and it does give the AHr display that I prefer, but when I add the complexity of the three solar shunts (which is information I need) the amp hour capacity is lost.

Perhaps there is a workaround, but I have not found it yet.

BTW you can see on the photograph of my display that the current going into the batteries is displayed twice. It would be nice to replace one of these with the total of the solar shunts, which should be possible (without losing the individual numbers), but I have not figured out how to do this, so any hints would be great.

regarding the Ah's they do seems to get lost the minute you add shunts to the same screen , I added all my shunts to a 2nd screen that then does not display the battery info but only shunts , so I have to switch between 2 screens to get all the info like Ahs remaining , current going in and out

the way I display it is I added 2x 20A shunts together for solar , but its then displayed as single shunt , it seems to be that way , I cant think of a way to show *and* the single shunts *and* the total of those , unless you add a big shunt and route all solar through that one after going through smaller shunts ?

I wish there was a manufacturer forum for Simarine like Victron has , would be a lot easier

[ReneJK]

Ive been bolting my 600Ah lifepo4 pack together for the last 3 days

1 of the things I wanted to make were separate 'High voltage cut-off' and 'Low voltage cut-off' as first line of defense with the BMS as a 'last resort'

My idea was to use our current battery monitor (The Simarine Pico) together with the BlueSea 7700 Latching relays

This has taking me quite some time to solve as it seems that none of the current BMS manufacturers can operate 2 separate latching relays , some can do 1 , Mastervolt can do 2 (but I dont have a Mastervolt system) but afaik no one can operate 2 BlueSea 7700 latching relays

After a lot of searching I came across a Philippi box that could operate the 7700 latching relay based on a simple NO/NC signal, so I ordered 2 of these boxes

And to my utter amazement it works 　 everything works as I had it planned

The 500A shunt measures the battery voltage on the BMS and sends this info to the Pico system , when the voltage hits 14.3 volt an audible alarm is triggered and after 5 minutes the high voltage relay is activated , this activation puls triggers the philippi box which operates the ML-7700 relay

When the voltage drops below 14.3 volt the alarm goes off, a pulse is sent to the philippi box and the relay is engaged again >

There is a 5 minute delay between audible alarm and the relay activation so enough time to do something (shut down chargers etc)

The other relay works in the exact same way but with a low voltage alarm (12 volt) through the same shunt but through a different simarine box with a separate NO/NC contact

This way I have separate HVC and LVC
The BMS itself also has a 'last resort' cut-off but operate om much more critical voltages , 11v and 14.8v , and I would like to stay away from those voltages as much as I can

anyway , Schematic diagram
I will post some pics later , sadly it hasnt rurned out quite as neat as I planned but I cant get everything I would like here in Colombia so I had to repurpose some old used 70mm2 cables etc

[Delfin]

FWIW, I finally got the new BT Gateway installed for the SG200 today and although I am pretty sure it was essentially brainwiped, after updating the software its calculation of SoC for an LFP bank partially discharged was pretty much spot on. Encouraging. State of Health was at zero, since it had no learning cycles under its belt yet. My issue with it before was that SoH never went above 92%, which I knew was wrong based on capacity testing and I was not impressed with SoC. With updated software, hopefully SoH will be more accurate.

Scant to no documentation to guide users, but perhaps that will be remedied.

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by ReneJK

Ive been bolting my 600Ah lifepo4 pack together for the last 3 days

1 of the things I wanted to make were separate 'High voltage cut-off' and 'Low voltage cut-off' as first line of defense with the BMS as a 'last resort'

My idea was to use our current battery monitor (The Simarine Pico) together with the BlueSea 7700 Latching relays

This has taking me quite some time to solve as it seems that none of the current BMS manufacturers can operate 2 separate latching relays , some can do 1 , Mastervolt can do 2 (but I dont have a Mastervolt system) but afaik no one can operate 2 BlueSea 7700 latching relays

After a lot of searching I came across a Philippi box that could operate the 7700 latching relay based on a simple NO/NC signal, so I ordered 2 of these boxes

And to my utter amazement it works 　 everything works as I had it planned

The 500A shunt measures the battery voltage on the BMS and sends this info to the Pico system , when the voltage hits 14.3 volt an audible alarm is triggered and after 5 minutes the high voltage relay is activated , this activation puls triggers the philippi box which operates the ML-7700 relay

When the voltage drops below 14.3 volt the alarm goes off, a pulse is sent to the philippi box and the relay is engaged again >

There is a 5 minute delay between audible alarm and the relay activation so enough time to do something (shut down chargers etc)

The other relay works in the exact same way but with a low voltage alarm (12 volt) through the same shunt but through a different simarine box with a separate NO/NC contact

This way I have separate HVC and LVC
The BMS itself also has a 'last resort' cut-off but operate om much more critical voltages , 11v and 14.8v , and I would like to stay away from those voltages as much as I can

anyway , Schematic diagram
I will post some pics later , sadly it hasnt rurned out quite as neat as I planned but I cant get everything I would like here in Colombia so I had to repurpose some old used 70mm2 cables etc

Just a hint, NO/NC relays can trigger the blue sea 7700 latching relays, but then there is always a small constant current on the 7700, therefore I created a impulse interface to reduce this. See my thread about the details and the circuit implemented. You need a capacitor, a LED and a resistor per channel to decouple the permanent current into the 7700.

[ReneJK]

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

Just a hint, NO/NC relays can trigger the blue sea 7700 latching relays, but then there is always a small constant current on the 7700, therefore I created a impulse interface to reduce this. See my thread about the details and the circuit implemented. You need a capacitor, a LED and a resistor per channel to decouple the permanent current into the 7700.

it was my understanding that the 7700 needs a 7A switching current ? , the pico (according to the tech dept.) cant do this

anyway the 'problem' was solved with the philippi boxes

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by ReneJK

it was my understanding that the 7700 needs a 7A switching current ? , the pico (according to the tech dept.) cant do this

anyway the 'problem' was solved with the philippi boxes

Its different. The solenoids have a dedicated plus wire and minus wire providing the 7A current during the switching, the set and reset wires draw only around 50.. 100 mA for switching signals that are internaly amplified, so the pico can do this directly. But if you not use impulses to switch, this currents flow permanently. No big deal usually, but if the battery rests a long time without charging, you may drain it and even deep discharge it if wrongly wired.
And the Philippi boxes can do the same.

[hanst]

Hi,
How far did you get with reverse engineering the Pico protocol?
I've tried and think it's a modified modbus protocol. Standard CRC didn't apply and it took some help to get that done.
For now I don't have a full understanding of the protocol, but I am able to read the values from the device and insert it into SignalK.
Code can be found here:
https://github.com/htool/Pico2SignalK