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Amp and Volt gauges


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I Have a Farr 1020 it has a house battery and seperate starter battery which run through a BEP 3x way switch, and VSR.

I have a volt meter and an amp meter, the small aprox 50mm round ones, giving readings for the house battery only.

I would like to at least readout for the voltage of the starter battery.

Is putting in a set of matching voltage and amp gauges in the most econonical option.

Also where is the best place to connect to the starter battery power supply, at the BEP switch or Volvo Penta D1-30 starter motor?  

Thanks Strath

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24 minutes ago, strath said:

I Have a Farr 1020 it has a house battery and seperate starter battery which run through a BEP 3x way switch, and VSR.

I have a volt meter and an amp meter, the small aprox 50mm round ones, giving readings for the house battery only.

I would like to at least readout for the voltage of the starter battery.

Is putting in a set of matching voltage and amp gauges in the most econonical option.

Also where is the best place to connect to the starter battery power supply, at the BEP switch or Volvo Penta D1-30 starter motor?  

Thanks Strath

Lots of ways to do this depending on what you want/need.  You could replace the existing volt meter with a dual one: https://www.mrpositive.co.nz/surface-mount-dual-led-voltmeter?gclid=CjwKCAjwj975BRBUEiwA4whRBwuGkBoFqw1Zh05pmKkwisNefTloi3IMl9g5cOReT-5lBWBpH5mxKxoCs4UQAvD_BwE (lots of options in this space).

You could put a three position switch in and wire both batteries to it and use your current Volt Meter to show the voltage depending on where the switch is.  Or, as you suggest you could cut a hole and install a second Volt Meter for the start battery.  I generally avoid cutting holes whenever possible - I find them kind of permanent.

There are also some great non intrusive solutions that integrate with your smart phone.  For ~$70 I bought a bluetooth volt recorder for my batteries that records voltage for 30 days and lets me view the data historically and in realtime.  So long as I download the data every 30 days I have a historical record for ever.

There's no right or wrong way to do it, it's all pros and cons.

I would suggest taking the voltmeter power from as close to the BEP switch as possible but not on the battery side.  The idea is that the BEP switch should completely isolate the batteries from everything on the boat.

Also not a lot of point in having a amp meter on the start battery, it's either going to be drawing 400amps or charging.  With the D1-30 I have noticed that the start panel does cause a bit of drain on the battery over a long period of time.  I recall leaving the battery on for 2 weeks and finding the start battery at 12.48 where it normally is always at 12.6 when I get on after 2 weeks.

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Good questions I've been pondering a similar situation, looking at items like this;

Renogy Battery Monitor or Mastervolt BattMan Lite Battery Meter.

 

Any lessons or experience..... 

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