Balmar SG-200 Battery Monitor

[sailinglegend]

Originally Posted by rgleason

S.... I was truly amazed to learn that you don't have an SG200!!!
Nevertheless strong writing against Balmar, without having or using the device does not help credence.

Thanks for your comment and I'm sorry that you, and others, may feel this way.

But if you read the whole thread it will be clear that my knowledge goes back to the original Merlin Smartgauge and the guy who designed it. I knew the boss very well and he had repeatedly been asked to provide a shunt with the Smartgauge to monitor amps in/out. He bluntly refused because he foresaw the problems that they would have with the complications of adding a shunt to a device that already gives very very accurate SoC readings. This is what my postings have been about - the problems of installing a shunt and programming and installing it incorrectly. I don't need an SG200 to explain this.

I was very interested in buying one and selling my BEP shunt-based BM which has given me the amps in/out readings that every boat owner needs.

It has been very clear with my personal communications with Balmar that they don't understand my feedback.

[rgleason]

Sailinglegend I am sure those were interesting times, I guess I can't see why SG200 could not provide similar information in the app, after all it does have a shunt and a decent brain, so why not make everyone happy. I have not yet updated mine, so perhaps the new app provides this info too. Maybe someone else knows... but you have the original SG, so I would just stick with that if it working!


And thank you for persisting and explaining the issue and circumstances.

[lateral]

Can someone enlighten me?
From the little I read from the first release manual I gleaned:
That the sg200 measured V, A, SOC, SOH, of first battery and V only of the a second battery.
As a shunt works on volt drop isn’t it irrelevant where the neutral goes for second battery as it will never be added to the current from the first (as in a parallel circuit) as different emf source?
The lesser current allowed to flow by VSR, or ACR is not a relevant component for calculation of SOC of first battery, no?

Secondly, because I have a 464Ahr capacity I set my taper current at 0.01x464 because it annoyed me to see 100% come up when I knew my battery was not
There. Iircly, the manual said a minimum of 0.02C to 0.04C.
Will setting up as stated improve the 50->95% range or am I pissing into the wind?
Thirdly, is there anyway of returning to a previous firmware as the calibration of current fw is not the best I have had.
I can here Ken saying, “you have too much time on your hands son”.
Things that should work, but don’t, bug me.

[lateral]

Just had a dekko at the manual online as I had filed mine in the useless drawer and observed following.
“TAPER CURRENT - Used with the ChargeCurrent to determine when a full charge hasbeen reached. As a general rule it should be setto slightly higher then the actual taper current,often about 2-4% of the Full Charge capacity of the battery”

If I set it at 0.03C =~14A
To get from 14A to actual 0.01C takes about 2-3hrs
So I am back to thinking that this device was not designed to be accurate at 100%, rather in the mid range around 50% SOC. Hence the naf “+” added after the fact. And my relooking at the definition of “slightly”.
A pity the pre-release blurb didn’t suggest what a cantankerous mf it was going to be.
Any reflections on my ancestry happily accepted.

And, btw, V & A concur with my fluke in case you’re
Thinking I haven’t checked the basics.

[senorjacob]

Apologies if this has already been discussed. I tried searching but could t find anything.

I recently had the local Marina install the Belmar SG 200 battery meter. It was working fine. I then started installing a blue sea systems ACR. And then at some point the battery meter stopped working. I checked all the wiring and it all looks good. But the shunt is not being recognized. The display works fine, it looks for the network, it recognizes the gateway but it doesn’t see the shunt any longer.

I’ve tried re-wiring the shunt to a different battery, a standalone battery but the unit still does not recognize a ahunt. Has anyone had this experience? Has my shunt gone bad somehow? I’ve taken the shunt out of the system and I’m trying to use my multimeter to test whether it’s the positive red wire that might be the problem. I’ve checked all the fuses and they’re fine.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Jake

[Buchner]

Jake, you mention checking the positive red wire, just want to be sure you realize that it’s the negative side that connects to the shunt. ( sorry if I’m being “ Captain Obvious “

[senorjacob]

Originally Posted by Buchner

Jake, you mention checking the positive red wire, just want to be sure you realize that it’s the negative side that connects to the shunt. ( sorry if I’m being “ Captain Obvious “

Thanks for checking. Yes I’m aware of that.

It’s possible that the shunt was wired so that the CABLE side was going to the Batt- and the BATTERY side was going to the negative bus bar. (I removed the shunt from the circuit so I’m not sure if that was the case.) Would that have mattered? Do the studs have a direction?

[Brucekav]

That shouldn't have stopped the shunt being recognised but it would have reversed the current sensing so it would have sensed current being drawn from the battery when you were charging with a high voltage across the battery and vice versa, so getting the unit totally confused. I guess it's possible the software could then ignore the shunt. Could be worth doing a factory reset after you have confirmed the shunt is connected the right way round to see if that helps.

[senorjacob]

I will try that.

[MooGroc]

The shunt that came with my SG-200 is marked incorrectly. I had to switch the pos and neg (opposite of the markings cast into the plastic) to get it to work. Belmar acknowledged this quality problem.

[senorjacob]

Has anyone done the XECHO test? I did it before and got some errors but I don’t know what they mean. Tried looking it up online but found nothing.

[senorjacob]

I reinstalled the shunt correctly but it is still not being recognized by the display unit (or the app). If I do the XECHO test i get errors but I don’t know what they mean. I wonder if is should get Balmar to send me a new shunt and com cable.

[witzgall]

Chris from Balmar here. The Xecho utility tests for network connectivity issues. It is ONLY able to test between the display and another device. It cannot be used to test between a BT gateway and any device.

If you are getting errors between the display and a SmartShunt, it means there is most likely a cabling issue, or a bad connection between the pins of the SmartShunt and the sockets in the Deutsch connector. Here is some more info: https://balmar.net/sg200-faq/

Chris

Originally Posted by senorjacob

I reinstalled the shunt correctly but it is still not being recognized by the display unit (or the app). If I do the XECHO test i get errors but I don’t know what they mean. I wonder if is should get Balmar to send me a new shunt and com cable.

[Peeew]

I’m having an odd reading on my SG200 lately. I have it set up for house batteries, engine start (#2 position) and gen start battery in #3 spot. All 12 v systems. The #3 is showing 15.5-16.5 v when charging from solar or shore power. I checked voltage at the battery and it is showing 14.4 at the battery terminals. The battery does not get hot or swell and works fine. I’m wondering if there is something with the SG200 that might cause this reading.

[witzgall]

My #1 guess is that you have the voltage sense wire for the 3rd battery on a bus bar, where the positive output wire for the solar also resides. You are thus reading the voltage of the solar output, not battery voltage. When solar is off, they would read the same or close. To fix this, move the voltage sense wire DIRECTLY to the positive output post on the battery.

Chris

Originally Posted by Peeew

I’m having an odd reading on my SG200 lately. I have it set up for house batteries, engine start (#2 position) and gen start battery in #3 spot. All 12 v systems. The #3 is showing 15.5-16.5 v when charging from solar or shore power. I checked voltage at the battery and it is showing 14.4 at the battery terminals. The battery does not get hot or swell and works fine. I’m wondering if there is something with the SG200 that might cause this reading.