New Battery Monitor from Balmar

[Scalf77]

For some time, I have pointed people to the Smartgauge TM monitor carried by Balmar in the states. This was one of the simplest devices to get an accurate output of the SOC of your battery. While the first generation Smartgauge TM is a fine unit, it lacked the capabilities of monitoring the current that when in and out of your battery. Balmar now has the SG200 Battery Monitor, this includes the proprietary Smartgauge TM technology for reading SOC of the battery. It also combines a shunt so that it can now count amps in and out of your system.


Learns & Displays All Critical Battery Parameters

• State of Charge (SoC%) **

Accurate display of your battery’s State of Charge after just two discharge cycles

• State of Health (SoH%)

Proprietary self-calibrating algorithm determines how your battery has aged from its original capacity.

• Charge/Discharge Current Flow

Displays the real-time current flowing in or out of your house battery.

• Time Remaining

Time remaining until empty when discharging, or time remaining until full when charging.

• History, Faults & Alerts

Alerts (User Defined)

Min/Max State of Charge (SoC%)

Min/Max Current (A)

Min/Max State of Health (SoH%)

Min/Max/Voltage (V)

Min/Max Aux-1 & Aux-2 Voltage (V)

Min/Max Mins Left (minutes)

Faults

High Voltage

Low Voltage

Low SoC

Low SoH

High Current

• Support for All Common Battery Chemistries & Voltages

Including Lead Acid, Lithium (LiFePO4), Standard AGM,
TPPL AGM, Carbon Foam AGM, and GEL Batteries
Supports 12V-48V Battery Banks

The new SG200 has a color display that is supposedly readable in the sunlight, and it fits the stand 2 1/16-gauge format. The system supports multiple gauges, the “smart” shunt is rated for 350 Amps continuous , 600 Amps for 10 mins, and if needed can two can used in parallel.


Support for an optional 39″ Bluetooth® Gateway for Smartphone App should be available sometime in early 2019.


Video from Balmer

The unit is listed on the PKYS website for $239.00 with an option to be put on a waiting list (10/29/18)

*I don't work for Balmar, nor do I own an SG200 Monitor. I just came across this in some web searches. This assessment was purely from reading existing specifications, manuals from the Balmar website and other reviews such as www.panbo.com

** I find the SOH reading to be a useful concept. This should show you how much your battery life is degrading. If this appears to be happening at a faster rate than normal, you could start looking for possible issues with your charging algorithm.

-greg

[Flux]

I have definitely noticed a SOH decline in my battery over the last year. Something on the order of 3-5% depending on the circumstance. This is just me watching my Trimetric and seeing what the battery settles into after a full charge with a Xantrex charger. Certainly a good metric.



Do you think it's just a voltage measurement?? Or maybe something with watching dicharge and voltage?


I am pretty sure the Trimetric just adjusts according to voltage when I originally installed the battery and zeroed (or 100% ed) the battery.

[Scalf77]

Originally Posted by Flux

I have definitely noticed a SOH decline in my battery over the last year. Something on the order of 3-5% depending on the circumstance. This is just me watching my Trimetric and seeing what the battery settles into after a full charge with a Xantrex charger. Certainly a good metric.



Do you think it's just a voltage measurement?? Or maybe something with watching dicharge and voltage?


I am pretty sure the Trimetric just adjusts according to voltage when I originally installed the battery and zeroed (or 100% ed) the battery.

Tim,

When you installed your battery monitor, you gave it capacity based on the 20/hr rating. Your battery might have been that when you installed, maybe even lower. The even cycle up for a period of time. After that capacity is always decreasing from your battery with each discharge and charge cycle. A battery that is taken good care of just doesn't die, its capacity get so low that we know longer find it usable.

The problem with the Trimetic and other coulomb counting battery monitors, is they base SOC on the original capacity value you put in. After a couple of years and your original battery might now 85 to 90 % of its original capacity. Unfortunately your monitor still thinks it's at full capacity, so when it see's the 50% of the amp hours taken out of your battery, it is based on that full capacity value. So if we started with a lifeline 4D at 210 AmpHrs, we remove 105 AmpHrs and we are at 50% SOC. Now as your capacity decreases over its lifespan, we run into a problem with the monitor. It reports 50% after removing 105 AmpHrs, but now the capacity is 90% of original 189 AmpHrs, so you really are at 45% SOC.

The bigger problem is if we don't adjust the total capacity, we are drawing the battery down farther than 50% which will decrease life at a faster rate. So now we are complaining that are battery died early.

The beauty of the SG200 is that it does not need to know capacity of the battery for SOC measurements, so when it says it 50% it is 50% as what ever the capacity of the battery is today, not when you installed it. This allows them to come up with the SOH measurement.

For us mortal amp counting battery monitoring users. we need to take the battery out and perform a 20 Hr test, or at least an abbreviated test to once a year. This way we can adjust our capacity. I use to have access to a nice electronic load, and I would perform this once a year.

A very good article on the topic of Amp Counting Battery Monitors can be found www.marinehowto.com

You may be referring to your battery changer believing it is fully charged, but your SOC meter is not in sync. This is another common problem with amphr counting meters

-greg

[Komrade]

This looks very cool for those that don't want to take out batteries.

Have you installed the previous version of this? How easy was it?

Looks like it just needs connectivity to under hood and aux (under belly) battery, and 3rd battery if one has one.

[Scalf77]

Originally Posted by Komrade

This looks very cool for those that don't want to take out batteries.

Have you installed the previous version of this? How easy was it?

Looks like it just needs connectivity to under hood and aux (under belly) battery, and 3rd battery if one has one.

I would think most of don't want to remove the battery to measure State of Charge. I have not installed the previous version, but it was a simple two wire connection. The new model adds a shunt resistor, so that should be added between the battery ground and the ground bar, so that all current goes through the shunt. The difficulty of installing the shunt, is somewhat dependent on your electrical setup, larger system generally means larger wires to deal with. It is no more difficult than other shunt based battery monitors. The Smart shunt has the wire for connection to main house battery and two other wires for other batteries (most likely starting in our case). There is a 4 pin communication cable that runs from smart shunt to the display unit.

-greg

[marret]

Thanks Greg.

I bought and installed the earlier version Smartgauge TM. Two wires, pretty easy. Harder to mount than connect.

[Flux]

Greg,


Thank You for that detailed explanation.



So max volts after a good charge and settle in are not indicative of lost capacity. So really, without a periodic capacity measurement the Trimetric is only as good as what I told it initially.

[seasmith]

Greg, Marret,

Just installed a Balmar Smartgauge ™ that's been lost in a drawer for a while, and cannot find in the manual, or scrolling through the menus: how to set the battery Type for bat#2- the starter battery.

Bat#1, house battery is a Lifeline and set to type-3, no problem.
Starter battery is standard wet cell and should be set to type-1, as per manual, but can't find a menu option to do so.
??

[marret]

I have a digital version of the manual and you should be able to download it. If you PM me your email I'll send it.

[marret]

Here is the link to the page with the downloadable file, just click on the pdf download icon:
Smartgauge: 44-SG-12/24