Small Camping Setup
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Medic357 - I just got my two energy/power meters and they are not going to mount well in the hobby box I had intended to use. Any good thoughts on what material (either a box or panel) would be good? Yours looks very nice, did you cut the hole or find something with the right cutout? I don't really care if the meters end up stacked vertical or side by side.
By the way - if you simplify the wiring diagram you can use the same three wires you needed for the discharge meter to take care of another meter set up for the charge side. Just a swap of the shunt wires and 'ground' jumper. At first glance, their diagram looks like a lot more wiring. Mine are running great on the bench.Comment
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Medic357 - I just got my two energy/power meters and they are not going to mount well in the hobby box I had intended to use. Any good thoughts on what material (either a box or panel) would be good? Yours looks very nice, did you cut the hole or find something with the right cutout? I don't really care if the meters end up stacked vertical or side by side.
By the way - if you simplify the wiring diagram you can use the same three wires you needed for the discharge meter to take care of another meter set up for the charge side. Just a swap of the shunt wires and 'ground' jumper. At first glance, their diagram looks like a lot more wiring. Mine are running great on the bench.
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Just remember to use the right size fuse or breaker on the 18 ga wire.Powerfab top of pole PV mount (2) | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
|| Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
|| VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A
solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-ListerComment
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I hear you on the wire. I am using telephone wire and jacks at both ends. The final install will probably be with telephone station wire. In my memory, I thought that the red and green were a twisted pair, and the yellow and black were a twisted pair, but when I stripped the jacket back it sure didn't look that way. Maybe that has changed. Maybe one twist per foot? Maybe I should have went with cat-5. How in the world did you squeeze 12 AWG into those little terminals?
"You have to cut it pretty close or the tabs won't lock..." Yeah, that is the issue. The box wall has to be pretty thin as well. I am terrible at free-cutting with anything smaller than a torch. This is going to suck. Thanks for the link though. I compared the meter reading to my Fluke - one was dead on, the other a tiny bit off. I'll post a summary after I've seen more ranges of voltage and current. Will also measure consumption sooner or later.Comment
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Ha. Found something to serve as a dual panel mount. An old mini-Christmas lights box. Will have to serve until him and I have some agreement on a more permanent mounting location. I have his whole elk hunt to mess around with the camper. Now for something more permanent for the shunt/sender box - I know pretty much exactly where that is going.
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Update: One of the two meters already failed. Came out and the display was blank and no amount of cajoling could revive it. Thanks to a liberal return policy I am returning it [free] for another from Amazon, but it underscores the risks when trying to implement a $30 solution to a $100+ (Tri-metric, etc.) problem. Shame, as the meters measured near perfect against the Fluke, consumed < 3 mA even with backlight on, and displayed everything at a glance. Hopefully the replacement and the other original will last a reasonable amount of time.
Last edited by AzRoute66; 09-05-2017, 05:52 PM.Comment
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