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  • #16
    Originally posted by Mike90250 View Post
    Galvanic Isolation

    Is Super Strut Stainless Steel or aluminum ? Did you use all stainless steel bolting hardware ? If galvi or plain steel contacts aluminum, you are setting up a nice little battery, The disimilar metals will corrode the aluminum into white powder
    Funny you mention that seeing how I forgot to. I have nylon sleeves and washers at contact points.

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    • #17
      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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      • #18
        Originally posted by AzRoute66 View Post
        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.
        I actually had a small project box that I had laying around that I bought off of eBay. I cut out a template from a piece of paper and marked and went to town with the Dremel. You've got to cut it pretty close or the tabs won't lock it in place. The link below is the box I had (sort of.) I would measure it to see what exactly you need. Don't forget to leave yourself a little room for the wiring and cutouts. The wiring is pretty simple once you get it in hand. I happened to run all of my wires before hand with 12ga and once I actually got it, I realized that was way overkill. 18ga would have been fine... Go big or go home, right?

        http://www.ebay.com/itm/Project-Box-...oAAOxydlFS6XJa

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        • #19
          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-Lister

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          • #20
            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.

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            • #21
              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.
              IMG_0962.JPG

              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.

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