Stephan, very instructive video, thank you. I bought such a meter (the make was REELY 180A power meter and power-analyzer, a meter with exactly the same format as shown by you in this video). I put my VOLTCRAFT DSP-3010 Power Supply on the source side and my LiFePO4-Battery pack at the load side. The battery pack was at that time at 3.63 V (24 cells in parallel); the idea was to top balance all cells for a (later to build) 36V bike battery. What happened was a catastrophe: cables and powersource started to smoke and although I immediately disconnected the battery, the VOLTCRAFT Powersouce was broken. Without putting the meter, i worked perfectly for weeks, but with the meter in the circuit, it immediately broke. Do you have an idea why this happened? - I understand you also used a power supply on the source side, without problems.
Stephan, thanks for the info, I purchased the watt meter to ascertain whether a kings 200 watt solar panel will power a 12v fridge. In ideal sun the solar panel produced 106 Wp. The fridge ran at 45 watts ( rated at 2.9 Ah) Given the available power won't always be ideal, it would seem the Kings panel is not very efficient. Would you say the panel is not up to the job ?
Hi there thanks for the great informative video, what I need to know if you can help is I need to know the name of the connector needed to plug the 9v battery into the tester. What should I search for, I can purchase the clip with bare cable ends but don't know the specific name of the connector needed that lugs into the tester. Please could you help and maybe send a link for instance aliexpress or eBay UK, I understand it is a common connector but I cannot find or search for it. Regards Steve.
Ive got an issue with mine, ive got it installed in between an electric boat motor and a 24vbatt system. Ive double checked and have the load to the electric motor . It should approx 50 amps usage at peak draw, the component is reading 2.82-3amps max I dont understand whats going wrong
Great review - question though - if the source is the battery (eg caravan battery) and the load is the van, what happens when the battery is being charged - do the values have a '-' in front when this happens to indicate charging current is going back into the source connection? If so then even more useful as I'll get one and connect to the battery and be able to monitor both consumption at night and charging rate during the day. Obviously the history readings wouldn't be much use but only the live readings are important to me.
Hi and thanks for your question. Meters such as these only measure current flowing from the source to the load, they won't measure current going the other way, or display "-". If you want to do this, a battery capacity meter which uses a shunt placed between the negative terminal of the battery and the negative of every supply and load. This measures the current coming in and out of the battery. Victon Energy makes a very good unit, the BMV-712 for this purpose. This will allow a very accurate display of Battery voltage, current (- or +) and State of charge SOC in %. Hope this helps stephan
Stephan Ridgway Thanks for tyre reply, I planned to permanently install one close to the battery, so what you are saying is, if the source is connected to the battery then when its being charged it won't show the current correctly or not at all? Have you connected it like this to see the results?
Hello Stephan. Could you tell me how can you power OFF this meter? Or does it go automatically off when no charge or discharge is applied? I'm worreid about leaving it plugged to the battery constantly. how much does it draw on it own, with nothing else connected to it apart from the battery? Thanks
Hi i draws power from the source side, and does not have a power off mode. It only draws 0.034 MA so consumes little power and on a decent sized battery would not be an issue.
There are a lot of very similiar variations of these meters floating around on ebay, and none of them are precise, if you get a desktop lab meter and compare the readings you will see for you're self the readings can be off by a considerable margin.
You may need to solder a wire the the 5v IC power inside, then only 5v regulated supply in needed for aux. power. Labeled VDD on LCD header. The aux pins on most clones of these need a min. of 10.5v, they claim 4.8v min. , that's a lie. Aux. power is useful for intermittent power and more accuracy.
It's true you cannot use it as a data logger, the cumulative values such as Wh and Ah are since power up. It's use is more orientated towards live monitoring.
I hear ya. I put some ring terminals on mine and its a real time data view of wattage and draw between my battery / solar and inverter. Going the emonPi route.
great just had a look at the emonPi, looks like a great unit, I have a efergy monitor which monitors the total household AC power consumption using clip on current sensors like the emonPI. We have 3 phase which efergy supports (3x CI sensors), but does not have as many features as the emonPi and does not sync to the cloud.
I would have used something like the Sense (sense.com) because it's pretty damn nice - but for this mini solar system I'm experimenting with, I want to use the EmonPi then refactor it all when we put solar on completely to supplement the kWh from the grid.
Stephan, very instructive video, thank you. I bought such a meter (the make was REELY 180A power meter and power-analyzer, a meter with exactly the same format as shown by you in this video).
I put my VOLTCRAFT DSP-3010 Power Supply on the source side and my LiFePO4-Battery pack at the load side. The battery pack was at that time at 3.63 V (24 cells in parallel); the idea was to top balance all cells for a (later to build) 36V bike battery.
What happened was a catastrophe: cables and powersource started to smoke and although I immediately disconnected the battery, the VOLTCRAFT Powersouce was broken.
Without putting the meter, i worked perfectly for weeks, but with the meter in the circuit, it immediately broke.
Do you have an idea why this happened? - I understand you also used a power supply on the source side, without problems.
Stephan, thanks for the info, I purchased the watt meter to ascertain whether a kings 200 watt solar panel will power a 12v fridge.
In ideal sun the solar panel produced 106 Wp.
The fridge ran at 45 watts ( rated at 2.9 Ah)
Given the available power won't always be ideal, it would seem the Kings panel is not very efficient. Would you say the panel is not up to the job ?
Hi What does it mean when the display is lit but it just has a bar across with no readings. Thanks, Nick
Hi there thanks for the great informative video, what I need to know if you can help is I need to know the name of the connector needed to plug the 9v battery into the tester. What should I search for, I can purchase the clip with bare cable ends but don't know the specific name of the connector needed that lugs into the tester. Please could you help and maybe send a link for instance aliexpress or eBay UK, I understand it is a common connector but I cannot find or search for it. Regards Steve.
Hi if my memory serves me correctly it's a JST connector used for RC batteries, I purchased them with leads back in 2017.
Ive got an issue with mine, ive got it installed in between an electric boat motor and a 24vbatt system. Ive double checked and have the load to the electric motor . It should approx 50 amps usage at peak draw, the component is reading 2.82-3amps max I dont understand whats going wrong
Great review - question though - if the source is the battery (eg caravan battery) and the load is the van, what happens when the battery is being charged - do the values have a '-' in front when this happens to indicate charging current is going back into the source connection? If so then even more useful as I'll get one and connect to the battery and be able to monitor both consumption at night and charging rate during the day. Obviously the history readings wouldn't be much use but only the live readings are important to me.
Hi and thanks for your question. Meters such as these only measure current flowing from the source to the load, they won't measure current going the other way, or display "-". If you want to do this, a battery capacity meter which uses a shunt placed between the negative terminal of the battery and the negative of every supply and load. This measures the current coming in and out of the battery. Victon Energy makes a very good unit, the BMV-712 for this purpose. This will allow a very accurate display of Battery voltage, current (- or +) and State of charge SOC in %.
Hope this helps
stephan
Stephan Ridgway Thanks for tyre reply, I planned to permanently install one close to the battery, so what you are saying is, if the source is connected to the battery then when its being charged it won't show the current correctly or not at all? Have you connected it like this to see the results?
@@andyturner9485 Did it work out for you? I want to do a similar measurement. Thx
Hi guys I was testing a solar panel can someone please explain what each figure represents please I'm all confused
Nicely explained.
Glad it was helpful!
hi there. will this shutdown a certain amount of amps or it keeps working if turned ON everyday basis?
Very nice video, and well said sir. Like the understated narratives.
thanks
Hello Stephan. Could you tell me how can you power OFF this meter? Or does it go automatically off when no charge or discharge is applied? I'm worreid about leaving it plugged to the battery constantly. how much does it draw on it own, with nothing else connected to it apart from the battery? Thanks
Hi i draws power from the source side, and does not have a power off mode. It only draws 0.034 MA so consumes little power and on a decent sized battery would not be an issue.
@@StephanRidgway thanks i will be making a solar generator using an ebike battery!
Can u use this on a windturbine
Hi
Thanks for this.
Can you set a cut off voltage on this meter?
No I don't believe so, there are no user settings available.
No you can't.
hi how can i activate the timing function
There are a lot of very similiar variations of these meters floating around on ebay, and none of them are precise, if you get a desktop lab meter and compare the readings you will see for you're self the readings can be off by a considerable margin.
That's true but if u do the math volts x amps = watts,,etc...you'll get your amperage, wattage,watt hrs....
You may need to solder a wire the the 5v IC power inside, then only 5v regulated supply in needed for aux. power. Labeled VDD on LCD header.
The aux pins on most clones of these need a min. of 10.5v, they claim 4.8v min. , that's a lie. Aux. power is useful for intermittent power and more accuracy.
Can you make a video on powering this meter from the house battery. I guess that's 12 v down to 9 v
No need to step down..the GT meters auxilliary battery input says 8 to 60v max
Can someone please tell me the name of the connector for the battery leads?
20CM Male to Male JR Plug Servo Extension Wire Cable
Can someone please tell me the name of the connector he has used for the wattmeter
It's an Anderson Plug SB55
And what is that connector for the 9v battery with 3 pins??
Hi Thanks for this.
unfortunately it's a "data logger" but it has 0 use because you can't interface with it .. and track voltage.
It's true you cannot use it as a data logger, the cumulative values such as Wh and Ah are since power up. It's use is more orientated towards live monitoring.
I hear ya. I put some ring terminals on mine and its a real time data view of wattage and draw between my battery / solar and inverter. Going the emonPi route.
great just had a look at the emonPi, looks like a great unit, I have a efergy monitor which monitors the total household AC power consumption using clip on current sensors like the emonPI. We have 3 phase which efergy supports (3x CI sensors), but does not have as many features as the emonPi and does not sync to the cloud.
I would have used something like the Sense (sense.com) because it's pretty damn nice - but for this mini solar system I'm experimenting with, I want to use the EmonPi then refactor it all when we put solar on completely to supplement the kWh from the grid.
Just looked at the efergy site. Wow .. nice stuff and CHEAP!
P