Battman Battery Monitors

[mica]

Has anyone got a Battman Battery Monitor? Are they worth the £200+ layout?
Are there any cheaper versions around that give you the same information.

Would be interested to hear from anyone who has had experience with battery monitors.

Many thanks,

MICA

 

[pvb]

Look at the Link 10 first...

The Battman is a fairly unsophisticated meter, which simply measures voltage, current and amp-hours without any form of correction for real-world operation.

The Link 10 costs about the same, but offers so much more. Where the Battman just counts amp-hours in and out, the Link 10 calculates the real effect on the batteries, using 2 clever (and adjustable) computations.

Firstly, it applies a Charge Efficiency correction, which takes account of the fact that you have to actually put more amp-hours back into a battery than you've used. As an example, if you use 10 amp-hours, you'd need to put about 11 amp-hours back in to return the battery to the same state of charge.

Secondly, the Link 10 applies the Peukert Exponent. This compensates for the fact that theoretical battery capacity shrinks as the rate of discharge increases. So, for example, a typical 100Ah battery would deliver 5 amps for 20 hours, but if you increase the current draw to say 10 amps, it would only last for about 8 hours (in other words, its theoretical capacity has shrunk from 100Ah to 80Ah).

Because the Link 10 has these very sophisticated algorithms, it gives really accurate results. It's also inherently more accurate, offering far higher accuracy than the Battman on current measuring. And it has a 500amp shunt supplied as standard, whereas the Battman only has a 200amp shunt. The Link 10 also offers a simple "fuel gauge" feature for the battery state, and a host of historical data such as number of discharge cycles, depth of discharge, etc.

You can get full details of the Link 10 at http://www.xantrex.com/Products/Inst_Acc/link10.html and it's worth downloading the owners manual if you really want to find out why the Link 10 is so good.

And, yes, I looked at both meters and bought the Link 10! It takes all the guesswork out of battery management. You know when to charge, and for how long. You can see at a glance what state your batteries are in.

You can find the Link 10 at good chandlers, or look at the PowerStore site (www.power-store.com) for UK mail order.

Hope this helps.