Display for Solar/WInd/Hydro amps and AH?

[Ric]

I am looking for an “at a glance” means to keep an eye on my solar/wind/hydro production to install at the chart-table or nearby.

I currently have some old analogue ammeters but obviously they are not ideal.

I happened to notice on a youtube video on a Boreal yacht a really nice display that showed current amps and AH produced since last reset for solar/wind/hydro but have not been able to find it online.

Alternatively three small compact Ammeters/AH with built-in shunts.

 

[B27]

There are various things on ebay like:
Simple DC Power Analyser Watt Volt Amp Meter 12V 24V Solar Wind Analyzer | eBay

Personally I would like something which recorded Ah in and Ah out of my house battery separately.

 

[Ric]

Yes I agree with you.

I currently have three independent analogue ammeter from regulated solar/wind/hydro into my main battery bank Ah counters.

I would just like to replace the rather inefficient/inaccurate analogue ammeters with digital equivalent - ideally with AH counters for each energy source

 

[KompetentKrew]

Depends how much money you want to spend.

I would think simplest thing in the first instance would be a Victron Smart Shunt to the battery - that allows you to see how much is going in or out at any given time.

A shunt is quite accurate (to at least 0.1A / 0.1V) and the Victron Smart Shunt shows %age remaining (based on AH battery capacity and use) and has little graphs and stuff showing state of charge etc over the last couple of days. This is viewed on the app on your phone.

If you want to monitor separately how much electricity your solar panels are producing them the neatest thing to do would then be to replace your current solar controller with a Victron one - again the "smart" model with the bluetooth interface.

If you want a flashy display at the nav station then you can use a Cerbo Touch - I think this requires the Cerbo GX base station, which also adds some other functionality (tank depth sensors can be connected).

To measure how much your wind and hyro are producing you can add s Smart Shunt for each one - not sure how well these integrate as separate sources in the Cerbo Touch. In the Victron app on your phone you can just label them "Ric's boat - wind" and "Ric's boat - hydro".

There's at least one other company making a nav station display with shunts, but a good thing about the Victron kit is that a Smart Shunt or Smart Solar works standalone, so you can add pieces as you need.

 

[noelex]

The Pico battery monitor and display will do what you want. I use it to display the output of my three solar panels, but it is not cheap.

 

[KompetentKrew]

The Pico battery monitor and display will do what you want. I use it to display the output of my three solar panels, but it is not cheap.
View attachment 163502

That's the one I was thinking of.

The quadro shunt is more affordable than I thought it might be. Probable comparable in price with a same-sized Victron system, maybe even cheaper.

 

[B27]

Shunts are a bit yeaterday.
Hall Effect current sensors look interesting, with the advantage of being isolated from the power rails.

Any Arduino artists in the house?

 

[pearson.henry2]

Highly recommend a Cerbo and some victron smart shunts. Can view on screen, phone, online if connected etc.

 

[Neeves]

Xantrex offer an alternative to Victron, if you want something to compare against

Marine

Jonathan

 

[Neeves]

Your cheapest option is a shunt and meter, it will confirm power in and out. If you want to know what each unit, fridge and autopilot or wind and hydro is producing or using, at any given time, 'stop' each in turn and measure the difference.

I think determining what each source offers over a given day you need spend more money - and you might decide its not worth it.

Jonathan

 

[Neeves]

Shunts are a bit yeaterday.
Hall Effect current sensors look interesting, with the advantage of being isolated from the power rails.

You can source shunts specifically for marine application with detailed installation instructions from a number of sources, Victron et al

Any links for 'Hall effect', particularly for leisure marine application?

Jonathan

 

[GHA]

Shunts are a bit yeaterday.
Hall Effect current sensors look interesting, with the advantage of being isolated from the power rails.

Any Arduino artists in the house?

Smartshunt is the leader of the pack at the moment, bluetooths data to solar regulators so they can adjust the output to what's actually happening at the batteries. Old mobile phone works well as a display with the victron app though needs a tap to turn on the display unless you don't mind a little power to keep the screen turned on. Instantaneous data isn't actually all that useful on it's own so the app history tab is great to see what's been going on.

Arduinos are a bit yesterday, , esp32's are more the microcontrollers of choice these days. Shocked by the price of a new fridge thermostat I made a new one with an esp32 so suspect now have the only boat fridge which knows the windspeed, boat sog/cog and battery current/sog. Even tells the fridge temperature
Actually soc is useful for a glance on the way past instantaneous data.

If you really want to go for it with signalk running on a raspberry pi one of the multitudes of apps can read the data from a smartshunt

 

[rogerthebodger]

Any links for 'Hall effect', particularly for leisure marine application?

Jonathan

I have some Hall effect current sensors that I got from someone who used to post on the forum.

Works very well. I fitted then to cut down on any vot drop in the shunt when drawing high currents

halcyon

Last seen nov 2023