{"id":777,"date":"2023-08-29T20:46:29","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T20:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rodbinder.com\/veteran\/?p=777"},"modified":"2023-08-31T22:10:52","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T22:10:52","slug":"aug-28-battery-monitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rodbinder.com\/veteran\/2023\/08\/29\/aug-28-battery-monitor\/","title":{"rendered":"Aug 29 Battery Monitor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Any product that needs a manual to work is broken. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Elon Musk<\/strong><\/p>\n

Recently I bought a Battery Monitor from Amazon. I learned, as always, interesting things. This monitor is known by many names,TR16, Qworks, AiLi, and many other rebrandings. My rebrand was called Camway. Prices vary with the brand name, but I am sure all are the same monitor.<\/p>\n

What ever rebrand you decide to buy, make sure it has the accessories below. You may also want to add a longer shielded wire. I bought a 26 foot which is long, but will work for a future project.<\/p>\n

The manual is in tiny print in basic English.\u00a0 No offense meant, they used a weird color to represent the symbols on the monitor. It was hard to read, at least by these old eyes. I had some problems to get it to work properly. I don’t think it was the monitor that was faulty but me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First problem, It wasn’t indicating that it was charging. I went to my current Lead Acid Bank to take a look. I am switching to LiFeP04 Batteries a bit at a time. I have a Drok Monitor and shunt there I set up 10 years ago. The charging cable has to be south of the shunt check. I moved the cables to the other side of the shunt. Awesome. The meter was showing charging and flashing to indicate charge.<\/p>\n

Next was my Amp hours, and battery SOC percentage. They were out of wack. Showing 62% at full charge. I went back to the manual, I tried the instructions 5 times. The meter would allow me to change the battery AH, but would not let me set it. I decided to go to YouTube. I recognized the meter in one of the videos. I watched his whole video. While I was watching I tried again, this time it worked, mostly. My battery was set at 99 AH instead of a hundred. For now, I can live with that.<\/p>\n

I am happy with the meter, it doesn’t have Bluetooth, but also doesn’t come with a $260 price tag. With the long cable and tax, it cost me $87 CDN. I have it setup beside my Xbox, so I can check the meter while I play Starfield. That’s all I needed. Would I buy another? Without hesitation.<\/p>\n

I can monitor amps in and out, Voltage, battery percentage. It lights up when discharging and lights up and flashes when charging, but not annoying to watch.<\/p>\n

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You can buy the original for $14 CDN without the shunt. Before shipping.<\/p><\/div>\n

I just learned a few seconds ago, Aug 30. E& J Technology has a Bluetooth smart shunt<\/a> that can connect directly to this monitor. Or maybe the monitor<\/a> has been upgraded to Bluetooth.<\/p>\n

Or you could buy the TBD<\/a> Victron clone on Amazon.com<\/p>\n

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\nDoes this monitor look just like the Renogy.
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Here is the YouTube video I was watching when my monitor actually started to let me set the battery size.<\/p>\n