[jeff1]

Hi Guy's

Do any of you wfp guy's monitor your battery during the day's use, or do you just wait until it fails to operate your pump.

Also does anyone have installed on there setup an ammeter and/or a voltage meter.

I was in the electronic Industry for over 15 years, so I intend to build my own battery monitor for my setup,

I often see guy,s asking for advice on were to buy new battery's.
but if you were to monitor your battery condition by looking at a guage on your setup, you can get aleast a few more months use out of your battery's,
Your useing your battery's on what is called a cycle mode, this means you use it for the day take it home and charge it
because a battery is used this way, you are in affect reducing the life expectancy of your battery, now don't panic this is normal.

But if you were to keep your eye on the condition of your battery, you can change it (if you carry a spare that is) at the correct time, rather than run it flat. this will greatly increase the life expectancy of your battery.

I am amazed that the suppliers have not picked up on this yet.

Any feed back on your monitoring of your battery, or if you have any monitoring device installed would be Brill
also if you do have a monotoring device fitted be honest and tell me if you know how to use it.

Many thanks in advance for your replys.

[Roy Harding]

Hi Jeff

My van is fitted with  a dual charge relay and I have never had to charge it.

They are £5 from a bloke local to chepstow.

Roy

[pjulk]

These split charge relays i have noticed there is differant amp models.

So what does this mean as on ebay there is 30, 60, 100. 180 amp split charge relays.

Does it mean the higher the amps the faster it will charge and if i got the high amp model would it fry my batteries.

Paul

[jeff1]

Hi Jeff

My van is fitted with  a dual charge relay and I have never had to charge it.

They are £5 from a bloke local to chepstow.

Roy

Hi Roy

The split charge relay you mention, is just a relay that splits the charge from your van battery to your wfp battery, were this is fine for keeping your battery topped up,

 is there a facility there to monitor your battery's condition?
The guy's with back packs and trolly systems don't have the benefit of what you have,
unless they install one in the vehicle and go through the trouble of connection and disconection between every job, the distance travelled beetween jobs would not be sufficiant to charge a battery to a reasonable standard, were as yours is costantly connected, it does get a reasonable charge, ie on the way to work or home or when use use your van for any other reason.
Many thanks for your reply I am monitoring them all.

[Roy Harding]

Jeff

No there is no volt meter or gauge.

Roy

[Jeff Brimble]

I want to fit an old fashioned ammeter but could not easily find one anymore . So I use my earpieces instead..........
I listen to what the pump is telling me about the battery. But I suppose that doesnt work with a van mount- I use a bpac.

[sair]

suppliers have and do we sell aal our systems with a digital readout of batteries volts even though they are split charged up

07944 227635

[jeff1]

These split charge relays i have noticed there is differant amp models.

So what does this mean as on ebay there is 30, 60, 100. 180 amp split charge relays.

Does it mean the higher the amps the faster it will charge and if i got the high amp model would it fry my batteries.

Paul

Hi Paul

What this means, is it has to be able to cope, with the demand that your battery is asking for from your charger, but the charger is not  large enough to supply its full charge within the hour, so we have to leave them on charge say over night and if the relay was to small, then it would burn out. look at the amp hour of your battery, and if its say's 75 amp hour you would have to go for the 100 amp relay, always best to go above, and never go below.
I hope this answered your question, as it can get quite technical with explainations and maths.

[pjulk]

Thanks for that jeff you have made it much clearer.

That battery monitor you are on about i have also been thinking about as at the moment i don't have a split charge relay but i am going to get one and it would good to know what the state of the battery is in any way.

Paul

[jeff1]

I want to fit an old fashioned ammeter but could not easily find one anymore . So I use my earpieces instead..........
I listen to what the pump is telling me about the battery. But I suppose that doesnt work with a van mount- I use a bpac.

Jeff I know what meter your on about, and I wish I could get my hands on one, they are so accurate, but the way you do it is fine for the likes of yourself, the more you use it the more acustom you become to the noise (same as our cars) the way you do it is called the stethescope way, you will or have the knowlage to know if something is going wrong with your pump, as everyone else will only know when it stops.

[jeff1]

suppliers have and do we sell aal our systems with a digital readout of batteries volts even though they are split charged up

07944 227635

Hi Sair
is this just for van mounts or do you sell them for the guy's to fit to there Trolly mounts or back packs,
if you did them with a current read out as well as voltage at least this would give the guy's some indication if there was a problem with there battery and/or pump.

[pjulk]

Would this be any good

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/12-Volt-Amp-Meter_W0QQitemZ270003149149QQihZ017QQcategoryZ36631QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting

Paul

[jeff1]

Hi Paul
Just had a look, and its a 60amp meter, I wouldn't use it, and the reason for this is if you look at the scale it goes up in ten amp stages, now I'm still traditional but I have heared that the pumps draw 5-7 amps I don't know the correct figure, but the needle would hardly move, it would jump when you first switch on, but then settle down below the first scale if it went up in one amp stages the I would buy it.

[vivaro 013]

im currently looking at building my own wfp systems, a friend of mine is a electronics  expert,  ive aks him to design a control box which will house 12 volt battery and pump and connections and to look at fitting a control devices similar to the varistream systems , you are correct a measure devices to inform you when battery is full or running low is a good idea , is there any other devices which can be added to improve systems

[jeff1]

Hi Tolwoods

If you can post some pictures of your finished product that will be great, especially the battery monitor section, I think the only way forward is to build extra's for our own systems, then maybe the suppliers will take it on board.

What I will say to you is that to build most things in electronics is very cheap, so prices should not be to high, if they are I will have to dig out my PCB making kit, and design my own PCB Boards, and produce the products myself.

[Bonzer]

I have just built a little box to go on my van-mount system that does just this. In the box is the split-charge relay and a backlit LCD voltmeter. All I do is a flick a switch on the front of the box to see what the current voltage output is. I can monitor both the voltage on the van battery and the voltage on the WFP battery. It also shows whether your split-charge relay is working because you can see the voltage jump up when your alternator is running. The voltmeter was about £25 from CPC.

[JM123]

we just use big leisure batteries, 110Ah and a 230Ah, supply most systems with 85Ah and above.  The 230Ah will give about 30hours continual use (varistream up full).

[Paul Coleman]

we just use big leisure batteries, 110Ah and a 230Ah, supply most systems with 85Ah and above.  The 230Ah will give about 30hours continual use (varistream up full).

I'm sure that sort of thing is fine if someone can charge it in situ overninght.  As I live in a flat and would have to disconnect and carry the battery a long way and up steps each time, I've opted for a split charge system though.  Haven't a clue how to do them so that's why I paid someone else to do it for me.

[jeff1]

Thanks for your reply's guy's
I can see the van mount is sorted with split relay chargers, and the odd volt meter, have any of you van mount's got an ammeter fitted, as well as a volt meter?

Come on guy's I need some answers from the trolley and back pack users, it could be to your benefit in the future?

[RO-Sheen]

Sorry to change the subject but where are you from originally? something you said earlier sounded like you might be from the same part of the world as me!