It's become clear that it's necessary to monitor the battery health of our Revel in more detail than the Zamp solar controller can provide, especially since I recently performed the popular CTEK modification. Ideally, it would be good to see their performance over time, looking at their behavior overnight, under load, etc.
This little bluetooth battery monitor is the best $35 that I've spent on the Revel this year. It allows me to use a free iPhone-based app to wirelessly connect to the battery monitor to see various parameters, including a time-series of the battery behavior. It stores the data for 30 days, so as long as I sync with it once per month, then I never lose any data at all.
There are other ways to do this, including the replacement of the solar controller itself with a bluetooth model, but that was a bit more expensive and complex than I wanted to go right now. This is an extremely simple installation, just requiring a connection to the positive and negative terminals. In the following photo I'm showing how I connected it for a CTEK configuration, and with a small change, you can monitor your chassis battery instead.
I've since moved it to an easier place to access (doesn't require removing the seat) - - it's now attached to one of the house batteries under the vehicle. I attached it to the leads of the house battery on the passenger side, very easy to access and service, if required. I should probably shield it with some waterproof tape, but it's been fine just like this over the past 12 months.
Thanks to master mechanic Tony Loeza of San Carlos, California for alerting me to this device and for some installation advice!
This little bluetooth battery monitor is the best $35 that I've spent on the Revel this year. It allows me to use a free iPhone-based app to wirelessly connect to the battery monitor to see various parameters, including a time-series of the battery behavior. It stores the data for 30 days, so as long as I sync with it once per month, then I never lose any data at all.
There are other ways to do this, including the replacement of the solar controller itself with a bluetooth model, but that was a bit more expensive and complex than I wanted to go right now. This is an extremely simple installation, just requiring a connection to the positive and negative terminals. In the following photo I'm showing how I connected it for a CTEK configuration, and with a small change, you can monitor your chassis battery instead.
Update 2020
I've since moved it to an easier place to access (doesn't require removing the seat) - - it's now attached to one of the house batteries under the vehicle. I attached it to the leads of the house battery on the passenger side, very easy to access and service, if required. I should probably shield it with some waterproof tape, but it's been fine just like this over the past 12 months.
Thanks to master mechanic Tony Loeza of San Carlos, California for alerting me to this device and for some installation advice!
