Scoutman
Explorer
I'm planning out a charging system for a secondary battery to be mounted under the bed of the truck that will power the fridge, rtt, fan, etc. I have a diesel in my Dodge Ram which already has 2 batteries from the factory but as I've learned over running the fridge the past year or so, with sometimes short commute times, I'm not able to keep it running 24/7 in the summer months. Thus taking me down the road of a house battery, full time 100w solar panel and a Blue Sea smart isolator relay. Since the Blue Sea relay system doesn't have any battery monitoring I'm looking for a way to keep tabs on the status of the house battery. Furthermore since the solar would be a second charging system to the same battery I'd like to know stats from that too without overlapping monitoring from the 2 systems.
My main question is what monitoring should I look at to keep tabs on how the secondary battery is doing? Most of the solar charge controllers have leds that tell charging status and some have digital displays with a little more information. This would be fine but chances are the controller is going to be mounted someplace out of the way and not easily visible from the drivers seat. Dash space is of course at a premium so a ~7"x4" panel intended for some RV control panel cabinet isn't going to work well on my dash.
...Or should I just put a volt meter to the aux battery and not worry with where the charge is coming from. If I'm driving down the road it'll be coming from the ML-ACR but if sitting in a parking lot/campsite it will charge from the panel. This may be the simplest option but won't tell me amps in from solar or amps out from load.
Options I've looked at...
Blue Sea EV Battery Charger Display
Blue Sea M2 State of Charge Monitor (pricey but packed with features)
Getting a basic dual volt meter from Amazon.
Running a charge controller that has a remote display like the MorningStar Sunsaver Duo (the duo has the remote display option, I don't think the single does)
My main question is what monitoring should I look at to keep tabs on how the secondary battery is doing? Most of the solar charge controllers have leds that tell charging status and some have digital displays with a little more information. This would be fine but chances are the controller is going to be mounted someplace out of the way and not easily visible from the drivers seat. Dash space is of course at a premium so a ~7"x4" panel intended for some RV control panel cabinet isn't going to work well on my dash.
...Or should I just put a volt meter to the aux battery and not worry with where the charge is coming from. If I'm driving down the road it'll be coming from the ML-ACR but if sitting in a parking lot/campsite it will charge from the panel. This may be the simplest option but won't tell me amps in from solar or amps out from load.
Options I've looked at...
Blue Sea EV Battery Charger Display
Blue Sea M2 State of Charge Monitor (pricey but packed with features)
Getting a basic dual volt meter from Amazon.
Running a charge controller that has a remote display like the MorningStar Sunsaver Duo (the duo has the remote display option, I don't think the single does)