[encantotom]

howdy all,

today i took out my prosine 3.0 and started installing a magnum 2812 like alot of you guys have.

a few questions for you

i bought the battery monitor kit and the advanced control panel.

the battery monitor requires the unit be within 5 feet of the batteries.  it has a 4 wire harness that goes to each side of the shunt and plus and minus on the batteries.  it also says it should not be installed in an enclosed area or in where the batteries are.  

i see no way of putting it anywhere else.  did you guys just put the shunt on top of the batteries?

the prosine had a mounting bracket that held it about an inch off the wall.  the magnum is mounted directly to the wall.  no standoffs.  did you make a bracket or some kind of standoff or just put it directly on the wall?

thanks

tom

[Richard]

Hmmmm, I used the existing shunt.

And I mounted the BMK by the inverter.

Sort of ignored the four ft rule.

[encantotom]

prosine did not use a shunt. there is not one here.

i think i will ignore the 4ft rule as well.

was your existing shunt in the battery area?

tom

[Richard]

Yes. Just by the mechanical disconnect switch. Ill send you a pic when it gets light here

[folivier]

Tom when I converted my '98 and was looking for the shunt, there was one in the back on the passenger's side of the frame. Near where the hydraulic pump is. Not sure why but like I mentioned I added the Victron shunt near the batteries.

[encantotom]

so i dont see any way to monitor both the house and starting batteries separately. i know some other coaches i have seen have the ability to do that with older setups.

on the magnum i dont see a way to have two battery monitor setups

tom

[folivier]

On my Victron BMV-712 it has full monitoring (amps+volts) for the house battery but only volts monitoring for a second battery. So you'd need 2 separate shunts to monitor both house and chassis. But there's no reason to monitor the chassis amps.

[Richard]

The only benefit to monitoring the chassis amps isnto keep an eye on the alternator output

[encantotom]

i talked to magnum tech support and he was emphatic about keeping the twisted pair wires under 5 feet for the resistance. i struggle with that as 16 gauge wire is 4 ohms per 1000 feet so an additional 10 feet is only .04 ohms. i have a hard time believing their device can tell the difference between .04 and .06 ohms.

i think i will locate the shunt in the battery bay and run the wires for the monitor from the inverter area where i will mount the monitor box.

tom

[ccjohnson]

You can always relocate it if you find it's not working properly. Maybe do a test with different wire lengths before permanent mounting.