Van Electrical System Updates - Battery monitor w/shunt, new charge controller, Bluetooth and more.
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- Опубліковано 23 лип 2024
- Welcome to my channel all about my very small camper van - a diy minivan camper.
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/ @averysmallcampervan
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It’s winter here, so it is a perfect time for some upgrades on my very small camper van.
I’m making a new center console to fit between the front seats of the van and making some changes to the 12 volt electrical system of the minivan camper.
I’m installing an AiLi battery monitor with a shunt, a new Renogy Wanderer charge controller with a Bluetooth module to use with their BT app, a temperature sensor, USB charging ports, 12 volt sockets and a socket to plug in a genius charger, which I use as “shore power”.
All of this works with my Renogy solar panels - 100 watts on the roof of the van and a 50 watt portable panel that plugs in via as SAE socket - and a 90 amp hour AGM deep cycle battery.
I’ll also show you how to crimp copper lugs onto 4 AWG wires without a crimper. (hint: use a vise and a ball bearing)
I’ll also go over the whole electrical set up, with diagrams, wire and fuse sizes, and show how set the parameters on the battery monitor.
0:40 Overview of new components : • Van Electrical System ...
3:46 Crimping copper lugs w/out a crimper: • Van Electrical System ...
5:00 Installing shunt: • Van Electrical System ...
8:33 Electrical system diagrammed: • Van Electrical System ...
11:41 Setting battery monitor parameters: • Van Electrical System ...
Here are some of the components I used. I don’t have any affiliations or sponsorships:
BATTERY
-Battery: 90 amp hour AGM from a local company, cheap one.
-Battery monitor with shunt: www.amazon.ca/AiLi-Battery-Mo...
SOLAR IN
-100 watt Renogy rigid solar panel on roof and a 50 watt Renogy rigid panel that can be set up when needed:ca.renogy.com/renogy-100-watt...
ca.renogy.com/renogy-50-watt-...
-Charge controller w/Bluetooth module: ca.renogy.com/renogy-wanderer...
- 10 gauge wire with inline fuses between the panels and charge controller: max amps x 1.25 safety factor, then round up: in my case 10 amps for solar side and 30 amps for charge controller towards battery side. (match to amp rating of charge controller)
BATTERY ISOLATOR IN
This is to charge house battery while car is running. A BETTER OPTION is a DC to DC charger. But they were too expensive/not talked about when I was building mine. Some are both solar charge controllers and DC chargers and will also allow you to charge the vehicle battery from your solar...
Battery Isolator:www.wirthco.com/battery-docto...
For th run from the front battery to the isolator to the battery I have 4 gauge wire with a 150 amp breaker close to the vehicle battery. www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01N...
AC CHARGING IN (shore power, sorta)
Genius charger: no.co/g3500
It comes with its own wiring and 10 amp fuse. I attached the ring terminals to the battery and installed a socket to make plugging in the AC extension cord more elegant. no.co/gcp1
FUSE BOX OUT
I just got an cheap one off amazon, there are better ones out there. www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07D...
The wiring I used is all 12 gauge but that is over kill for the watts my system is drawing.
It all goes to some lights, USB sockets for phone charging and fans, and some 12 volt sockets for cooler and inverter.
I will go over these in a futur video, in the spring when I have it all set up again and can film it.
INVERTER
I have an ancient 150 watt inverter, bought, literally, over 20 years ago for playing movies on laptop for kids on long drives. It just plugs in to the 12 V socket, same as it would in a car. It is fine for me as we don't run any AC appliances in the van.
We occasionally use it to charge the laptop, but will be switching over to a DC travel charger soon.
If you have more specific questions, give me a shout and I'll be happy to answer.
Bear in mind: I am not an electrician, just some other fool with a youtube channel, who has done a bit of research for her own system. :-) - Навчання та стиль
IMPORTANT: In the video I complain that you can't turn off the backlight on the monitor and a viewer suggested that you could by pressing the two arrow buttons at the same time.
If it says this in your instructions; Great!
If this is not mentionned in your instructions, do not do it. On older monitors, pressing those two buttons will reset the battery capacity to 0%.
I tried it (don't trust everything you read on the internet!) and now I am trying to figure out how to fix it.
I saw the comment a while ago and installed it today. Pressed on both buttons to turn off the light and reinitialized the monitor. Came back and saw your comment. Thought it would be simple to charge back the batteries again and reprogram it, will it mess up your archives on your cell?
Love the idea of using a ball bearing and the vice to crimp the wires. Thats a significant improvement and a very handy space to store things. 👍
Thanks. I spent a lot of time looking at the kind of crimpers used for those big wires - $30 for cheap ones or ones you hit with a hammer, and they can go up to $300 for good ones. That's a lot of money per crimp.
This is a much more elegant solution - IF you already have a decent vise!
First time on your channel, enjoyed the video and subscribed.
Thanks for showing all designs and steps to
You’re very knowledgeable, Thanks for sharing everything !
My pleasure!
great engineering
Faultless. Very informative!
Thanks! glad it was helpful
I like the box setup. I will look into making one using your ideas with your permission. Thanks for another great video.
Sure - glad you find the ideas useful, that's what they are there for - good luck!
I leant a few things from this well made video. Well done.
Your fabrication is very professional.
When I make things from plywood, (they don’t look as good as yours) I glue on the grey speaker carpet. It looks cosy and things don’t rattle about inside.
Thanks for the nice comment - I have seen a few videos where they installed carpet; looks very slick! I had not thought about the rattling - definite bonus.
It's sooo cold! Well done for doing all this work and keeping from freezing. Love the new charge controller. The app looks like it will be helpful.
Ha! that's not even cold - it was +12C that day. Today it's - 13C :-|
I'm so jealous of people in the southern US, going camping all year long. Up here, realistically, a full 6 months are too cold.
I found your video through a search for the exact same AiLi Monitor, which I have just installed in my caravan (UK). This is a very helpful video for me and very clear & concise in content, thank you.
One tip - you are able to turn the backlight off on your monitor - press the left & right arrow keys together to toggle the light on or off.
Thank you, again, for taking time out to share your work with us, cheers, Rog... 👍🏻 😉 🐍
You are very welcome and thank you for taking the time to comment.
Thanks for the tip about the backlight!
You're a legend!
Gee thanks!
Well DONE! Thanks SO much for share, video and information! All the BEST to you! Cheers !:)
Thank you Marty! You too!
👏👏👏 Great Info Video 😎👍
Glad it was helpful!
that's a great video! The ball bearing trick is something I never thought of. One day, I'll buy a vise..I'm not sure how I don't have one at this point. Thanks!
Yah, I realized after I made the video that the flaw is that not everyone has a vise - and a vise probably costs as much as a crimper.
If you press and hold the two outside buttons on the monitor for a couple of seconds it turns off the back light 💡 Great trick with the BB too 🙂
That's great - I'm gonna try that. Thanks
Your videos are amazing! I don't understand why you don't have more views! I just moved away from montreal, otherwise I would have asked if you wanted to meet up!
Thanks, I am glad you like them. And yes, the mysteries of youtube views!
I like making the videos to kinda give back to the video makers who have been so useful to me, so I am not too worried about the lack of views and subscribers and such.
use some 3m VHB tape to hold the shunt in place
also nice job using the ball bearing
Yes, good idea - I think I even have some from making some window bug screens! Thanks
New product KG140F battery monitor uses a color screen to display more beautifully and supports Bluetooth control by mobile phones.
I believe you can turn off the backlight in your battery monitor, you can press button V and % to turn on/off backlight.
Thanks, I'll give it a try.
Correct. This is in the Instruction sheet which you noted not to loose.
@@tonywhite5557 It actually wasn't on my instruction sheet. I might be a new feature.
@@averysmallcampervan I scanned & highlighted mine, but "this" won't let me add the scan. Pg2 under "Normal Operation", 5th item arrow > (pictograms are VERY small), press both left (V/) buttons at the same time to turn on/off the backlight.
@@tonywhite5557 Thanks I'll give it a try
Hello, very informative video. The best I've seen on this monitor. I am about to install one of these in my camper and I was trying to figure out if the ground that goes to the chassis should be on the shunt or if it should stay on the battery terminal. Looks like I should attach it to the shunt. Thanks! Looking forward to subscribing and watching move camper videos!
The ground stays on the battery terminal - the shunt is basically just "interrupting" the current between the battery and all the loads, to read the current and amperage on the way by. The ground is not part of that. ( a bit late replying, sorry)
Hi, and thanks for sharing this. As always, your setup is practical and ingenious, and the presentation a pleasure to watch. Could you tell us, in your particular model of Dodge Caravan, how you routed the wire from the engine compartment to the house battery compartment? Did you find an existing grommet in the firewall that you could use? Thanks in advance!
Hi Sam, the 4 AWG wire is routed through an existing grommet through the firewall.
This was one of the only things I payed someone else to do because the wires for a lot of other things run through that grommet and I was scared to mess up the vehicle wiring.
It looked like a pretty tight fit, so I got a guy at the local garage to do it for me and wire in the battery isolator and breaker too.
Thanks for the very helpful video. I really needed to see how all the pieces worked together. BTW when you build your plywood boxes do you just use butt joints, glue and pin nails?
Glad it was helpful! I use butt joints - glued and pinned - but also clamped with pipe clamps, etc. till dry
@@averysmallcampervan Thanks
I am so enjoying your videos and am in awe of your calm skills! I've gotten a bit hysterical at times with mine. :0) do you have a list of the components for your el system? I'm slow with el and have to look at everything individually and carefully. Thanks so much
Don't worry, it took me a long time to piece together what I needed and where to put them.
I'll put a more detailed list in the description... check back later today.
Longer description of components, with links is up. I'm not an affiliate, so source 'em where you like.
Sylvia, if you have a specific question for your system, I can try to give you a more specific answer, to the best of my knowledge..
Can you explain how you used a battery isolator safely without discharging your battery, etc.? Do you think a DC to DC charger which start at $120 USD are worth it? Thanks.
Hi there! The whole point of a battery isolator is that it isolated the car battery from the house battery unless the car is running, so it should not discharge the car battery.
There are different kinds of battery isolators, the one I have is a "smart" isolator in the sense that it detects the voltage in the car battery before opening the connection to charge the house battery, and should regulate the charging somewhat.
The isolator does have some weak points- one is that it never gets the voltage high enough to fully charge the house battery without help from a solar system and secondly, the charge profile (bulk, float charge, etc.) .
But the technology has evolved rapidly and a DC to DC charger is now the standard. If I did not already have the isolator installed I would definetly get a DC to DC charger.
There are some that are a combination of DC to DC and solar charge controller which sounds like a good use of the technology.
Hello great video! I was wondering if you used a 12 AWG wire for the shunt? I’m hoping that won’t be too big to fit. I have the same shunt
I used the same 4 AWG wire that connects the battery to the battery isolator/car battery.
The size wire will depend on the amps you expect to draw. I have no idea of your set up and I am not really the person to advise you.
Research wire sizes for different amps/distances.
Remember every bit of power is passing through the shunt, that is how it measures the current, etc.
Oh sorry I should’ve clarified. I meant to power the battery monitor!
From the shunt to the fuse box that you plug into the B+ on the shunt
@@Noahkreider Ah! big difference - that can be any size, 12 AWG is fine or you could even go to 16 or 18 as all it needs to power is the electronics of the monitor.
a very small camper van oh great! I wasn’t sure if the 12AWG would be too thick to fit into the opening
I have 2 100ah batteries. Do I set it for 100ah or 200ah
I've read on other reviews.
Depends whether you set up both batteries as a 200a 12v or 100a 24v.
24v set it 100a
12v set it 200a
I'm guessing you have lithium batteries?
thats a hillbilly way of a crimp but damn looks good
Thanks! I'll take that as a fine compliment indeed!
search on ebay for "tr16 monitor" and you'll find it on ebay for 20 - 30€ ... or 23 tp 33$
easiest search is "tr16 monitor 350"
Good to know