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26/9/2012 at 8:30am
Location: None Entered Outfit: Coachman Pastiche
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I think there is some confusion here. Amp Hours is generally considered to be the capacity of the battery which doesn't change except as the battery breaks down. It is the number of amps that can be drawn from the battery for an hour before it is flat. I think what you are actually asking for and I may be wrong is either something to indicate the "fullness" for want of a better word of the battery or is it an average charge or discharge rate since the system was last reset? For example if the battery has had an average of 5 amps put into it for an hour, that would have had what you are referring to as 5 amp hours charge. If it had an hour of 10 amps and an hour of 5 amps, the result would be 7.5 amp hours charge? Whatever is added, then it is important not to make the power consumption too high. I have got the system running on 3 mA at the moment which is pretty negligable. If we start getting into powering some kind of mobile internet access then this is going to increase, as is the cost of running it as there will be mobile dada costs plus the additional hardware. I like the idea of data logging, but I suspect that in the interests of power conservation it would be better to have the data downloadable by either USB or possibly by activating a blue tooth interface manually which would normally be powered down. Either of these is a relatively cheap and easy option, particularly the USB option. I am not in the business of developing things like this at the moment so I am not touting for business at all, however if there is enough interest, I may have to reconsider that as I have also been working on several other non-caravan related projects with the hope that I may hit upon something that is commercially viable. As I said in my original post, all suggestions or requests are welcome. One of the boards I bought in is the data aquisition device so if I add data logging I will have to develop my own alternative to that although that is not a big issue it will take time.
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28/9/2012 at 7:25pm
Location: None Entered Outfit: Coachman Pastiche
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Thanks birder. I think you are right about the discharge rates actually. Personally I am happy looking at the voltage to ascertain how much power is left in the battery, but someone has asked about comparing the charge and discharge rates so I didn't want to dismiss it but as you say, it is not going to give any better indication of what is left in the battery than a simple volt meter.
I have been away in the winter and not had any problems with my aqua roll and agree that it is not going to be a problem for most, but you do see a lot of people asking the question about protecting their aqua roll from freezing in the winter, so an automated protection may well be of interest to them.
There is a conflict here though between what I required, something primarily to monitor my battery and solar panel and something to monitor the temperature of the aqua roll and heat it if needed. The former requiring something with a minimal power consumption, but the latter my virtue of it heating an aqua roll is going to be power hungry and not something you want to be running without EHU. Of course, the system could disable some features depending on whether the EHU is connected, an easy detection to make.
I have essentially a working prototype installed in my caravan, but I think I will need to replace the processor with one of my own design and program so that it is not PC dependent and can run a data logger so that the data can be uploaded to a PC for further analysis while displaying locally on an LCD display.
So far the critical inputs required are the current sensor to detect the charge or discharge at the battery, a voltmeter across the battery. I do like the temperature sensor on the battery as I think it could help diagnose imminent battery failure, though without an external temperature sensor to compare this too it is of limited value, so I think two temperature sensors minimum would be better.
Then onto the aqua roll, a level sensor, ideally analogue would be nice although I am not convinced it is that beneficial, it is not that difficult to give the aqua roll a shake when you go past. Actually a cheaper alternative to the level detection might be to weigh the aqua roll to calculate the water level by weight.
A temperature sensor in the aqua roll could be useful, with EHU it could be used to heat the aqua roll, without maybe just put a warning light on in the caravan.
An easily readable gas level detection would be good, but with many different size and weight bottles, it's not something that can be easily achieved without getting very expensive.
Any other thoughts would be welcome so I can start writing the software.
As I said earlier, the idea is to make it easily customisable to suit different people although to do that, you have to anticipate what may be required in the future so that you don't preclude future development by making a wrong turn in the early stages.
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