Hi folks,
I need some help. I purchased a Victron BMV-700 battery monitor to help me monitor amp draw (and see what's sucking so much dang power) and am trying to install it myself without going to a shop.
I've read the nice Marine How-To guide probably 10 times by now: https://marinehowto.com/installing-a-battery-monitor/ But their example setup is a nice, clean, wall-mounted demonstration:
and what I'm looking at is much more of a mess:
So my understanding from their example is that I need to have the following:
1. ONE connection from the positive side of my batteries (do the batteries need to be connected via positive for this?) to the positive plug on the shunt.
2. The system ground attached to the "bottom" of the shunt
3. The "top" of the shunt connected to a bus that has the various negatives/grounds of the system attached.
3a. Obviously looking at the back of the AC panel, I won't be running every negative system line to the shunt/negative bus bar...is there kind of a collected, panel-wide negative ground somewhere on the back of the AC panel? If so can you point it out to me?
It's mad spaghetti back there and I am a little more intimidated than I felt going into it before I opened up the AC panel.
I need some help. I purchased a Victron BMV-700 battery monitor to help me monitor amp draw (and see what's sucking so much dang power) and am trying to install it myself without going to a shop.
I've read the nice Marine How-To guide probably 10 times by now: https://marinehowto.com/installing-a-battery-monitor/ But their example setup is a nice, clean, wall-mounted demonstration:
and what I'm looking at is much more of a mess:
So my understanding from their example is that I need to have the following:
1. ONE connection from the positive side of my batteries (do the batteries need to be connected via positive for this?) to the positive plug on the shunt.
2. The system ground attached to the "bottom" of the shunt
3. The "top" of the shunt connected to a bus that has the various negatives/grounds of the system attached.
3a. Obviously looking at the back of the AC panel, I won't be running every negative system line to the shunt/negative bus bar...is there kind of a collected, panel-wide negative ground somewhere on the back of the AC panel? If so can you point it out to me?
It's mad spaghetti back there and I am a little more intimidated than I felt going into it before I opened up the AC panel.