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lngbster avatar image
lngbster asked

SmartShunt power options

I have two 6 volt battery banks in series and then put in parallel. When installing the 500A smartshunt I'd like to ask a few questions.

- The way the batteries are located, due to space, the negative that the shunt will be installed on has some distance 6' or so, to the load positive side. Is there any reason I can't just hook that power to the closet positive on the same 6 v that the shunt is installed on?

- If I have to go to the load positive I have a disconnect that I turn off when the travel trailer is parked. During that time my solar still charges the batteries through the MPPT charge controller. I'm trying to come up with a good reason to leave the shunt powered on during these sitting times between trips. If I connect it to the disconnect it would cut the power to the shunt. Any pros/cons to this approach?

SmartShunt
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Alexandra avatar image
Alexandra answered ·
@lngbster

Cons of disconnected shunt. Inaccurate soc. Which is its whole job.

If you are ok with that then you are fine.

In connection of the shunt you want to connect to the most positive and most negative of the bank as the point of the shunt is to measure the entire bank.

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kevgermany avatar image
kevgermany answered ·

As Alexandra said, positive to the 12V side of the batteries. But put it directly on the battery. There's no significant current through the positive side. And no need to disconnect.

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sms72 avatar image
sms72 answered ·

My situation seems similar. I want to power the shunt from a POSITIVE bus bar that the battery bank feeds ( to keep the cables that attach directly to the batteries to a minimum ). How woudl this affect the readings of the battery bank.. The Charger POSITIVE woudl also be connected to that BUSS along with an inverter

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JohnC avatar image JohnC ♦ commented ·
@sms72

That power cable also provides a Voltage reading for the shunt to work with. Under high current flow there may be a V difference if you have undersize wire or dicky contacts. You could test for that, but if it's hardly measurable then probably wouldn't matter.

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