Battery Meter

[arc]

I've got a small system, consisting of:
2ea 6V-200Ah AGM's
1hp PM Conversion Wind Genny
37 Watts Solar Panels
1250 Watt Inverter
15 Amp Iota 3-stage Charger
Indoor DC Panel and an AC Panel with two 15A breakers to two house circuits

Currently, I use a digital, hand-held volt meter to monitor what's going on.
I'd like to add an Amp Hour meter so I can monitor my batteries SOC.

I've been looking around and found the Tri-Metric model 2020 and see that at least a few of you use this. It looks like a good meter, It's high on my list.
I also found the DOC Wattson model R102 Digital Panel Meter.
http://www.rc-electronics-usa.com/ammeters/r102-amp-hour-specs.html

It's about half the price of the Tri-Metric and looks like it may serve my purposes but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or suggestions or had any experience with it.

I'm definately on a limited budget for this project/hobby.

Thanks for any input on your preferences and/or suggestions for other meters.

Dave
(Arc)

[watermanhfl]

Hi,

See my March 4th comments on same meter.  I have the Watts up version of same meter and it works well.  To make is more permenant I placed it inside a small black plastic box with cut-out size of display.  When weather is below 30 degree.F the display is a bit hard to read out in my battery box.

[arc]

Hi Watermanhfl,

I would definately go with the Doc Wattson version just to keep from having to reset it often. I hadn't been to the site that was linked in the post you mention, so it was good to get a little more info on it.

Everyone that uses/ owns one of these seems to like it. It has all the info that I need for monitoring my little system, so I will probably get one.

I was thinking of mounting it inside a small box to mount on the wall near my DC load center inside. I would also mount a reset switch on the box.

Thanks for your comments there and here.

Dave

(Arc)