Tenergy Watt Meter

[Wayne49]

I posted this on an existing thread where the Tenergy meter was referenced.

I purchased a Tenergy High Precision RC Watt Meter & Power Analyzer with Backlight LCD #01446.
I am using it to track the charge coming from the solar charger. Example #2 in the instruction manual, see attached image.

I made the connections at night.

Come morning I find the controller/charger is inactive.

I connected with powerpoles and verified the powerpoles are good through the meter with VOM, near zero ohms.
I verified the current flows when the meter is not in loop.

When the meter is in place the solar charger does not pass any charge.
Remove the meter and the charger applied charge to the batteries.

Charger is a Renogy Commander 40amp.

The wiring diagram for this application shows "plug - plug jumper wires" between the meter and the battery. I am not sure what that is about.

I think that doesn't apply when using powperpoles.

Connections are red (+) to red (+) and black (-) to black (-) at both ends.

I purchased two meters. I haven't installed powerpoles on the second meter. I could do that to check if the first meter is defective.

Any ideas? I don't see anything in the instructions about having to do any programming on the meter.

Thanks in advance .

[sternwake]

These wattmeters only count current flow in one direction. be sure you got the source and load sides right, with the solar being the source to the controller the controller being the source to the batteries.

It should be basically invisible to the controller.  

Does it light up wioth power on either powerpole, then it is Passing current, if it is backwwards it will display no ciurrent though.

[sternwake]

Try Testing the unit powering a load instead of measuring solar current.

These are very easy to take apart.  The + wire only has the insulation stripped  from a section in the middle and soldered to the top part of the circuit board. The - wire is cut and each end is soldered to a shunt adhered to the other side of the circuit board.

If either end is attached to a live powerpole it will light up and read voltage.

it only reads current unidirectionally, if it is backwards it will say 0.00 amps and 0 watts, but still read voltage.
The other little 4 pin port on the side is for powering the unit from a separate power supply/battery.  I've never bothered using that.

I've had many of these, and failures of them have been induced by me attempting to solder 8awg leads replacing the 12awg, or smashing them to little pieces for glaring  inaccuracy, or the one time a 60+ volt spike fried the display.
Even when the display was fried it still passed current.

I have taken some apart, that instead of one solid red wire soldered to the +, when I melted the solder, there were two wires soldered to it. I can see if one of these + wires was not soldered on the display would light up but no current would/could pass.
Anyway should be easy enough to test Hook power to one powerpole on the input and then one on the output, of either does not light up the display...bingo.
Resoldering the Red is easy, soldering to the shunt is much more difficult as it is in between two circuit boards which can be  gently pried apart for more access. Since the red wire has NO shunt, that wire needs only to touch the pad and a bypass wire jumper the red powerpole to powerpole instead of attempting to resolder two wires at the circuit board.

Let us know what you find.

I've not had a Tenergy branded watts up clone, many many other clones though. and they are all extremely similar in build and function.

[Wayne49]

Thanks. I was thinking of other ways to test the meter to make sure it functioned.

Powerwerx sells the same unit, but labeled Powerwerx. $40 with the Powerpoles already installed. I can see how that might be a good deal. Still would have to put Powerpoles on the load and source.

https://powerwerx.com/watt-meter-analyze...-powerpole

As it turns out it was the crimping of the powerpole connector that slightly bent the tongue, such that it seemed solid, until it was mated to the solar charger's powerpole. Testing the setup disconnected with a VOM would not detect this type of fault.

I gently un-bent the tongue and received the click when it was fully inserted. The same fault had occurred on the second unit, this time it was on the side that connects to the battery, so nothing lit up and it was obvious there was an issue with that connector. I found the fault on the second unit, then inspected the first unit's connection to the charger and found the same issue.
I've done a few MC4 connections, but not very many powerpoles, if any at all, though I had purchased the components a couple of years ago. Powerpoles are very exacting, and as a result very secure. Now that I have some experience, I'll look to using powerpoles more often where applicable.

I'm installing the meter to get actual numbers on the daily load for future battery updates. The Northstar AGMs are enticing. A lot more lead (assuming from the 12 lb difference in weight for group 24) than the Walmart batteries I have at the moment.

Hopefully I'll see some data in the daytime.

[Wayne49]

I am measuring the output of the solar charger (source) to the battery bank (load). The solar is the only charge source at the moment and when I am dispersed. I have a setup to charge from shore power (a no light, no button, "black box", Boondocker 60amp), but it is not switched on at this time for testing.

Luckily, Amargosa has a Weather Underground PWS that tracks solar radiation for MOAR data. Crunch, crunch.

[sternwake]

These wattmeters and the multitude of clones, can be had for much less than Tenergy or the Powerwerks ones. My current favorite is this one:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/200-Amp-Watt-Me...2024!US!-1

Some can be had from China for under 8$ too

Do realize the limitations of these, in that they only count upto 64.4 amp hours. The link above displays KWH, wrongly. If yours has a clock, time it against a real clock. These are not really good at reading low currents, some are better than others.

I really like these for measuring loads, for a period of time, but I do not take their readings as lock stop tried and true. The linked one above reads down to low amperages, 0.06 or so pretty accurately, and voltage is spot on or very close with my digital multimeter. I have others which read 0.15v low, which is a bit ridiculous for something claiming 'precision' but this same one also reads amperages in a certain range quite accurately and is more than good enough for many loads.

I have Anderson Powerpoles everywhere. i also have tried the slightly cheaper clones. They all mate together end to end and side to side. Genuine Anderson's are better but likely only noticeable (as heat) when passing near their max amperage rating for a while . I've started my engine through 2 sets of 45 amp powerpoles. They might even be non genuine clones.

The crimper price is a bit hard to stomach, but it does save significant time and insure a better crimp. I put off acquiring one for longer than I should have. One can use different dies inside the Specific anderson crimper too.

The Northstar group 27 was an incredible Dual purpose battery. Still is in many ways, it just does not have the CCA to still start my engine. I am not sure the new NS group 31 is 10Ah capacity and 120 more CCA more capable. It is not really broken in yet. Starts my engine quite quickly.

I

Sucks to have one ammeter but only one and cannot truly trust its reading.

Anderson powerpoles 45 amp contacts crimper onto 8awg is difficult to achieve without some practice. I destrand the 8awg to 10AWG thickness using the wire cutters that are designed to strip wire insulation from 10-12 wire to do this, then crimp in the anderson crimper, and could stop there, but then I aim the hook part up, cover it in flux, and solder over the seam and stranding careful not to get solder it near the hook. 8AWg insulation is too thick to fit inside the anderson housings. I use a brand new sharp razor blade to reduce the thickness of the wire insulation tapered to fit square into the housing. If I do not hear the click when inserting I know I need to pull it back out and shave a bit more insulation off.

[Wayne49]

I was reviewing this thread to see the AH value at which the watt meter AH reading rolls over.

I notice there was confusion over the "source" that I was passing through the watt meter. The watt meter's source is the solar charge controller's connection to the battery bank, not reading directly from the panels themselves.

[Wayne49]

I added 200 watts of solar hooked up to a Renogy Rover 20 amp MPPT to charge along with a Renogy Commander 40 amp MPPT fed by 400 watts of solar. Each has a watt meter attached.

What I am seeing is that the Commander is not very commanding. The more powerful (?) 40 amp controller goes into passive mode early and lets the 20 amp Rover do the bulk of the charging. As long as it happens, the details are irrelevant.

Really, that is what a Commander does in real life, delegates work to a subordinate.

[Roadtripp]

Is there a problem? Have you found a remedy?  Can you simply turn the float voltage of the Commander up a fraction of a volt so it keeps charging longer than the Rover?. Or turn the float voltage of the Rover down a fraction of a volt so it drops into float charge before the Commander?  Are they set at the same voltages now? 
 Some charge controllers can be synced together with a networking cable. One becomes the Master. 
 I haven’t done this but I suppose a high voltage disconnect on the Rover could be used to force it to dropout and let the commander take over.
I suppose it might not matter unless the Commader doesn’t want to drop back into bulk charge when necessary. Combining equipment gets dicey sometimes.

[Wayne49]

Thanks.
The battery bank is not getting back to the peak capacity of the previous day. The charging seems to be fading when there is more solar yet to be harvested. Around middle of the solar day and after, I see the BMS AH display going down from the peak AH, when at the least it should stay at peak until later in the solar day.

It does make sense that the controllers are seeing a voltage that makes both quit working hard for the day and the Commander quits much earlier. Not much charging occurs after about when solar is approaching peak of the daily curve. Nearby Weather Underground PWS site provides solar radiation w/m2 every five minutes.

The Commander has no display or control interface, maybe was an extra cost option. Renogy has stopped selling the Commander, but the same units are now sold under EPEVER brand.
The Rover does have a display and buttons, I 'll look into adjusting the float voltage there.