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AMMeter(s) in a redundant system

humptybump

Well Known Member
The Van's electrical diagram installs a ammeter between the battery and the alternator. Thus, the gauge shows battery draw or charge.

For those with modern panels, EMS, configurable panels, etc. What do you measure and/or show ?

Some options I am considering are:

  1. measure the current between the battery and the alternator just as Van's describes
  2. measure the individual current loads for the battery and the alternator (and the backup battery if one exists) - this would require isolating the battery charging circuit(s)
  3. measure the current between the battery and the alternator but also measure the current load of the backup battery
  4. something else

I am already planning on monitoring voltage for each source.
 
I expect you will find proponents of every different architecture possible.
It is up to individual taste.

I chose to measure alternator outputs per Aeroelectric recomendations.
I have 2. The standard alternator and a vacuum pad unit. Hall effect sensors on each.
 
I have three hall effect sensors

1. Between alternator and start solenoid on #6 ga.
2. Between main battery and start solenoid on #2 ga.
3. Between aux battery and E-bus on #10 ga.
 
2 alt & one Ammeter

I went with on ammeter shunt since I only need to see the amps produced to the main buss, it does not matter which provides the power the main or the standby alternator. I ran this by Bob N. over at Aeroelectric and he thought it should work. Saves some wires with the hall effect and or second shunt and gauge.

My set up goes like this; Main alt to an ANL (Current limiter) this protects the Alt wire. Then after the ANL and before the Ammeter shunt I tied in my Stby Alt B-Lead and protect it with a fuseable link. I used the down stream post on the ANL. This way my Amp meter will read the amp draw from what ever is sending power to the buss. I have not fired the engine up yet but should in the next week. I have run the operational (no engine running tests) and all seems to work well. Turn off the Main Alt Field and the Stby Alt On light comes on with associated changes to the field circuits.

The Stby Regulator is at a lower set point than what the main alternator puts out so it just idles until needed. Some keep it off and manually turn it on when needed, Bob said the regulator is set up so you can keep the Stby Alt field switch to on and just let it do itd magic when needed. This should notify you of a main alt failure sooner since the Stby On lights up as soon as it starts to provide power, no need to notice low voltage.

Cheers
 
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