[QUOTE=bgeery;15310]I understand wanting to look at the information for the “gadget factor”, but full time monitoring of individual batteries is almost useless for taking care of your batteries IMHO. Spend less money on a good pack-level monitor like the Cycle Analyst, and occasionally hook up a cheap multimeter to each battery and go for a quick 60 second drive to test individual batteries.
Also, if you ever convert to lithium, the batt-six needs to be replaced anyway, or live with monitoring 4 cells each and losing individual cell monitoring.
Batt-six is “cool”, but other solutions would provide more actually useful information to the user.[/QUOTE]
The BattSix is pricy but I’m a person that values seeing the cells with real data under load. Going through the effort (on mine at least) of having to stop, remove the seat, remove the battery cover, hook up a DVM, put it all back together, go for a ride, write down the readings, return and repeat the process 5 more times isn’t something that’s going to happen very often in my world at least. I imagine I’m not alone in that.
On my shelf are 6 analog edge panel meters I bought to use before buying the BattSix and they would have worked fine, but in the end, I was not willing to devote the space needed for 6 panel meters stacked side by side for this purpose someplace inside the cab and making an external pack would have simply gotten lost in my garage. About the time I got the drill out to start making holes, I contacted BattSix and ordered the Android one. It wasn’t that expensive given his discounts.
Now it’s installed, and I get the information I need. Pain over, usability started. It only hurts once.
I’m sure there are other solutions out there. Mine would have been about $100 for the surplus meters a few relays and some wire, a switch and connectors.
For about twice that, everything was made for me, didn’t take up dash space I didn’t have to make holes, and gave me information essential to living with a battery array over time without removing the seat repeatedly after installation. There are a lot of folks out there that run golf carts and LSV’s that don’t know what a meter is. But having said that, there are plenty that do and money matters so people have to find their own comfort.
My parents would run it dead and call me unless I had something they could monitor that they could understand. They live 3200 miles away.
For the folks that know their stuff, it could be considered a gadget, I guess, but for those that don’t, this is a valuable aid in preventing problems and beneficial toward analyzing those problems when they do occur.
One other factor is Richard at BattSix is very responsive to all customer contact and support. This is a large benefit for many.
