The following questions are those most frequently asked about VoltWatch. There is a separate section devoted to Useful Info which is not directly about VoltWatch. Solar Panels – is VoltWatch compatible? Yes. No limitations, but a compatible controller/regulator is essential to the health of your battery if the total output of your panel(s) is more than 15W. You may find the section on Solar Panels under Useful Info is informative. Mains chargers-is VoltWatch compatible? Yes, no limitations, but you may find the section on Mains Chargers under Useful Info is revealing. Wind/Water generators-is VoltWatch compatible? Yes, no limitations, but a compatible controller/regulator is essential to the health of your battery. Connection at the Fuse Panel -Can I connect VoltWatch at the fuse panel, which would be much easier? Yes. However, in a twin battery installation you will also need to connect to the positive of the starter battery and there is unlikely to be an existing supply from it at the fuse panel. If you do connect to the service battery at the fuse panel, and then find that VoltWatch seems to read low, you will need to check all the connections between VoltWatch and the battery on both negative and positive sides. Panel fuse-holders are a common source of bad connections - the contact to the fuse deep inside the holder is difficult to either examine or clean. 1-2-Both-Off Switch -how do I work out which connection is which on the switch? This is easily done when installing one of our Twin Battery Kits:- Click here to Download the instruction sheet. VoltWatch case – why isn’t it more stylish? The short answer is that ‘stylish’ increases costs significantly (for tooling to mould a bespoke case) and hence to the price, without any practical benefit. The whole VoltWatch design is the result of much careful thought, practical experience, and development since 1987. The case is ABS plastic, which is tough, shatterproof, doesn’t corrode, and solvent resistant. The case screws are in A4 stainless-steel and won’t readily rust or seize. The case is the smallest that will readily accommodate the electronics while still leaving enough space for easy panel mounting. Instead of attempting to seal such a small case, the electronics are coated in a self-healing silicon coating and the components are chosen to be as corrosion resistant as possible (the printed circuit board is of military quality with tin-plated tracks so there is no copper to corrode even if the coating is damaged). 3 Batteries -I have two service (domestic) batteries as well as an engine start battery, so won’t I need a ‘triple battery kit’ rather than a Twin Battery Kits? No, there are two possible ways that your batteries are connected. It is most likely that your pair of service batteries are permanently connected togetheras a ‘bank’ acting as a single large battery. In which case, you just need a twin battery kit, treating the bank as the service ‘battery’. Much less commonly, two service batteries are connected via a switch so that either one (or both) can be used as the service battery. In this case, the simplest, and probably best, way to connect VoltWatch is to use a twin battery kit and take the ‘service’ connection to the fuse panel side of the switch. VoltWatch would then show the state of whichever service battery is in use - to check the state of the other battery, switch over to it. In the case of a separate winch or bow-thruster battery, the additional components are available -see circuit. VoltWatch doesn’t work properly- my digital multimeter shows different change-over voltages to those specified (14.45V and 12.20V) Only calibrated multimeters are as accurate as the display implies. Uncalibrated meters are rarely more accurate than ±5% - despite what the specifications of some inexpensive meters claim!
