Morning,
I am looking to monitor a 12v battery in my boat so I can determine the charge level from my home. Are there any projects, ideas, or comments on how this can be done using the notecard to get the data to the cloud?
Hi @tekgeek1,
Welcome!
What are you trying to measure on your 12V battery? Do you already have a battery management system (BMS) in place? My suggestion would be to use something like a BMS + shunt designed for measuring lead acid batteries and then communicating with it using a microcontroller, gathering the data you require and then transmitting it via a Notecard.
Let me know if that sounds like a possible option for you,
Alex
Thanks for the reply! Right now, we are using 2 of the ANCEL BM200 but they are only BT so it does not really help to know the levels before going to the marina. I thought the Blues (series) could be a good solution to get the data we need to a cloud so it could be known.
I had a quick Google to see how the ANCEL BM200 works, and it looks like it’s only Bluetooth, as you mentioned.
I’m actually a boat owner myself and have a custom solution that uses a Victron SmartShunt + CerboGX for monitoring the health of my boat’s starter and house batteries. I have a custom piece of software running on the CerboGX that sends alarms to a Notecard, which in turn sends me alerts remotely.
This, however, is way more hardware than what’s required to do a simple battery monitoring application. I will say, however, that the Victron SmartShunt has a documented Bluetooth Protocol and individuals have written software to read it from a microcontroller, for example, this ESP32 project. If you are confident taking on such a project, you could start with their code and add a Notecard into the mix.
Alternatively, if you just want to ensure the battery is maintaining a healthy voltage, you could use something like an INA260 sensor (with a microcontroller of your choice) to measure the voltage of the battery.
Thanks,
Alex
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