Initially Smartgauge™ defaults to an SoC of 75%. There are 4 very simple ways
this can be corrected:
1. If you know what the State of Charge is (for instance you may know the batteries
to be fully charged) you can enter the set-up menu and manually set the charge
status to what you know it to be. SoC can be manually set to any value between
0 and 100%. Enter the set-up menu as usual, then press the SET key until “Cxxx”
is displayed. Press and hold the SELECT button. The display will scroll from zero
to 100. When the desired value is displayed, press the VOLTS button. The display
will flash to show the value has been stored. The display will then move onto the
next menu item.
2. Charge or discharge the batteries to approach 75%. When the actual State of
Charge of the batteries and the displayed charge status meet, Smartgauge™ will
be in perfect synchronization with the batteries and will track the charge status
from that time onward.
3. Leave Smartgauge™ working for 48 hours. Use the battery system as usual,
Smartgauge will automatically catch up over the next 2-3 charge and discharge
cycles of the battery bank. Unlike all other battery state of charge meters currently
available, Smartgauge™ becomes more accurate the longer it is used. All other
battery state of charge meters become less accurate the longer they are used
and require multiple recalibrations.
4. The last method is to switch on a charging device and wait until you know the bat-
teries are fully charged (by the charger switching into float charge mode). Then
manually set the SoC to 100%.
Important Note
On initial power-up, the Smartgauge™ performs a system check to determine
whether the system voltage is 12 volt or 24 volt. Smartgauge™ does this by taking eight voltage readings and aver-
aging them. The Smartgauge™ decides whether this measured battery voltage indicates a 12- or 24-volt system. If,
at the time of this check, the battery voltage is outside the normal range, the Smartgauge™ may detect the wrong
system voltage. This is possible when Smartgauge™ is installed on a 24-volt system with extremely low battery volt-
age. The low voltage could result in the Smartgauge™ determining that the system is a 12-volt system. Alternately,
the Smartgauge™ could be connected to a 12-volt system with a faulty charger that’s applying high voltage to the
batteries. This would cause Smartgauge™ to incorrectly detect a 24-volt system.
If either of these happen, then Smartgauge™ simply will not operate. Once normal battery voltage is restored, the
Smartgauge™ will show a permanent HI or LO reading and an “E04” error. If this happens the solution is to reset the
monitor to factory default value, ensure the battery voltage is correct, and re-apply power.
SECTION 3.2 – CALIBRATING BATTERY CHARGE STATUS
PAGE 7
SECTION 3.3 – POWER UP FOLLOWING POWER LOSS
The Smartgauge™ must always be connected to the batteries being monitored in order to operate. It cannot operate
and accurately track the State of Charge of the batteries if the sense wire is disconnected from the house battery bank.
Should sensing voltage be disrupted, it may be necessary to revert to one of the four methods described in Section
3.2.
When a power failure occurs, the display will alternate between volts and “E01” (error 01 – lost power) until a key
is pressed. This is to alert the user to the fact that power has been lost. “E01” will continue to flash until a button is
pressed, if another error occurs the new error will not take over, “E01” will remain as the priority error. If the display
goes into sleep mode the error will always continue to flash. Again this is to alert the user to a problem.
The “E01” error alerts the user to the fact that power has been lost and therefore the charge status may no longer be
accurate. This is the sole reason for this error code. Once a button is pressed the display will move on to show a figure
– for example, 2.36 or 17.49 – This is the approximate time in hours and minutes since power was reapplied. It will
count up to a maximum of 99 hours and 59 minutes and will then remain at that display. This may help A) identify the
problem and B) make a better decision on whether the charge status will need to be reset or whether Smartgauge™
will have already re-synchronized itself.
