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8.0 Using a BMK
8.0 Using a BMK
This section discusses how to set up and monitor Magnum’s BMK (Battery
Monitor Kit) using the menu options in the ME-RC remote.
8.1
Setting Up the BMK using the ME-RC
Use the BMK SETUP menus to establish your battery’s charge ef
fi
ciency and
to set the capacity of the battery bank (AH size). Use the ME-RC remote’s
METER button to access the Charge Ef
fi
ciency menu (see Figure 8-1 below).
METER
press
Status...
05 BM: Setup
rotate
to
Status...
01 INV/CHG Meter
view
press to
select
Figure 8-1, Accessing the BM Setup Menu
8.1.1 Charge
Ef
fi
ciency Setting
What is charge ef
fi
ciency?
When a certain amount of energy is removed or
discharged from the battery, this removed energy will need to be returned to
keep the batteries at a 100% state of charge. As batteries are being charged,
they lose energy; either in the form of heat, or while gassing. This loss of
energy while charging means the battery will not be fully charged if you
only return the current that was removed. To compensate for the battery’s
inef
fi
ciencies while charging, a charge ef
fi
ciency setting is provided. The
charge ef
fi
ciency setting compensates the
AH I/O
(Amp-Hrs In/Out) reading
by ensuring the AH returned to the battery are greater than the AH removed.
Example:
The
AH I/O
display reads “
000”
and you begin powering a 25-amp
load for two hours—the display will show
-050
. This indicates that you have
discharged 50 AH (2 x 25) from the battery. If the charge ef
fi
ciency setting is
set to
95%
, then as you begin charging and return 50 AH, the AH I/O reading
will be less than zero, indicating that the AH removed have not been fully
returned. The 95% charge ef
fi
ciency setting requires 52.5 AH (50/95) to be
returned before the AH I/O returns to 0.
8.1.1.1 Accessing the Charge Ef
fi
ciency Setting
Normally, the ME-BMK battery monitor automatically calculates the battery’s
ef
fi
ciency. To change from the
Auto
default setting, press the ME-RC remote’s
METER button. After pressing the METER button, the
01 INV/CHG Meter
menu should appear; from this menu, rotate the SELECT knob to the
05 BM:
Setup menu
to access and adjust the
Charge Eff
menu (see Figures 8-1 and
8-2).
• Charge
Eff
–
This setting allows the battery monitor to calculate
the battery’s charge ef
fi
ciency. The charge ef
fi
ciency can be calculated
automatically using the
Auto
setting, or can be calculated based on a
fi
xed
ef
fi
ciency value that either you have determined, or were recommended to use.
Default setting:
Auto
Range:
Auto, 50%-99%