5. Useful Information for everyday users
See also the Trimetric Installation guide and TriMetric Technical Manual for more information
5.2 A useful display item for seeing if your batteries are being properly charged
If you partially drain your batteries on a daily basis, we suggest understanding the new display function on the TM-2030 called
"
Replaced Percentage from Last Discharge
" This is listed as a secondary display shown near the bottom of the TM-2030
front panel, identified as “
rPC”
.
This will be of lesser significance when your batteries are charged and on “float” most
of the time—when this may go to high values
. Many battery companies recommend that when recharging your batteries that
you completely replace the amount of charge most recently discharged by your batteries, plus add an additional
percentage. This depth of discharge is recorded by the TM-2030 during the previous discharge. For "wet cell" lead acid
batteries it is often recommended that 110-120% be replaced. For AGM type (sealed) batteries 104-108% is often
suggested. At the end of a day of solar charging, the “
rPC”
(“replaced percentage”) display will tell you how much you have
replaced. This level of charge may not happen every day—however if less than the ideal is achieved for a day or two, it would
be good to go even higher on subsequent days if possible. Soon after you start discharging your batteries again this will read
0%—to anticipate the next day's recharge.
New with Version 2.2 of the TM-2030 monitor
With this version, it is possible when viewing “
rPC
” function, to push and
hold the RESET button to momentarily observe the previous depth of discharge in amp hours upon which the
rPC
percentage
is based. This is useful, because if this discharge was small compared with your battery capacity, a large value of
rPC
should be
of much less, if any concern.
5.3 A useful display item to see if you have extra solar power in the afternoon
When charging with solar, often in the afternoon the batteries will begin to accept less solar energy—and as a result this energy
may be wasted although it could be used for some extra loads, such as a dishwasher or vacuum. With the TM-2030 connected,
there is a “secondary display” item that is not shown on the front panel called “
UPr”
(Unused power) which displays this. If
most of the solar power is now surplus (because the batteries are getting well charged),
"YES"
will show on the display. If a
lesser amount, the display will indicate the approximate number of watts that are being wasted. Refer to the
Quick Reference
Guide
, section 2.1 Also listed there is information about observing solar amps (“
SOL”)
and battery temperature (
ºC
).
5.4 For information about the meaning of the LED lights on the SC-2030 charger
Section 6 in this
SC-2030 User's Manual
describes in detail the meaning of the various charging modes referred to there.
5.5 There are two different standards you can select to define a “full charge.”
The highest (more stringent) standard is selected by using TM-2030 program P7 to choose
L4
instead of
L1, L2,
or
L3
which
use a lower standard, which requires only that the battery voltage exceed the value in P1, and that the charging amps be less
than P2. The L4 level requires that in addition either the required "absorb time" or "percent overcharge" be achieved, such
that the "float" state has been reached. This establishes a better, but more difficult, level to reach. Refer to the
TM-2030
User's Instructions
, section 6.2 for details.
5.6 Using History Data to diagnose system problems
The TM-2030 (TriMetric) makes history data available when the user level P7 has been set to “L2,” “L3,” or “L4” in
programming code “P7.” History is recorded daily for the past five days or the last five charge cycles, depending on the
parameter. This data can be used to diagnose some system problems. Please refer to the
TM-2030
User’s Instructions,
section
6.3 for instructions on interpreting this data.
6. Technical information for interested and advanced users
6.1 Charging lead acid batteries—basic information
Charging a battery is very different than loading a tank with gasoline. First, when filling a tank it is very clear when the tank is
full, and trying to overfill simply results in gasoline being spilled without any damage to the tank. Second, using up the
gasoline until the tank is completely empty may be inconvenient, but again that does not damage the tank, even if the tank
remains empty for a long time. Thirdly, filling the tank slowly or fast, whether the weather is hot or cold, or whether one is
starting from a nearly-empty or nearly-full tank, does not affect the eventual amount of gasoline in the tank. Finally, a fuel
