in what order?

[pjwooly]

Hi guys I am running a volt meter and a solar controller between the solar panel and arkpak.

Can someone please tell me in which order I should run these...

volt meter to controller or the other way or does it matter??

Thanks for reading.

Pjw.

 

[tweak'e]

depends on what your trying to measure. battery voltage or panel voltage?
battery voltage will tell you more about the state of charge. current meters will tell you how much is going in and out of the battery.

 

[Old.Tony]

I put one of these directly onto my battery. By looking at it, I can see if my battery is charged or not, or discharging. You have to use the shunt - what it does is induce a voltage drop across it, which varies according to how much current is passing through it. By reading the voltage on both sides, you know how much current is going through. The only problem is distance. Mine reads current nicely when the display is directly connected to the shunt, but when I put it on the end of a cable in the cabin where it's useful, the voltage drop on that cable is sufficient to make the amp reading useless. It still measures voiltage accurately.

You could put it directly on the panel but apart from curiosity's sake, the only real thing it will tell you is whether the sun's up or not!