Hopefully the cylinder head will be going back on Thursday so this week is full on boat week. Last week I was over in the cold putting the Victron BMV-712 battery monitor head unit in place. I wanted it to look like it was put in when I did the Smartgauge, it should have been as the Smartgauge is good at telling you what you have left but it does not tell you when the batteries are full...
I had to swap out the 15mm copper tube to 22mm, which lived for many years in the loft of a large house (sons flat) in Blackheath London. So I like to think it's retired to the canals. Anyhow the copper is used as a flashy conduit and needed to take two control cables and some power cables for the Smartgauge.
Incidentally I liked the BMV-712 as the head unit is powered via the control cable so no need to run power up to the head unit. The power goes from the two battery banks to the shunt.
Today I was on the boat painting the the block to make it look a bit tidier before the heads go onto it. I set to getting the wiring ready for the shunt. The shunt will have to live on top of the battery bank on a small wooden platform. I've invested in a decent bus bar (with cover) that'll help me wire up the shunt. This will live on the wooden platform with the shunt. (pics to follow)
One small annoyance was the shunt has M10 bolts (it's a decent shunt) but the batteries and all the cabled to them are M8. So the Bus bar is all M8 bolts x 4. But it still means I needed to make up a couple of battery cables M10 to M8 .... so here is the reference to the title, my crimping tool.
A few battery jobs back I ended up at Streethay Wharf as I need a specific length battery cable. I took the cable and they charged me a tenner to crimp two ends to it.... jump forward to my next job, IIRC it was a re-cable of my leisure batteries to make the charging as level as possible, I invested in a hydraulic cable connector clamp.
I spent an enjoyable hour making up a couple of short cables to get the M10 to M8 to and from the shunt.
I have a fairy light box (yes that is what I typed) that I am going to use as a cover for the shunt to tidy the whole install up. What I should have also said is I spent this morning altering the battery box cover, which also is a step in the engine room to take the extra height when the shunt is on top of the batteries. I intend making a complete new cover as this one is not now ideal but I was pleased I did it out of a piece of reduced decking from B&Q.
I had enough to make a shelf for the bench grinder that was on my workbench but vibrated it so much stuff fell from all over while I was using it !!
Back tomorrow to complete the install and add some more paint to the block.
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