After our interview with Ralph Hiesey of Bogart Engineering, I learned a lot about their new battery monitor and solar charge controller.  I found it very intriguing.

I’ve been enjoying my TriMetric 2020 monitor for years.  It allows me to very closely monitor my batteries performance.  You press a single button and cycle through readouts that display battery voltage, current, and percent of battery charge.

Now with my new solar panels, I can see when the batteries are charging while boondocking.  One problem I noted though, was the need to look at the solar controller to see how much current was coming in from the panels, then look the battery monitor to see how much the batteries were getting.  Since my trailers layout separated these panels, it was kind of  a pain.

Bogart Engineering recently released a solar charge controller called the SC2030 that connects to their TriMetric 2030A monitor. The SC2030 is a PWM 30 amp controller.

SC2030 Solar Charge Controller

The nice thing about the TriMetric and SC2030 combo is that the Tri-Metric knows the exact status of the battery charge state because it is tracking the power in and out of the battery all the time.  With the monitor knowing this information, it can instruct the solar controller to charge your battery the most efficient way.

Another benefit is that you can read all the information about your system in one place.  The TriMetric monitor talks to the SC2030 via a data link.  So, not only do you get a status of your battery and how much power is going in and out of them, you can read how much power is coming in from the solar panels.

The two devices can work independently.  If you don’t have solar, you can still benefit from the TriMetric.  The SC2030 charge controller can also operate solo, but the real benefit is when the two work together.

TriMetric 2030A Battery Monitor

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