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Bogart Engineering,
manufacturer of the TriMetric and PentaMetric
battery monitors.
19020
Two Bar Road, Boulder Creek, CA 95006 USA Phone:
(831) 338-0616
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The New PentaMetric Battery Monitor
The new PentaMetric battery monitor system offers a lot more
capability than the TriMetric monitor. It measures 1 or 2 battery systems
with a common negative. With one battery system, battery current plus two
charging sources/loads can be measured.
The Pentametric System consists of these components:
1. Data input unit to collect, process and log data (near batteries)
2. Optional readout unit (shown above) with 2 line LCD display and control
buttons
This connects to input unit with 4 wire cable up to 1000 feet away.
3. Optional computer interface with software to control and read out all
data.
Data may be accessed and controlled using either (or both) the optional LCD
or the computer interface.
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A Brief summary of
PentaMetric capabilities:
·Click for larger photo of display
unit
·Description of features and capability
system wiring diagram
·instruction manual
(Nov 1,2005 revision) This is 40 pages long (Acrobat PDF file)
Availability, and price:
The PentaMetric is available now. The "suggested retail" price for
the PentaMetric "Input unit" which collects and processes the data
is $219. With that you will need at least one of the following to read out
the data and program the system: The "Display unit" with LCD
display is $199. The "Computer interface" unit is $100. You can use
both together if you wish.
It is quite possible to have a workable system with the "Input
unit" and "Computer interface", which together is about $320.
The computer interface offers a more intuitive interface to the PentaMetric,
and also provides easy access to the "logged data". It is only
necessary to have the computer active when actually reading the data. At any
time the "Display unit" can be also added to provide continual access
when the computer is not on. The temperature sensor is $29, and up to three
shunts are necessary, depending on application and maximum currents being
measured. These are about $25 each.
If you have one of the 50 "early
edition" PentaMetrics Important update information :
(1)If you are using the computer interface be sure to
download the latest version of the "PMComm" software. (See below,
under "Latest PentaMetric users' information") Version 52 has one
important bug eliminated that caused "Periodic data" downloads to
include some erroneous data when the PentaMetric (logged data) memory is
full. Version 60 should be used if you have upgraded the "Input
unit" firmware to version 1.5, so the new logged Periodic data (made
possible by version 1.5) displays correctly.
(2) if you are using the relay output control be sure to
contact us for a new version of firmware. The version 1.1 firmware in the
input unit has a bug that causes the relay to sometimes operate incorrectly.
Version 1.2 corrects this problem. See under "current bug list"
below, next paragraph.
(3) The instructions have been revised to improve accuracy
and clarity. If you find something that is unclear or appears wrong in your
paper instruction copy you may want to look at a later revision on the
website. See below, under "Latest PentaMetric users' information"
to download the latest version.
Bounty for bugs:
This would be any malfunction that causes it not to work according to the
description or that causes operation to cease until power is removed and then
restored. We will pay $100 for the first person to discover any bug, provided
we can reproduce the bug ourselves. The best way to assure this is to be able
to reproduce it yourself, and tell us how to make it happen. However, even if
you can't reproduce it, if you describe how it occurred we may be able to
figure out what could have caused it based on what you report happened--, and
if we can you we will still receive $100. We will list here every bug
reported and confirmed for which we pay the $100.
Important bug regarding measurement of amps (above 50 amps on
channels 2 or 3 with 100A/100mV shunts) discovered by us in November 2006:
see bug list number 6:
Current bug list
Latest updated PentaMetric users'
information and downloadable files
 How to graph and
analyze renewable energy system performance using the PentaMetric logged data
(330 Kbyte) This describes in detail how to set up the PentaMetric
to graph data and analyze a renewable energy system using the
"Excel" spreadsheet program. You will also need to download the Excel
template file, just below.
Excel Template "PentaMetric
periodic data template02-04-06.xls" used for graphing PentaMetric data
This is the "Template" that is used with
"Excel" to graph PentaMetric logged data according to the
instructions in the document just above.
Latest version of
PentaMetric instructions (Nov 1,2005 revision) This is 40
pages long
Latest versions of the
"Windows" program: PMComm52, 69 and 73
This is the program for your computer that accesses data from the
PentaMetric computer interface RS232 port.
Latest file for making the front panel
(custom) label for PentaMetric "Display unit". You
need this file to use with Microsoft "Word" to make a front panel
for the PentaMetric display unit that is more "user friendly".
After assigning functions to each of the five top buttons according to the
way you want them you use this template to make a label that identifies each
function for the user.
Information for software
programmers: How to access PentaMetric data via the RS232 port This
is detailed technical documentation for programmers that want to write their
own programs to access the data in the PentaMetric.
Suggestions for improvements:
As we go along you may have ideas for improvements or changes to the
PentaMetric system. We already have started a list of some of these. As we
receive suggestions that we believe are consistant with the product
objectives we will add them to our list. Or if you see something on this list
that you really agree is something that would be useful you can tell us that,
too. Probabaly many of these may not get incorporated into the product--it
will depend on customer interest and the cost to actually make the changes.
List of suggested PentaMetric improvements
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Real Time Measurement capability
Basic measurements:
Volts (2 channels) 8-100 volts. For
example you can monitor volts from two battery systems. Or battery voltage,
plus the solar array voltage if you have a peak power point tracking
controller.
Amps, (3 channels) ±.01-200 Amps (with 100A/100mV shunt).±
0.1-1000 Amps (with 500A/50mV shunt) Each of
these requires a separate shunt. There are many different ways these can be
used. For example one channel can be used to keep track of battery system
energy content and the two remaining ones can be used for separate
measurement of two charging sources, such as total solar or wind production.
Or two battery systems can be separately monitored if they share a common
negative connection--and in addition one charging source could be separately
monitored.
Temperature -20 to +65 degrees C.
Secondary measurements derived from
basic measurements
Amp hour (3 channels) to ±83,000 Amp-hours
Cumulative (negative) battery amp hours. (2 channels) to
-1,000,000 amp-hours
This measures accumulated amp hours (usually
from a battery) only when the amps value is negative. Its purpose is to
measure the total cumulative 'wear' of batteries during their lifetime.
Smoothed (time filtered) Amps, with time constants of 0.5, 2
or 8 minutes (3 channels)
±.01-200 Amps (100A/100mV shunt).± 0.1-1000 Amps (500A/50mV shunt) For example, this can be used to show a more
accurage estimate of wind charging input when the wind source is varying in
speed.
Smoothed (time filtered) Volts (2 channels) 0-100 Volts. The smoothed values for both Amps and Volts are used
for triggering "alarm" and relay functions so very short term
anomolies will be ignored.
Watts(2 channels) ±.01- 20,000 watts
Watt-hours(2 channels) ±21,000 kilowatt hours?
Battery %full (2 channels) 0-100%
Days since batteries charged (2 channels) .01-250 days
Days since batteries equalized (2 channels) .01-250 days
Data logging functions.
There are 3 types of data logging functions. With the computer interface all
3 types can be output to spreadsheet file.
1. "Periodically logged data" can record any or
all of the following at regular intervals: once per day to up to once per
minute:
- Amp hours (3 channels)
- Watt hours (2
channels)
- Temperature max/min (1
channel)
- Volts (2 channels)
- Amps (1 channel)
- Batt%Full (2 channels)
2. "Battery discharge voltage profile"
data logs volts and amps every time charge level changes by 5% (or 10%) for 1
or 2 battery systems. This checks that battery capacity is still OK--.by
observing that battery voltage does not decline excessively as charge level
drops.
3. "Battery cycle efficiency data" documents
system efficiency for up to 2 battery systems. For each 'charge/discharge'
cycle it records: cycle length (hours), total amp hours charged, total amp
hours discharged, computed average 'self discharge' current and charge (amp
hour) efficiency.
Controls and alarms
Relay output
Control external relay to go on and off at specified voltage levels and/or
%battery state of charge levels. "On" and "off" levels can
be independently set.
Audible and visual alarms
Has audible or visual signal for 'Low voltage or low state of charge', 'High
voltage', 'battery is charged', 'too many days since charged', and 'too many
days since equalized'.
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