DIY Marine Battery Monitor using SensESP/ESP32 Install - Tech E16 - Après Sailing

In this Video, we install the Battery Monitor on Apres providing voltage, current flow (draw or charge) and temperature monitoring for my 3 batteries - House 1, House 2 and Start. The device will run a program based on SensESP from the Signal K team and interface with my Openplotter system on my boat Raspberry Pi. We have changed direction on the shunt to a 250µohm Shunt from a 500µohm Shunt that we were previously using. The new shunt will package better with the batteries without modification.
The data that the device will provide is as follows:
For Each Battery
Voltage
Current Draw (+) or charge (-)
Battery Temperature
State of charge
SV Après is a 1996 Hunter 336 Captained and Maintained by Jason and usually sailing out of Milwaukee's South Shore Yacht Club in Lake Michigan, one of the US's Great Lakes. The filming is done via GoPro's, DJI Mavic drone and iPhone and spliced together a bit hap hazardly.
Here are links to the products I used - most are Amazon affiliate links, which means I get a little commission and it cost you nothing
Firebeetle 2 ESP32-E - www.dfrobot.co...
Buck converter - amzn.to/3Z54veM
INA219 Current sensor boards - amzn.to/3EIlT1d
1-Wire Temperature sensors - amzn.to/3kkkZ3f
Ceramic Capacitors - amzn.to/3KjGs7s
Resistors - amzn.to/3IdH7VA
250µohm Shunt - www.aliexpress...
The code can be found on Github at:
github.com/Tec...
Here is a link to the SensESP documentation: signalk.org/Se...
And here is a link to the SensESP project template that you would need, before replacing the main.cpp and platform.io from my repository: github.com/Sen...
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[@tormodnicholasmortontorger205]

This is amazing, I've been trying to find a solution to measure high current with esp32 and finally it seems like there is a solution. I'm used to use shunts and battery monitors like TK100 but always wanted to make one my self to get it more custom

[@ApresSail]

Thanks, Good luck with your Project!!

[@yoyoke1]

Nice !

[@ApresSail]

Thanks!

[@HadrienDorfman]

And again a nice video :)) I'm refitting my (small) boat with solar and Electric motor. You gave me tons of idea and specially a proof of concept for using my beloved esp32s :) thanks!

[@ApresSail]

No Problem, Glad you enjoyed it - Let us know how your build goes!

[@qchatgreg]

nice video. a couple of observations. as you are using High side shunts … the two shunt voltge sense wires have full battery “energy” behind them …. and are running some distance from the battery to the ESP32 circuitry … hence it would be good practise (and safer) to fuse each of these wires “close” to the battery…

[@ApresSail]

Thanks for the feedback, I will probably add those!

[@andrealbero945]

Great channel. Thank you. Question: Why did you pick the INA219? I had better luck with INA226 (I am measuring the low side and also want to get bus voltage) but was there any other reasons? Also, sorry for the lazy question - I didn't look at your code yet - are you compensating the battery SOC using battery temperature?

[@ApresSail]

The INA219 was convenient for me - it was known to be working with SensESP and I was planning on using high side sensing so it fit. Actually, in hindsight, I would probably have gone INA3221 triple channel current/voltage sensor, but I didn't have confirmation it would work when I started the project, but now I believe it would. My SOC calc is very lazy, actually, it is not coulomb counting or temperature compensated, it is just looking at voltage and a lookup table that represents a lead acid battery discharge curve. Not overly accurate but I am going to see how it goes for this summer and maybe do an update in the fall

[@BeercanSailOr]

Advantage of putting the shunt on the high side is that the low side remains at ground level. It is preferable to have solid electrical ground throughout the boat, less chance for inadvertent ground loops or other ground noise issues.