Battery Monitor Project

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by TikiTech

Also check your battery cables, many work loose after a few matches with big hitters.

Aloha!
An easy way to keep battery hardware from coming loose is to add a #10 star washer between the terminals before you assemble. This little addition prevents the wire terminal from slipping around on the battery terminal. Without the slip, the normal battery hardware (#10 screw, lockwasher and nut) cannot loosen.
A search here on CD will give you a lot of posts on battery health. No voltmeter will give you an accurate measure of battery health without monitoring while connected to a load. The terminal voltage of an unloaded battery will show almost full terminal voltage. The Battery Beak does a quick check by switching in resistors to act as a temporary load and then calculates battery impedance. If you are going to design a device like the Beak, my one wish is to have a larger display.