Hi. I was trying to get some insight on what type of cell monitor you suggest for a battery bank that is not shared loom? Do you still suggest using the LongMons, or would the CellMate suffice? Are there any differences other than the balancing rate?
Thank you for your time!
CellMate-K9 is Centralised, which means that the cell monitoring has generally simpler wiring. This model allows between 3-16 cells to be monitored for systems from 12v, 24v or 48V systems. Multiple can be adopted in a chain with up to 20 modules with a maximum of 250 unique cells.
The LongMons, BlockMons and LeafMons are for Individual monitoring, which means that each individual cell has a separate monitoring module. The Cell Monitors are placed on the batteries and wired back to the WatchMonCORE supervisor via an IsoMon. Each distributed cell monitor measures between 2.2 V and 5 V.
CellMate-K9 is lower in cost (~50%) and has fewer parts, therefore it has fewer things to go wrong. The wiring is easier as it uses the shared loom, adopted by many of the prebuilt OEM batteries or you can create your own.
We always recommend that you fuse your cells close to the battery to protect this wiring. There are fuses and holders available for this purpose.
For new projects, we recommend our new centralised cell monitor CellMate-K9, as we’ve made it more robust and more configurable than the previous cell monitors. It’s easier to install and costs less too.
For more information, you may refer to Wiki: Comparison of Cell Monitors.