Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Aero 8, 2012< Plus 8, SuperSports, Coupe & Aeromax Battery Monitor

OK, so we all know the battery on the Aero is a little suspect at times

I replaced mine with a new Odyssey battery last year and keep it on a CTek trickle charger when it's tucked up in the garage.
I also have a hand held battery tester which runs a series of diagnostics and is quite informative - even if it is a bit of a faff to use

I noticed an ad. the other day for a CTek bluetooth battery monitor ,and being unable to resist a gadget, investigated further....

Sadly,for a CTek product ,it gets a lousy write up from those who have used it.It also costs > £40 - so not exactly cheap.

I then found a similar item on Fleabay/Amazon which does the same as the CTek and more -



Prices seem to range from £20 to almost £40 for what seems to be the same thing !

I took the plunge and ordered one from a seller in China who, though not the cheapest (I paid £23 delivered) , had good feedback.It took a few days to arrive and was duly duly fitted.



The cables are ridiculously short and I pondered over whether I could extend them....

Nothing ventured.... I duly soldered some extension cables and eyelets on with some heat shrink and it didn't seem to affect performance at all (but do so at your own risk....!).

The ap. needs to be downloaded from the Play store (or Apple) and configured to suit.

Bluetooth connection to your 'phone was simple (although it asks for a non-existent PIN ).

You can re-name the device to something suitable when it pops up on your 'phone screen - which is nice

Bluetooth connection distance is not great but OK.

It gives you an (almost ) real time indication of battery status, plus you can run a cranking and charging test and log the results.





All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the results - so much so that I got another couple of units for the 'stable'....

The ap. lets you add several devices and you can scroll between them.

I'll monitor ('scuse the pun ) the results and see if it keeps working.

I know you could argue that it doesn't tell you anything that an ammeter/tester/charger won't already tell you - but it is a gadget , and you can't have too many of them....

James

I've used the ctek one for quite a while, not had any issues with it, very handy to watch my dash module drain it, pull fuse 17 in my roadster and drain stops.

Batteries and alternators are not the problem on these cars it's the continuous current drain that is the problem.

Interesting find. New gadget, drooling already. Thanks for sharing.

Any chance of the link as they are all £30 or over and I was born in Aberdeen so have an aversion to wasting money.

- price seems to have increased Alistair.

They did seem to fluctuate in price when I was looking originally so might be worth watching for a while....

James

No power to the garage unfortunately. After just four days parked, there is insufficient charge to start the engine but lights and boot release still work.

Flicked the isolator switch on today - hopefully, that should preserve the battery charge.

Looks like and interesting bit of kit.

When my boat was on a swinging mooring with obviously no mains connection, I used a 35W solar panel to keep 3x90aH batteries fully charged, and even to re-charge if the boat was left with batteries half down. Worked perfectly and solar panel;s arent that costly these days. And yes, they do work in the UK in winter with clouds around.

Likely all you would need is a 10w panel at maybe £20, but it depends on how big the battery drain is

As has been stated, it is not just Aeros that drain current, I had a new Fiesta that did the same. Strangely the DS3 I swapped it for does not seem to suffer the same issues. (Fingers crossed)

As for gadgets; we love them.

ps Cold North East winds again today, can you please keep them to yourselves.

- Simon,loved your comment re. only two things come from the North; "cold winds and caravans....."

Hope you and Susie have a good trip; enjoy the Guinness

James

That's made me smile this m/ing you can tell you are from the N. E. when it comes to money as for Aberdeen Dads family come from their. So I have a double dose tighter than a Jewish Yorkshire man said my late mate.