Simple battery monitor fail.. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: Another Dave
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2020, 09:24:34 pm
content: Think I need to sit in the corner with the big D hat.Trying to make a battery monitor that will send its data to a phone, the car is parked less than100foot away. Just need to check the voltage and current (maybe) if i ever get it working properly...Tried with arduino's and Bluetooth, connect the bluetooth at the car and enter the house fine. Then thesignal drops and it will not reconnect, sometimes the data is random or misses steps.OK onto WIFI then and step upto an ESP32. Same thing happens even with the wifi, connect to the ESP32 viathe phones browser and enter the house fine but again its rather hit or miss on whether the connection staysalive.Try to find the wifi signal on the ESP32 and the phone says out of range not available.Looked into adding antenna's to the arduino or ESP and they appear to be rather hit and miss with most missing..Seems the connection is OK until the screen goes off or after a short while. Wrong devices for the task in hand?It is to monitor a small charger unit that trickle charges the battery, ideally it will monitor the cars battery the chargersbattery and charge current. Sadly solar is not an option, there is a canopy over the parking bays and there is noguarantee of getting the same bay every time.Any advice greatly received, even if its to pin a tail on meThanks

author: ledtester
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 02, 2020, 10:42:17 am
content: Quote from: Another Dave on August 01, 2020, 09:24:34 pmWhat is the power source for the monitor, the car's battery or mains?

author: Rick Law
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 02, 2020, 09:49:28 pm
content: Hate to point out the obvious, but some time the obvious is so obvious that it got overlooked.Did you try putting your device ON TOP of the car so the windows and metal of the car are not interfering? 100 feet is not a short distance. I can see small interference making a difference.According to the radar receiver (radar detector) manual: Some car window coating will interfere with the radar reception. If it does that, it may not like WiFi or Bluetooth passing through the car windows either.

author: viperidae
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2020, 12:08:22 am
content: Quote from: Rick Law on August 02, 2020, 09:49:28 pmThat would be metal film tints. Some tinting film is plastic based, some is metal. I don't know what OEM glass tinting uses.

author: Another Dave
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 07, 2020, 06:37:09 pm
content: Thanks for the post guys, sorry for the late reply.Tried using the cars power, charger power and a 9.9v 1500mAh LiFe battery pack, same results.Tried giving the ESP32 exactly 5v and raised it to 5.5v also with no change (WIFI).Assumed that connecting to the home wifi which is slightly further works so the ESP32using WIFI would work also. But guessing the ESP32 uses a lot less power than the homeWIFI.Car issues. Yes the rear is dark tinted glass (factory OEM). And a signal killer a heatedfront windscreen (FORD).Do you think its on the edge of reception where connecting at the car works and works whenI get inside but once the phones screen goes off it no longer re-connects. Drops the connectionwhen the phones screen goes off.Thanks again.