Ironman88

I don't recall mine doing that. Perhaps not a concern though.

Antigravity

Hi John, completely normal...as the tracker would just be starting to accumulate data and initializing..and just for a little additional insight. The % value that's displayed is loosely just tied to the voltage reading...so in other words, it's not an accurate representation of the actual capacity of the battery itself..just a helpful tool. The actual voltage reading itself is going to be the accurate value and what you'd really want to go by.
Best regards,
Chad(chad@antigravitybatteries.com)

jchapura

Thank you Chad.

Voltage value - at the same time the percentage value was low, the voltage was reading 12.3V or so. Remember, the battery maintainer was no longer connected. And then the voltage reported by Battery Tracker climbed to 12.84V over several hours (battery maintainer not connected). I found this odd.

ADias

Yes, odd. So from what we've learned this is a BT-enabled voltmeter and as such it's also a consumer; good to know.

Antigravity

A little bit of a guess here but I might speculate that there could be an overall parasitic draw/load when the device was connected...meaning the computer system and features may have been active in the vehicle at the time to a degree..at some point some of that system would disengage or go into what might be referred to as a "sleep mode" to minimize energy consumption which in turn would allow the voltage to bounce back a little bit and recover...same kind of way you see the voltage drop if you turned lights on or some other electronic accessory only in a much smaller increment if you follow my meaning.
Best regards,
Chad

Ironman88

Given its extended ability through the app to display an historical timeline of readings, for me the benefit extends well beyond that of a simple voltmeter.

It really has benefitted me with my '87 Carrera. They are known to sometimes exhibit an overcharge condition that can (and often does) damage the heater blower relay. My relay was bad when I got the car. A new rebuilt one was about $400. I needed to be confident that the alternator in my car was not sporadically overcharging - which if it was, would then potentially knock out the new blower relay. Fortunately (and through the use of the AG Battery Tracker), I was able to conclude that my alternator was consistently functioning properly. (And that was evident through the stored historical graphs available in the app.).

The unit also conducts a variety of charge diagnostics - charging at idle, charging at high RPM. Also cranking diagnostics.

For $35, it's a great tool to have.

ADias

Yeah, you are using it as a monitoring tool. Those alternators go bad, I had one suddenly die; it just oscillated for a bit, no secondary problems. I changed the alternator myself - fun job.

jchapura

@Antigravity
@Ironman88

Part of my "justification" for purchasing my Battery Tracker is because of a special issue I've been dealing with, that is described here: https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...when-cold.html

It was suggested that my battery might be bad and that is reasonable since it is so old. Two parts stores load-tested it and it tested OK. Now, Battery Tracker says the battery is OK (although I haven't gone through a crank test yet). When the battery was first being monitored with Battery Tracker and showed low percentage and low voltage - I said "a ha" the battery really is bad. But then it "recovered" in just a few hours to 100% and 12.84V (not on the battery maintainer). I am hopeful to be able to count on the Battery Tracker as somewhat of a diagnostic tool.

Antigravity

The battery track can certainly help diagnose certain battery issues, but it is a quite simple product and does not perform a load test, which would require a real carbon pile load test to accurately determine if your battery can handle a true load. We don't trust the load testers that are digital. Anyway, if the battery tracker's historical or real time data show you battery is rising of falling in voltage, it will track what is actually happening and not be in-accurate. As Chad also mentions do not really go by the STATE OF CHARGE as the main information point. Go by the actual Voltage. You want to see your battery staying in the 12.8v range for a Lead/Acid Battery, it will be higher after driving a little bit since the battery is being charged when driving. But if you see your historical data showing a fast decrease in the voltage line over just a few days these are data point to show you have a high level of parastic drain, or the battery does not hold a charge well which are indications of a bad battery. Also if the Starting Test show a voltage drop below 9v that is an indicator or a battery having issues. A strong battery in a good state of charge should be staying in the 10v range when started. So that is a good indicator of load testing without having a load tester handy. Just some FYI stuff.