Multi-Batt Mon

Back in the spring of 2020 and after gathering as much information as I could I decided to purchase a Ryobi Zero Turn all electric mower. This mower is powered by four 12 volt 100Ah deep cycle batteries. My main concern with this setup was battery maintenance and longevity for both time to finish cutting my yard and the total life expectancy for each of the batteries. The first seven months of ownership and usage of this mower were almost flawless! In the eighth month while bagging leaves with the mower I started having issues with the two deck motors shutting down and having to wait a couple of minutes for the voltage to come back up, according to the percentage of power left gauge on the mower. After contacting the Ryobi Tech I was sent a new multi-function gauge for me to install on the mower. I really didn’t think that this part was going to take care of my issue and thinking about the four batteries, I knew that the BM2 battery monitor mounted on each battery would allow me to see which battery was weak. However the app suggested to use with the BM2 would only handle up to 2 batteries. Then I found this app that would handle up to four batteries, purchased it and have been using it ever since! Great app! I’m able to monitor all four batteries simultaneously and could see my battery #4 starting to drop out which would pull the other batteries down and when the total voltage drops to 28 volts the deck motors shut down. After another call to Ryobi Tech help they sent me a couple of deck motor controllers, which didn’t help, then they sent me one new battery which helped a little but there again I could watch the other three batteries rapidly depleting power and called Ryobi again this time they sent me four new batteries. The app does its job very well! My only complaint is that the app times out after running for a few minutes. I wish that there was a setting that would allow it to run continuously! I have my iPhone mounted so that I can watch the screen continuously if the app would let me. I just updated the firmware on all four BM2s and am l👀king forward to another summer and fall usage of this app! (0^0)

The basic functionality of this app is good. The app is a little strange though, in terms of it's features. Pros: Displays up to four batteries status on the home screen; has useful ability to measure the instantaneous voltage changes such as during engine cranking; quickly refreshes battery status. Cons: Has strange choices by the developer, such as unrelated features like Trip Mapping, Highway Tolls and Parking expense recording. Each trip can be saved as a Personal or Business trip. These are features I would not expect or want in a battery monitor. A larger design limitation is that you can set whether the batteries are Starting Batteries or Storage Batteries, but the setting affects all four batteries. So, if you are like me and have one Starting Battery in the Tow Vehicle, and one Storage Battery in the Travel Trailer, you cannot access both profiles. You must choose one profile or the other which is then set for both batteries. I urge the developer to remove all the Trip logging features, and instead focus more on the Battery Monitor features, such as setting the battery type by individual battery.

I was previously using the BM2 battery monitor app by this developer for more than a year. Decided to take the plunge and purchase a second battery monitor for a second vehicle. Before purchasing this app I ensured that I could connect via the old app to both monitors, and I could. However I could only monitor 1 battery status at a time. After purchasing this app, I am delighted to report that I can connect to 2 separate monitors and view current voltage, percentage to full, and historical data. There is also an import function that pulls all existing data, quite a nice feature. Is it expensive? Yes, at $9.99, it is not cheap, but the value it provides me to monitor the state of multiple cars is worth the small investment. The UI is developed in a clean and easy to understand fashion. I am a Software Developer myself and can appreciate something well developed. I’ll report back after longer term useage. Nice work devs.