ANCEL BM200 - NEW BATTERY MONITOR

[TheDocAUS]

Ancel has released [or should that be relaunched] a new battery monitor to the market, that may challenge my favoured choice the BLE Battery Monitor.

It comes in a base (BM200) and pro model (BM200Pro). The base model links to the supplied app. The Pro model; comes with its own screen and control module. I am testing both.

It has a lot of features in common with the BLE, not sure whether it is an improved version by Ancel or Ancel copied the BLE.

One big difference is the Ancel app can monitor 4 batteries at once (each battery must have its own BM200 sensor), the BLE is limited to one (but you can cycle through multiple batteries). The BM200 handles both lead acid and Lithium chemistries. The BLE has a separate Lithium model.

Too early to make any considered observations.

Introductory price is around AUD48, and roughly AUD6 more for the Pro model - at the time of posting.

BM200Pro

 

[anand]

Does the pro have a shunt as well? Or is it guessing SoC based on voltage alone?

 

[TheDocAUS]

Does the pro have a shunt as well? Or is it guessing SoC based on voltage alone?

No shunt.

These cheaper monitors always guess, sorry estimate.

 

[Shopkeep]

Ancel has released a new battery monitor to the market, that may challenge my favoured choice the BLE Battery Monitor.

It comes in a base (BM200) and pro model (BM200Pro). The base model links to the supplied app. The Pro model; comes with its own screen and control module. I am testing both.

It has a lot of features in common with the BLE, not sure whether it is an improved version by Ancel or Ancel copied the BLE.

One big difference is the Ancel BM200 can monitor 4 batteries at once, the BLE is limited to one (but you can cycle through multiple batteries). The BM200 handles both lead acid and Lithium chemistries. The BLE has a separate Lithium model.

Too early to make any considered observations.

Introductory price is around AUD48, and roughly AUD6 more for the Pro model - at the time of posting.

View attachment 7871192
View attachment 7871193

BM200Pro
View attachment 7871194

The BM200 has been around for a while, it seems to come & go from the Australian market (not sure why). I put one on my Jimny in 2023, and two on my Grenadier earlier this year. Really easy to use and clear app, only issue I have is when I setup the two on my Gren I lost the Jimny from my app and can't get it back (in theory should be able to display four).

 

[TheDocAUS]

The BM200 has been around for a while, it seems to come & go from the Australian market (not sure why). I put one on my Jimny in 2023, and two on my Grenadier earlier this year. Really easy to use and clear app, only issue I have is when I setup the two on my Gren I lost the Jimny from my app and can't get it back (in theory should be able to display four).

They are selling it as an introductory offer now! The first time I saw it was a week or two ago.

 

[TheDocAUS]

Ancel app graphs:

1. State of Charge (SOC);
2. Temperature; and
3. Voltage.

BLE only graphs voltage.

 

[Shopkeep]

They are selling it as an introductory offer now! The first time I saw it was a week or two ago.

Must be a reintroductory offer! Found my Jimny!

 

[Tom109]

I want these for my Gren, and I need one for my 109 as well!

 

[WanderingSniper]

Doesn't our Grenadier already have a battery monitor?

 

[Logsplitter]

Doesn't our Grenadier already have a battery monitor?

As far as I’m aware the Grenadier monitor only monitors the main battery and not the second battery.

 

[TheDocAUS]

Doesn't our Grenadier already have a battery monitor?

Not one that monitors and graphs voltage, temperature and state of charge for each battery. The monitors also can give info concerning charging and cranking capacity. Data held for 30 days.

 

[TheDocAUS]

The Ancel BM200Pro:

1. only syncs with Ancel Console, not the app;
2. the sensor on the battery has LEDs to show the State of Health (the app version does not);
3. does not graph data or store it for 31 days;
4. displays:

-State of Charge (SoC);​

-State of Health (SoH);​

-Cranking voltage;​

-Battery temperature (F or C); and​

-Battery voltage.​

 

[Znarfgh]

Must be a reintroductory offer! Found my Jimny!
View attachment 7871201

Do you need one BM200 for each battery? @TheDocAUS suggests that one unit can monitor up to 4 batteries.

 

[Shopkeep]

Do you need one BM200 for each battery? @TheDocAUS suggests that one unit can monitor up to 4 batteries.

Not really, the aux battery is always being charged by the main battery so is nearly always 100%. The pic above is while driving but stopped at lights with start/stop having switched off the engine. The main battery has stopped receiving charge but the aux battery is receiving charge from the main. You can put just one one the main battery, but then again you can pick up the BM200 for as low as AUD$34 delivered on Temu so why not just get two and satiate your curiosity. BTW the Grenadier was reporting charge at 89-90% at the time.

 

[TheDocAUS]

Do you need one BM200 for each battery? @TheDocAUS suggests that one unit can monitor up to 4 batteries.

The Ancel app can monitor up to 4 different BM200 sensors. Each battery needs its own sensor. I will add that clarification above.

In my setup, the main and aux are slightly different, so I have a BLE on each. I am testing the base model Ancel BM200 and the Pro on my battery boxes.

On the Grenadier the main battery mostly cranks the car, the aux has a solar panel input and runs the fridge/Travel Buddy (from a direct circuit to the aux). So the battery voltage profiles do vary as shown in the solar thread (which describes my battery setup in more detail). My battery setup now differs from the standard factory setup (not a huge difference). For example

MAIN BATTERY​

AUX BATTERY​

 

[TheDocAUS]

Jury is out on how accurate these gauges are. Just working through some issues on a Lithium battery.

 

[TheDocAUS]

Initial tests suggests:

1. the BM200 and BM200 Pro are not as accurate as the BLE with the lithium batteries. I am comparing performance to what the batteries BMS app is telling me;
2. One of the two BM200Pros is not working properly. Both the sensor and the console are not working properly, but I think the sensor is the cause of both issues. As the "faulty" console seems to work properly when connected to the second sensor.

 

[Michael H.]

My BM200 is working well with my standard auxiliary battery.

 

[TheDocAUS]

My BM200 is working well with my standard auxiliary battery.

The BM200 seems to be going better on the AGM battery.

I do like the app being able to handle more than one sensor at once.

 

[DenisM]

Initial tests suggests:

1. the BM200 and BM200 Pro are not as accurate as the BLE with the lithium batteries. I am comparing performance to what the batteries BMS app is telling me;
2. One of the two BM200Pros is not working properly. Both the sensor and the console are not working properly, but I think the sensor is the cause of both issues. As the "faulty" console seems to work properly when connected to the second sensor.

For lithium batteries the type of battery monitor required is one which actually "counts the coulombs" going in and out... e.g the Victron BMV-712 Smart which is Bluetooth-enabled. The flat discharge curve with sharp "cut-off" of the common LiFeP04 "deep cell" vs. a more gradual degradation curve for lead acid batteries, renders traditional monitors somewhat problematic.