Renogy Rover BT-1

[Creek Jenkins]

I have the Renogy Rover 40a in our 2024 310rl. I see Renogy makes a Bluetooth connection thingy, the BT-1 so you can monitor it from your phone thru their app. Anyone out there tried this? I’m getting kind of tired of crawling under the overhang through the compartment door to see what’s going on with my battery. It looks like the controller monitors the load as well as charging and battery condition so it seems like it would be handy information to be able to access from your phone.

Price is pretty reasonable at around $30. Victron shunt is more like $180, is it more accurate, better information, worth the extra green?
Cheers
Creek

 

[stanburnb]

I believe everyone should have a shunt. It will tell you exactly what is going into and out of your battery bank. Victron is the gold standard.

 

[Todd F]

I have the Renogy Rover 40a in our 2024 310rl. I see Renogy makes a Bluetooth connection thingy, the BT-1 so you can monitor it from your phone thru their app. Anyone out there tried this? I’m getting kind of tired of crawling under the overhang through the compartment door to see what’s going on with my battery. It looks like the controller monitors the load as well as charging and battery condition so it seems like it would be handy information to be able to access from your phone.

Price is pretty reasonable at around $30. Victron shunt is more like $180, is it more accurate, better information, worth the extra green?
Cheers
Creek

I have it and in my opinion it's not worth the money. It doesn't do much. The temp always reads 25c without the optional temp probe hooked up and Alliance doesn't connect the load side of the controller so there isn't any info there either.

 

[BryanValRox]

I have the Renogy Rover 40a in our 2024 310rl. I see Renogy makes a Bluetooth connection thingy, the BT-1 so you can monitor it from your phone thru their app. Anyone out there tried this? I’m getting kind of tired of crawling under the overhang through the compartment door to see what’s going on with my battery. It looks like the controller monitors the load as well as charging and battery condition so it seems like it would be handy information to be able to access from your phone.

Price is pretty reasonable at around $30. Victron shunt is more like $180, is it more accurate, better information, worth the extra green?
Cheers
Creek

I happen to have it.
I like it, I mainly use it to monitor the health of the solar system and battery voltage. Other than that without a shunt tied into the 12 volts system and tied into the app, you can’t monitor anything more then solar output and battery voltage. I also use the optional temperature probe, so the solar controller will temperature compensate charging.

 

[Creek Jenkins]

I haven’t hooked up the temperature probe but it does seem to read the temperature correctly anyway, must be temperature at the controller. It reads out load data as in load current and accumulated amp hours but not what it actually is as load terminals are not connected to anything. So basically a voltmeter and solar panel output reader. I’ll probably save my money and get a Victron.

 

[SKYSKIOC]

this is the one we purchased for our 2024 Avenue 32 RLS easy to plug in and was very easy to install. easy connection and works like a champ. shows all the basic information and what's going on with the solar and it looks like it's actually on sale right now at Amazon plugs into the bottom of the charge controller just like a telephone cord. very simple. hopefully this will help

 

[George]

Neither the BT-1 nor -2 is a battery shunt. It's a Bluetooth dongle that broadcasts data about the solar charge controller. It does show basic information about the batteries as well.
The Renogy shunt is called the Renogy Battery Shunt 300. The shunt comes with a thermocouple to place on the battery case and I suppose it reads accurately enough.
I own both and all I'll say is that I think I know the reason Alliance switched to Victron products.
FWIW - Our '24 310RL has the standard 320W solar package and a 20A Renogy charge controller.

 

[Creek Jenkins]

That’s weird I wonder why ours has the 40a version. Built in January 24 with the standard solar package. Ran out of the 20a units?

 

[George]

That’s weird I wonder why ours has the 40a version. Built in January 24 with the standard solar package. Ran out of the 20a units?

When we were shopping for a new fifth wheel I'm sure I remember seeing that the Paradigm came with a 40A solar charge controller. When we found the 310RL we liked and got it home I saw that it was a 20A. I looked at the Alliance sales docs again and saw that it comes with a 20A. Maybe I mis-remembered. 🤷🏼‍♂️
The Renogy 20A charge controller is rated 260W maximum on a 12v system and the standard solar package we have is 320W. I questioned Alliance and the response was that they had designed the system with the assistance of Renogy and a 20A was enough.
Our '24 310RL was made 6/2023.
All this is not a complaint or indictment of Alliance. The system seems to be working. I don't know enough about it to claim that it is not.