Should I ground Battery- or Load- or both in order to be able to monitor load current AND allow the alternator to charge the battery?
I want to be able to put my motorhome domestic loads through the Victon and have it measure the load current, therefore I have wired Load + to the loads and Load - to ground return. Problem is the Vehicle alternator charges the battery when the engine is running, therefore requires the battery - to be grounded. (The alternator + goes direct to battery + in parallel to the Victron battery output +). Unfortunately when BOTH battery - and Load output - are grounded the Victron stops reporting load current in the display.
If I ground the battery - ONLY (Load output - not connected) it still doesn't report the load current. (Not sure why this is?)
If I ground the Load output - ONLY (battery - connected direct to Victron battery - terminal only) it does report the load current ok. But will this cause a problem when I start the engine because the alternator is grounded and the battery isn't. This means that the alternator current would go from alternator + to battery +, and then return *through* the victron to get to ground via the the load output -terminal. Would this harm the victron or affect its operation?
