Since the monitor is attached to a removeable panel (the boat's AC panel), I put a molex connector on the wiring, so that I can completely remove the panel. To accomplish this, I always like to come up with a drawing showing the connector, wire colors, and so on. After the project is finished, the drawing will become a permanent part of the boat's documentation package.
To mount the shunt, a suitable location must be found. A primary concern is the high current passing through the shunt, so it must be secured to a strong surface, and ideally mounted in an orientation where any heat can escape, and close to where the ground feed of the DC distribution panel can be found.
I found a such a location behind the breakers in the DC breaker panel. Unfortunately, I had to remove all of the breakers on the left side of the panel to get to the mounting location.
Be careful here - make sure you remove all power to the panel. When removing the breakers, mark each one so you can replace everything in order.
Luckily, I only had to drill one hole, as I was able to use one of the existing holes in the vertical mounting bar. The hardware used included self-locking nuts. While the shunt is pretty "beefy", be careful when drilling and tightning the hardware. You don't want to crack the plastic housing of the $50 shunt.
Completed shunt installation with the DC grounding cable and sensor leads attached. It fits snugly in behind the breakers. Make sure that you use at least the same sized wire as the ground wire you are interrupting. And if you have to add any significant length of wire, you may wish to increase the size to compensate for any voltage drop.
Working with large wire and installing large lugs takes some specialized equipment. The least expensive crimpers are around $50, and typically consist of a hammer style, where you whack the lug in a jig with a hammer. Alternatively, you can have a custom shop, such as www.genuinedealz.com pre-terminate the ends of the cables for you. They only charge a buck an end, so its an attractive alternative to terminating your own cables.
When you connect the sense wires to the batteries, you can use the fuzed connectors included with the Microlog kit, or install your own, by using waterproof fuse holders, such as those available from Ancor.
At any rate, USCG regulations (33CFR183) requires that any wiring connected to a battery (including the voltage sense wires), must have some form of overcurrent protection (fuse or circuit breaker) within 7" of the battery terminal.
The connection for the battery monitor panel is accomplished by using molex .093 power connectors. These are available from Radio Shack as well as the electronic supply houses.
The finished project. The Microlog monitor defaults to displaying battery 1 voltage. Do display voltage for battery 2 or battery 3, simply push in those switches shown by the icons on the monitor. To display the house discharge current, push on the Amp switch on the bottom. Shown here, the - sign signifies discharge, so my house system is currently consuming 2.6A.
When you lift your finger from the display icons, the monitor again returns to battery 1 voltage.
Finally, flipping the "battery connect" toggle switch to the down position disconnects the batteries from the monitor - effectively turning it off. While the monitor only consumes about 1mA of current, when the boat is put into winter storage, ideally everything should be disconnected so that the batteries do not excessively discharge over the winter.
OK, 1mA is not a lot of current, but over a 6 month storage period, its best to completely disconnect everything. Since the battery monitor is connected directly to the battery via it's sense leads, the main battery disconnect switch will not shut the monitor off.
As the monitor can only be disconnected from the batteries by this switch, the label "Battery Disconnect" became more logical than "OFF",
That pretty much wraps this project up.