Tracking input vs output?

Sorry for being away for so long.  I got sidetracked with life.  Go figure.  So, is this equipment that's part of your charging gear, or is it something separate from the charge controller?  I'm looking for something easily mobile that I can tag on as needed and test various units around the farm as required.  I don't need to monitor one thing all the time per say.  I'd prefer being able to go out to, for example, a unit that's under performing or regularly running out of power, and slap this on it to see what it's doing or not doing.  For me it'd be more of a troubleshooting tool than one of those "Hey, look how much I made!"  I've got a complete monitoring setup on my main rigs (comes with the charge controllers) but nothing for the smaller stuff, especially the remote monitors.  For me those monitors, small as they are, have been a thorn in my side.  If I had my way I'd get rid of them.  But since we can't due to their necessity, I'm looking for solutions to make maintenance and repairs easier by helping me with troubleshooting.

Okay, yeah, now THAT's what I'm talking about!    Thanks as always, BB.   That USB 503 should be exactly what the doctor ordered.  Just tag and forget more or less and then come back in a couple days to see how the performance is.   Perfect.

Wow, Dave, that's crazy.  Oddly enough I've had a number of bum cells lately too.  A lot more than I should have.  Thankfully though they've all been on the small remote units and not the bigger home or barn units.  Most are the 9ah or smaller batteries, and the vast majority of those, oddly enough, come from UPG who I've had great luck with prior to this.  But this year, and part of last it's been the UPG graveyard around here it seems.  Lots of RMA's.  That's what spawned one of my other posts about dry cells trying to find a way to store batteries for hot swaps without worrying about the battery degrading in storage.  Of course, at the rate in which those batteries have been cratering, it hasn't been an issue yet.  lol. 

And if this keeps going I'm just gonna find me another brand for my small capacity batteries for my remote stations.  It's not the end of the world when they die, as it just means a little extra ATV time to go check on the herds.  But even so it's still a pain in the butt because when one dies makes my life more difficult as a number of them are kinda hard to get to way out in the back 40.  Thankfully so far the full extent of my problems with my solar powered remote monitors has just been primarily the batteries as the rest of the units have worked fine.  Even so it's annoying.  lol.

Well, on the big rigs have monitors for everything from usage to production.  So basically cradle to grave observation.  The small ones presently don't have any monitors.  That's why I wanted the portable units so if one of the remote monitors goes down and I discover it's because it ran out of power, I just toss one of these onto that unit and find out where the kink in things is.  Or at least that's what I'm hoping this will do.  Up to this point I've had to kinda guess my way through a problem.  The little units you suggested would make that process a lot easier.  At this point most all of my problems have been battery failures.  However, I'm suspicious if it's really a whole pack of bad batteries, or if I've got other issues that I need to address.  I'm hoping these little monitors will tell me which it is.  I'm not sure if it's insufficient production, too much draw on the battery, not enough charge entering the batteries, or if it's something else.  Since I don't have time to babysit the units, having the ability to go out there and snap one of these on and come back in a few days to see what the deal is will prove invaluable to me.  I wish I didn't have any problems with my solar rigs.  But as good old Murphy's law states, you can't have everything be perfect all the time. :P