[ausev] Individual battery meters vs. single battery pack meter..?

[Vern Graner]

I've noticed that there are devices on the market such as the pak traker:

http://www.paktrakr.com/

and some home-brew devices such as this battery monitor:

http://www.evconvert.com/article/led-bargraph-battery-monitor

Using these devices, you can monitor the voltage level of the individual 
batteries that make up your battery pack, rather than simply use a 
single voltmeter to show the cumulative voltage of all the batteries in 
series.

So far, I understand what they display. :)

What I don't understand is what you can *do* about any discrepancies you 
see in the display?

For example, if the multiple battery meter shows me that battery #3 is 
.6 of a volt lower than battery #4 and #5, and battery #1 is .8 of a 
volt higher than battery #2, what do I need to do about that? Is this 
really more of an "fyi" type thing?

Also, if I do see discrepancies in voltage between the batteries, is 
there a way to "fix" that or, do I just watch the pretty lights till one 
battery is reading something like 2 volts below all the others and then 
buy a new battery to replace that bad one?

Or, do I use the info from the display to know to target a specific 
battery in the pack for an individual charging session thereby giving 
this "lagging" battery an extra shot of juice to keep it alive longer..?

I'm just curious how such a meter is used and how essential/useful it is.

TIA! :)

Vern

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