How Does a Heart Interface Link 2000 Work?

[Chotu]

I'm curious how this heart interface link 2000 works in the charging mode. There are two battery Banks to select. Battery bank number one, and Battery bank number two.

If I select only one of those battery Banks, is that the one that received the charging only? Or is it charging both banks at the same time?

The manual doesn't seem to indicate this.

Still poking my way through this electrical system. It is quite complicated. LOL

[john61ct]

Manual's a good start

http://www.xantrex.com/documents/Dis...-1(Vendor).pdf

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Manual's a good start

http://www.xantrex.com/documents/Dis...-1(Vendor).pdf

I am holding the manual in my hand. It is not indicated in the manual as I said in my original post.

[john61ct]

Then I infer the switch is for discharge, and both get charged together.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Then I infer the switch is for discharge, and both get charged together.

I think you are correct.

[Bleemus]

Whatever your 1-2-off switch is set to is what gets the charge.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Bleemus

Whatever your 1-2-off switch is set to is what gets the charge.

Okay. That makes sense. The difficulty is I have a pair of those 1/2 all/off switches.

I've had boats my whole life. Never had an issue with electrical system. Can trace them in minutes. This one is a monster. It's incredibly complicated, nothing is labeled, and you cannot see the runs all together. They go through walls and underneath things and inside of stringers in the bilge.

It has been almost impossible to trace everything. It is a very complicated boat electrically.

But for some reason it does seem like when I select number one battery, it charges number one. Like when my windlass wasn't working, it was on number two. The heart interface was on number 2. And when I put it on number one, the windlass started working properly again.

Number one is my house battery bank. Number two is I don't know? Maybe the engine starting battery. But I cannot even tell. This thing is so complex.

I was able to at least figure out that my windlass runs straight off of the house bank. And the bow and Stern thrusters have their own 12-volt Banks but they have a pair of batteries each.

I was also able to figure out that the solar is indeed working, but it is some of the weakest solar I have ever seen. LOL very weak stuff. Getting about 5 to 7 amps on a bright sunny day.

Additionally, I was able to confirm that the alternator puts out a pretty good current. That is charging the batteries nicely.

And of course the heart interface itself is charging the batteries well. Both off shore power and off of the Northern Lights generator.

So now with everything working well, it is confusing to me why my windlass stopped working at one point. It had failed to keep a charge enough to bring the chain back up. But now that I have the heart interface on number one, everything seems to be working perfectly.

Hence, my original question of this thread.

[smac999]

the link 2000 is a dual bank battery monitor. all those buttons are to show you info on 2 battery banks. volts, amps, ah, time. they control nothing. only show info.

you could remove the inverter from the boat and all that would still funtion.

the charger / inverter should only be connected to one bank. the house bank, you have to follow the wire to know where it goes. if it goes to the common of the 1,2, all switch it's wired wrong. it should not be there.

the charger and inverter buttons are the only buttons that control it. turning those funtions on and off.

it may have an echo charger connected to 2nd bank to charge. small wire. you'd have to look.

[Chotu]

Thanks, SMAC999.

That helps a lot. Now I'm following how this thing works.

There is a lot of echo charging going on. There is the house bank, the engine start battery and 2 more banks for the thrusters. On top of all that, there is a second house bank not currently being used.

As icing on the cake, it's an absolute rat's nest with many dead end wires just taped off and left hanging. Nothing labeled. A lot of work ahead to organize all of this.

[john61ct]

Originally Posted by smac999

the link 2000 is a dual bank battery monitor. all those buttons are to show you info on 2 battery banks. volts, amps, ah, time. they control nothing. only show info

It does act as a remote to the inverter charger, as you then say?

Such BM-as-remote to a charge source systems are capable of precisely terminating charging (transitioning from Absorb to Float) based directly off the bank shunt measuring an endAmps spec, trailing current dropping to a certain low C rate.

As opposed to an AHT egg timer, or some other guesstimating algorithm needing recalibration as load usage patterns change.

I believe the Link setup is designed to do just that, and if it works properly will greatly extend the life of a lead bank and save the owner a fair bit of hassle as well.

Yes will also work fine as a standalone BM as well.

[john61ct]

Originally Posted by Chotu

There is a lot of echo charging going on.

Note an Echo Charger is a very specific VSR/ACR-type device, also inherited by Xantrex in their Heart buyout.

It does a decent job within its limitations, but a bit different from others, so don't use the phrase as a generic verb or that will cause confusion.

[john61ct]

You may want to hire a pro to help, specifying that teaching you is job one.

Make detailed sketches of each sub-system, device & circuit specs, even if just by hand.

End deliverable being a complete annotated diagram of the boat's whole electrickery setup.

All this before making changes. Then, updating your "living documentation" as you go.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by john61ct

You may want to hire a pro to help, specifying that teaching you is job one.

Make detailed sketches of each sub-system, device & circuit specs, even if just by hand.

End deliverable being a complete annotated diagram of the boat's whole electrickery setup.

All this before making changes. Then, updating your "living documentation" as you go.

I am a pro. Lol

I just never owned this model of inverter/charger/battery monitor. I prefer to break these things out into different components. LinkLite, Iota Charger, Standalone pure sine inverter. I don't like a single point of failure situation like this product.

I've spent like a grand total of 2 or 3 hours looking at this rat's nest so far. Boat is brand new to me. Have to move the boat because the winter slip is up. I have 48 hours.

So I'll trace this that's nest after it's at its new dock.

It's my 7th or 8th boat... Just rushing

[waterman46]

I have Link 2000 in constant use 20 years. Excellent unit. It is a battery monitor only and does not control which batteries are connected for charging. You should have external battery switch that controls which batteries are selected for charge/discharge.

Link 2000 has 2 channels for lack of better word, each of which measures battery voltage and current of one individual battery or battery bank. And it calculates A/H of each as well.

It also controls the Heart invertor/charger modes and has indicators to show AC in, Invertor on and charge cycle.

[Scrimshaw4]

The system charges both banks. Based on the setup it uses that voltage of either bank 1 or bank 2 determine the required charging rate. Toggling between b1 and b2 tells you what voltage the are at during the charge cycle. The system will step thru the charge levels (status lights) based on the battery selected in setup.