link 10 shunt on +?

[Ryan]

Does anyone know a trick to use a link 10 with the shunt on the positive side?
Calls to Xantrex weren't very helpful.

[Jentine]

Why can't you put it on the negative side as the instructions suggest?
Jim

[Rick]

The shunt must be wired into the negative side of the battery bank with NO other wires (loads or sources) connected to the battery connection side of the shunt.

There are no tricks to getting around this fact.

Like Jentine says, what is your problem with wiring it on the correct side of the battery? Any argument against placing the shunt on the negative side applies to the positive side as well.
If you have significant physical separation of the batteries comprising a "bank" then both the positive as well as negative wires must be planned to have the same parasitic resistance for both positive as well as negative wiring including a wire size appropriate to cover the potential losses at high currents.

[Ryan]

The high end trawler I installed the link on does not have a common ground point! There are large batteries scattered throughout the vessel. There is a common positive point. Bringing the grounds to a common point would have required 50+ feet of 4/0 cable.

In the end, the link will not cover all the batteries, but more than it did with the factory install.

[Pblais]

Listen to Rick!

Mine is great - you want this device! Best electronics I have installed to date. I suppose you could wire it to the head but it still won't work right. It's not that flexible.

You need to do what the instructions tell you. It is a nice tool and the old Link 10's when you can find them are dirt cheap.

[GordMay]

Notwithstanding that ”... Bringing the grounds to a common point would have required 50+ feet of 4/0 cable ...” - all batteries aboard should be connected to the common ground bus. This is one of the perils, offsetting the perceived benefits, of distributing batteries throughout the boat.

[Rick]

Please tell me that you do not have a positive battery connection made to any bonding wires or sea water connections.