Link 2000 Problem

[dweller]

Just bought a boat with a Link 2000 battery monitor. Both batteries display voltage correctly. But amperage appears to be correct for battery 2 but way off for battery 1. Battery 1 shows .OL when there's a load, and -506 when the batteries are charging with the alternator.

The wiring seems to be good, with good connections both to the shunt and to the meter.

Any ideas how to troubleshoot/fix the problem?

[Rick]

Symptoms are as if you are not using the dual shunt and, instead, two separate ones...is that true? If not, move swap the shunt-to-battery connections at the dual shunt and note weather the problem stays with bat #1 or moves to bat#2 indication and we'll talk from there.

Rick

[dweller]

Originally Posted by Rick

Symptoms are as if you are not using the dual shunt and, instead, two separate ones...is that true? If not, move swap the shunt-to-battery connections at the dual shunt and note weather the problem stays with bat #1 or moves to bat#2 indication and we'll talk from there.

Rick

I switched the shunt leads, and the problem moved to battery 2. Battery 1 now reads (approximately) the correct amperage draw, and battery 2 reads out of range, "0.L"

This suggests a problem with the shunt, or at least the left half of the dual shunt, right?

Ron

[Opie91]

First clean the shunts up real good and see what happens. Just a little corrosion can cause big indication problems.

[nhschneider]

I had a Link 2000 in my boat for over 15 years and it worked very well. Then it started displaying similar incorrect information. It was time to shoot it in the display and give it the float test. They cannot be repaired and the possibility of finding another Link 2000 as a replacement is not very good. Sorry.

Fair winds and calm seas.

[Rick]

The fact that the problem moved to the other channel indicates that probably one connection is poor on the twisted pair for that channel. Check first the crimp (assumiing that is what you have) connection that the wires make to the small shunt screws. Because the wire size is small it is common to have a poor crimp to a terminal. Pull on the wires and see if one comes out. If both crimps are good then check carefully the connection at the meter end of the wires.

Almost guaranteed it is a poor connection on one of those wires.
Rick