My Heart Link 20 has gone crazy !

[macbeth]

My Link 20 has served me faithfully for 12 years. Yesterday, for no apparent reason, the readings for Battery 1 (the Starter/Windlass battery) went crazy on the Amps being used. This is the battery with a violet coloured cable. It's showing - 90amps, EVEN WHEN I disconnect the power cable to the battery. If I switch on the shore powered charger, it shows -33amps. The voltage is 13.35 volts, the AH is - 17.

The readings for Battery 2 are OK.

I've changed the fuse and replaced the in-line fuse for the violet cable, and checked the other fuses for the other battery. In fact, I replaced one of those fuse holders as well.

Any suggestions as to what could be wrong ?

[ronbo1]

I assume you tried pulling the phone connector on the back to reset it?

Ronbo

[macbeth]

Originally Posted by ronbo1

I assume you tried pulling the phone connector on the back to reset it?

Ronbo

I don't have a phone connector on the back, but yes, I did reset it by holding down the Set button until SEL appeared in the numeric display, pressing the SEL button 5 times until AH showed. Then pressed the SET button for 10 seconds. No effect.

Other suggestions ?

[bobofthenorth]

Originally Posted by macbeth

Other suggestions ?

Buy a Trimetric.

I'm sorry but that's the only permanent solution to a Link system. They're junk - sooner or later everyone will figure it out.

[macbeth]

I get the out of the ball-park readings (eg, 511 amps on B1) when the violet cable is attached to B1. When I remove it, I get the E14 message.

Would that indicate that the meter is reading B1, i.e. the cable is not corroded ?

[Stu Jackson]

There was a post on another forum about a skipper with Link 2000 problems similar to yours. He said the factory recommended "rebooting" the Link by disconnecting all power, leaving it off for half an hour and starting all over. Of course, that followed all sorts of suggestions about checking the wire connections. 99% of all electrical issues are the connections.

Good luck.

[macbeth]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

He said the factory recommended "rebooting" the Link by disconnecting all power, leaving it off for half an hour and starting all over. 99% of all electrical issues are the connections.

Good luck.

Rebooting: It's worth a try, but I'm not confident that will help. After all, the meter was working perfectly fine, then I just happened to notice the red lights. And NOTHING or NOBODY had opened the battery locker (under the dinette seat) for weeks, so there is NO WAY any connection could have got knocked or dislodged. Now at the meter end, it's possible but unlikely.

So I think I will take off all the connections inside the battery locker, and test for continuity (i.e. ohms = 0 or nearly so) at the plug going into the back of the meter.

Thanks for your good wishes. I don't see the point at the moment and buying a new meter until I have satisfactorily proved to myself it IS the meter.

[s/v 'Faith']

After years of flawless service I just came back from a 6 month cruise on another boat to find my link 10 flashing lights in sequence like a Christmas tree.

Will try the reboot.... And keep my fingers crossed.

[smac999]

I would check the cables from the shunt to the meter. some will show weird numbers with one cable off.

try swaping the battery 1 and 2 shunt cables at the back of the display. and see if the crazy stays on same battery on the monitor, or changes to the other one. if it stays on the same then the display might be bad. if it follows, probably the cables. as I doubt the shunt would fail

[macbeth]

Well, I checked the resistance of all 8 wires from their sources (batteries or shunt) back to the meter and found all but one was under 1 ohm. The one exception was the violet line at 10ohms. It had a couple of butt joiners in it. I eliminated those and put it all back together. Then the Battery 1 amperage started going down, only at about -1.5amps to start climbing back up again. I had better things to do than watch a meter, so I left it to its own devices.

Well, wouldn't you know, this afternoon, when the screen was blank, I checked it, and the B1 amps were at 0.0 to -0.1 and stayed there !! i.e. normal. The only thing I can think of is that I dislodged some cables while I was doing the checking and I also eliminated the unnecessary butt crimps. Maybe one or the other of these was the problem ??

The only thing I notice now is that the screen doesn't turn off after 10 minutes of no pressing buttons. Maybe that will sort itself out too !

At any rate, onto other problems.

Thanks for responses.