Heart/Link 1000 behavior

[Britannia]

Hi,

So having gotten my Link 1000 operational with my Heart Freedom 25 I am observing a couple of bad behaviors.

1) The Link 1000 doesn't "see" the charging current from the alternator when the engine is running. A quick check of the wiring shows that the output from the alternator goes directly to a +ve post on one of the house batteries. I assume it's an easy fix for me to move that to the other side of the Heart's "shunt"?

2) When the Freedom is running as a charger and moves to float mode I see a gradual reduction in Ah as reported by the Link 1000. After a week or so I can see a -400Ah status on the battery bank - yet it's still clearly fully charged and in float mode. It seems like the Link 1000 isn't "seeing" the float current from the charger. This one I can't explain - the output of the charger goes through the shunt. It see's 90-100A during the acceptance phase. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

Richard

 

[ksanders]

If memory serves correctly the shunt is supposed to be in the negative current path from the battery being monitored.

That's how mine is hooked up.

I have a cable from the negative post, to the shunt. Then from the shunt to a big buss bar which serves as my negative side connection point.

 

[Xsbank]

Definitely on the negative side. I am just installing one and my instructions are right here on my table. Negative.

 

[twistedtree]

Yup, negative.

Re the creeping loss of Ahs, I don't recall seeing what you describe, but I do remember that it took some adjusting of parameters to get teh Link to properly track battery status, and that it it's view of battery state and the actual state were prone to drifting apart. Some random recollections are:

- When the battery it's whatever float voltage is programmed into the Link, the link resets the AH consumed to 0, i.e. the battery is full. Then it doesn't start counting down until the voltage drops. So you might need to adjust the float voltage in the Link.

- I found that my batteries were either much more efficient or much less efficient than the default setting. I just don't recall which. So if the batteries were partially charged and discharged a number of times without hitting float and resetting the AH consumed, the link and the actual batteries would drift apart.

You might be experiencing some combination of these things.

 

[Britannia]

Very interesting. I believe mine has been installed on the positive side. I will check that but I'm pretty sure it's not on the negative bus. That might be harder to change - I'll have to see how my negative side is set up. Maybe it's hard and that's why it was installed the other way around...

Also - I will look more closely at the float voltage parameter. What twistedtree describes could be the problem. Once at float voltage - if Ah stayed at 0 until a voltage drop my "problem number 2" would go away.

Thanks all!

Richard

 

[Britannia]

After taking a real look at the setup I realized what I thought was the shunt was in fact a fuse with Heart Interface branding on it! The shunt is on the negative side and the wiring of it lines up correctly with the instructions.

So now I have to wonder why the alternator charging current does get reported by the Link1000. Unless the alternator is not working - I don't believe that's the case, though I will check.

I did check the values. The charged voltage is set to 13.2V and it reads 13.4V at float. The charge current percentage is set to 2% - though the current actually reads negative during float thanks to the draw on the batteries. I have noticed that the 4th LED never blinks so the system has never reached the state where it thinks the batteries are fully charged. I'm wondering if a negative current flow causes it to fail to see the desired state (even though a negative current is less than 2% of a positive one!).

Really not sure what to look at next. I have tried increasing the charged current value to 7% (max) to see if that changes things. I don't see why it would.

Richard

 

[FF]

The charged voltage is set to 13.2V and it reads 13.4V at float.

There is the problem.

The charge should probably be at least 1 volt higher , 14.4 should work.

 

[Britannia]

The charged voltage is set to 13.2V and it reads 13.4V at float.

There is the problem.

The charge should probably be at least 1 volt higher , 14.4 should work.

The float voltage for the Freedom 25 is specified to be 13.5 +/- 0.2V so it's within spec. Perhaps you are thinking of the bulk charge voltage which is around 14.4V?

[Edit: Perhaps the term "charged voltage" was confusing - that's what the Link 1000 calls a setting which is used to define when the Link 1000 sees the batteries as fully charged.]

Thanks

Richard

 

[ksanders]

Back to your original issue...

Somehow the alternators charging current is bypassing the current shunt.

The only cable that should be on your negative battery post is the one going to the shunt. If there are any other cables they represent current paths bypassing the shunt.

 

[Britannia]

Back to your original issue...

Somehow the alternators charging current is bypassing the current shunt.

The only cable that should be on your negative battery post is the one going to the shunt. If there are any other cables they represent current paths bypassing the shunt.

The shunt is the only thing connected to the negative battery post as far as I can see (I haven't checked all the batteries yet). However, I can see that the negative side of the alternator is connected directly to the load side of the shunt. So I don't see why it's not being registered by the Link 1000. I think I'm going to check the regulator next. Maybe it's not working properly and I have enough battery capacity not to have noticed yet.

I am suspecting that the gradual drop in Ah while at float is probably due to the fact the Link 1000 has been triggered into "full" mode - at which point it's supposed to set the Ah to 0 and not reduce it until the battery voltage drops. More experimenting to be done there.

Richard