Xantrex Link 10 Battery Monitor

Need a fuel gauge for your battery's
and have $200 dollars burning hole in your pocket, then this is what ya need.
http://www.energyoutfitters.com/default.htm?http://www.energyoutfitters.com/products/p_m_electronics/xantrex_link10.shtm


It shows you current bat volts and amp's It even tells you at the current amp draw via a timer how long you have till your empty.

That is sick! Wish i had an extra $200!

Grant,
Would that gauge still be accurate with multiple batteries wired in parallel? BTW, I met with Theresa this afternoon and picked up the batteries and left an envelope for you. When I got home I put them on my battery tester with a 130 amp load and they were both in the green (you even had them fully charged!) not that I expected any different from you, just wanted to say thanks.
P.S. I work for a GC in downtown SF and we have actually done a lot of work with your company, recognized the name and logo as soon as I drove up. Small world. Thanks again

Ben I got your envelope Thanks. I to reconized your company but your company is very large with lots of people and didnt know if we would have run across each other. Yea them batterys will work good for you. I just wanted to run all the same type of battery's so thoes were no good to me.
Your Question :Would that gauge still be accurate with multiple batteries wired in parallel. The gauge dosent see multiple batterys it see's one large battery. So yes it will work just fine

Yes I have one on order Ill let you know when it gets here. Im guessing I can scrap my carbon handle with the digital display's. By the time I get it all worked out this Link 10 will be cheeper than m Carbon handle and have more funtion's. Im guessing Ill mount it in the side dash.

Diffently let us know how it works. I maybe in line for one

Grant?

Did you use the word Cheap?

(Message edited by yosquire on May 19, 2006)

OMG I guess I did, I will watch that in the future. By Bad

OMG I guess I did, I will watch that in the future. By Bad let me re do my post

By the time I get it all worked out the Link 10 will be better than my Carbon handle Idea because it will have more funtion's and it will light up at night.

Ahhh, come on now. I know the real story is because the gauges in the handle could not have red LEDs, the Link 10 does!

Guilty

is there a white one to match my gauges??

Ed : No they dont make a unit in white. You could get by with a volt meter like I have for quite some time.

I was told that this is the way you do it.
your voltmeter should be connected directley to your stereo battery. Your standing voltage( with your system turned on but not turned up) thats when your voltmeter should be displaying 12.7 volts some might be higher, But just go with 12.7 for sake of arugment. Think of this way 12.7 volts as your batterys are full. 12.4 volt's your batterys are 1/2 full and 12.2- 12.0 your batterys are empty and need to be charged. Just like a gas tank on your boat you cant tell how much gas you really have unless yor sitting still and flat, the same is true for telling how much you have left in your batterys System turned on but not pumping.

BTW if you need a volt meter get a Dakota Digital. They are super sweet and transmit no noise at all. They are around $100 each they make all digital gauges, and here the best pat for you ed the display in in blue! LOL

Grant,

Then where do you wire in the Amp Meter Shunt?

Im not sure where the shunt go's but im guessing it go's between the pos and neg terminals of the battery's

I got the Link 10 Installed. Its takes a few discharge's and re charge cycles before it figures out your battery bank load ect. Ill have some time to test it this weekend.
The green lights at the top indicate the battery level. After 10min of with out a draw the unit goes into a sleep mode where the display turns off. as sson as it feels a draw the red display lights up.

your install looks crooked....are you losing your touch?

Not as cool, but, I would just use my perfectpass to tell me.

Rod: use your perfict pass to tell you what?

His perfect pass will tell him when the battery is dead!

Grant, now that you have it installed, where did you end up putting the amp shunt or clamp)? I'm guessing it's between the batteries and the rest of the system? Correct me if I'm wrong, If that's where you placed it, then when you're running the engine and it's producing 100amps of charge, and the stereo is drawing 75 amps, the Link 10 will show a charge to the batts of 25 amps?

I'm trying to figure out where in my system I want place the amp meter.

(all hypothetical numbers of course)

(Message edited by yosquire on May 31, 2006)

Craig. The shunt go's between the main ground to the boat and the main ground to the battery bank. So to have one of these work correctly all current that you want to monotor must pass threw this shunt. So it hooks up like this. All your battery's are linked together, with all your neg's hooked to neg's and all the pos to pos. Where your battery bank connects to the main ground for your boat thats right in line where the shunt connect's to. The shunt is a large thick metal looking mounting block with 2 bolt terminals capable of making a link between your boats draw and the ground. I have all my ground's going to one mounting block in the front. From that block to my battery bank that where the shunt crosses the connection and sences all my current draw. As far as your question: Im not sure how its gonna display when Im throwing a charge at it I havent seen it as of yett. The Balmar Max Charge voltage regulator dictates how much voltage and how much amp's the battery's get so what it show will be any ones guess. It all depends on the state of the batterys and the ammount of draw at that moment, But I think your guess is somewhat correct.
It will show the current draw and the ammount of battery life you have at that exact moment, And if you like it will show you at the current rate of discharge or draw how long till you run out of juice via a timer. Thats right it will start counting backwards in min's and second's till your battery's are dead. Or if you Push Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right on your perfict pass it will show you the same thing. Ooo wait thats a coad to a old nintendo game never mind

My perfect pass has a voltage readout in the menu display. If you cycle through it will tell you what your battery voltage is. If I have my perko switch to battery one it will show that one. Perko to battery 2 then I get that voltage, if Perko is to both I get combined voltage. Just like perfect pass will tell water temp and so on.

That thing is pretty trick. It'll be cool to see what current & time numbers you come back with after you've had it for a while.

I understand your explanation of where it the shunt goes. I think it'll tell you charge and discharge of the battery banks -- which really, is the most useful information. As I think about it, the Link 10 needs that info to predict battery life.

and craig, tell me why you think it only tells me when it is dead? You think I am some sort of dumba**.

You are just measuring voltage at a place in the system in reference to ground. Just that simple. Does not take a expensive gismo for that. To get your current draw, you are just measuring voltage drop across a known resistance. Don't need an expensive toy for that. As for telling how much time, it is probably just calculating voltage drop over time and calculating a simple mathmatical fit to it and giving a time. Can't you just do that in your head?

BTW, I think it is a cool toy though....

Rod, I've never seen a PP gugae that is accurate. and yes you could use a formula to calculate time remaining (b/c amp draw varies over time, it may be a long formula) you can also open the gas cap on your tank and look in with a flashlight to see how much gas is remaining. The "gizmo" is proabbly not practical, but either is a 60k boat

well said Adam.

I don't think it matters if it is accurate to .2 volts or not. The time remaining has to be a formula. I don't think there is any other way and it would not be that long since it would probabely be a first order fit. Basically, if the gauge people hit within 10 minutes of empty, most people with think they are a genius. Amp draw over time is not that hard even if it varies. All they have to do is keep your last data point or even monitor for less than a minute to get a new curve. Flash light for gas or if you aunt had a penis, she would be your uncle. Same deal. Your right... a 60k boat is not practical. I was just pointing out to people that may not have known, that their perfect pass does have that feature. It would be cool to have the gizmo, for gizmo sakes, regardless of how it is done.

All PP I have ever encountered are usually more than .5 off some up to 1 volt, but it's all relative. but being accurate to within .2 is important considering a battery will go from 100% charged to a 50% charge in roughly .6 volts.

I guess if your monitor is linear, then you should be fine.