Connecting a Battery Monitor December 28, 2011, 01:31:15 pm Yahoo Message Number: 127532I need some help from the group. I have a 1996 LD 30IB and am attempting to install at LinkLite battery monitor. The issue I am facing is trying to locate the best instalation location. The house battery pack is under the engine hood in this model LD. I first tried temporarly wiring the monitor and shunt to the negative and positive leads that are behind the LD monitoring panel ( the panel that has the water pump, water heater, tank level ect). The voltage across the wires at that location dropped from 12.7 (tested with a mutimeter) to 5V. Disconnecting the battery monitor and the voltage returned to 12.7. I then attached the monitor and shunt directly to the batteries and it worked correctly. I don't have a convenient way to perminately mount the monitor close to the batteries.My question is: Do I have hook directly to the batteries, or can I hook up the monitor in a remote location and tie in to the Negetive and positive wires somewhere else in the RV. The best location without considereing the monitor function would be on the face of the overhead storage cabinets and tying into the overhead light wires, but then I am going through a breaker. Any Ideas?Ed Taylor
Re: Connecting a Battery Monitor Reply #1 – December 28, 2011, 01:54:14 pm Yahoo Message Number: 127533Quote I need some help from the group. I have a 1996 LD 30IB and am attempting to install at LinkLite battery monitor. The issue I am facing is trying to locate the best instalation location. The house battery pack is under the engine hood in this model LD. I first tried temporarly wiring the monitor and shunt to the negative and positive leads that are behind the LD monitoring panel ( the panel that has the water pump, water heater, tank level ect). The voltage across the wires at that location dropped from 12.7 (tested with a mutimeter) to 5V. Disconnecting the battery monitor and the voltage returned to 12.7. I then attached the monitor and shunt directly to the batteries and it worked correctly. I don't have a convenient way to perminately mount the monitor close to the batteries.My question is: Do I have hook directly to the batteries, or can I hook up the monitor in a remote location and tie in to the Negetive and positive wires somewhere else in the RV. The best location without considereing the monitor function would be on the face of the overhead storage cabinets and tying into the overhead light wires, but then I am going through a breaker. Any Ideas? Your really should have the shunt in the negative ground cable of the coach batteries. The monitor panel does not need to be close to the shunt location. Ours is probably at least 10 wiring feet away. I really suggest that you put the monitor where it is easy to view from within the coach. When I installed our Link-10 (several years ago) I believe there were 5 wires to the monitor: two for the shunt drop voltage, one for battery voltage sensing and +12V and ground to power the monitor. The shunt voltage drop is very small, so those two wires need to be a twisted pair to avoid electrical noise. The battery voltage sense is a high impedance input that needs to be wired to the battery positive. I expect that the +12V and ground for the monitor could be picked up anywhere handy, but since the other wires needed to be run to the batteries, why not run them all together.HTH, Art
Re: Connecting a Battery Monitor Reply #2 – December 28, 2011, 05:21:18 pm Yahoo Message Number: 127536Just to reinforce what Art said: in order for the LinkLite to do its job, ALL of your coach's electric current must flow through that shunt. The shunt works like a gas meter or water meter: it keeps track of everything that goes in or out... so everything has to go through it. That means disconnecting any cable that's hooked to the negative terminal of your battery and moving it to one terminal of the shunt; then connecting a short, fat cable from the shunt's other terminal to the battery's now-vacant negative terminal. When I say "short," I mean that the shunt should be no more than a foot from the battery or batteries. In your case, it's got to go in the engine compartment, if that's where your coach batteries are. The LinkLite monitor panel, on the other hand, can be located anywhere inside the coach that's convenient. Use twisted-pair cable to connect the two, as Art recommended, to avoid noise pickup.Andy Baird http://www.andybaird.com/travels/
Re: Connecting a Battery Monitor Reply #3 – December 28, 2011, 10:34:01 pm Yahoo Message Number: 127538QuoteWhen I say "short," I mean that the shunt should be no more than a foot from the battery or batteries. In your case, it's got to go in the engine compartment, if that's where your coach batteries are. Actually, the distance from the shunt to the batteries is not critical. Since all the current flows thru the shunt, and the voltage developed across it is read from the same monitor points no matter where the shunt is located, it is simply a convenience to have it mounted near the batteries, since an existing battery cable is hooked to one end. As long as a large enough gauge of cable is used, everything will work fine with 1',2', or even a 3' length of jumper. Removing this constraint allows the shunt to be mounted where it is out of the way for battery maintenance operations, and away from corrosive effects which will ruin its calibration - preferably out of the battery compartment, if possible.Steve
Re: Connecting a Battery Monitor Reply #4 – December 28, 2011, 10:58:40 pm Yahoo Message Number: 127539"Actually, the distance from the shunt to the batteries is not critical. Since all the current flows thru the shunt, and the voltage developed across it is read from the same monitor points no matter where the shunt is located, it is simply a convenience to have it mounted near the batteries." Goldang it, you're right--I spoke too soon. Thanks for setting me straight! But as you said, the connecting cable must be of adequate size. That's important. Speaking of cable size, here's an instructive tale from fellow fulltimer Glenn Morissette (http://www.tosimplify.net/). He's been concerned for some time that his batteries, which are only a year or so old, weren't delivering what they should. He was considering buying new and very expensive AGMs, but I suggested checking his wiring first. To make a long story short, it turned out that Chinook had built his motorhome with a 55 watt solar panel (barely adequate for trickle charging) and 12-gauge wiring to match--about fifteen feet of it. (You electrical types will say "That's 30 feet round trip," and you'll be right.) When I heard yesterday that Glenn's HPV-22 solar charging controller was showing a healthy 14.3 volts, while both his LinkLite and his multimeter were showing only 13.2V at the batteries, my suspicion was confirmed. Today, Glenn replaced his inadequate wiring with 4-gauge welding cable, and now the voltage at the HPV-22 controller is within less than a tenth of a volt of the voltage measured at the batteries... and he's getting a MUCH better charge. His rig's skinny wires had been wasting a big portion of the juice his 260W panels were delivering--it never reached the batteries! The lesson here is that if your solar controller shows a significantly different voltage than what you measure at the batteries themselves--or what your Link-10, LinkLite, LinkPro or XBM battery monitor measures--you should suspect that the wiring between the controller and the batteries is inadequate. Given Lazy Daze's tendency top over-engineer, this is probably less likely in a Lazy Daze than in a Chinook... but it can happen to anyone who adds substantial solar capacity to a rig that wasn't wired for it (in Glenn's case, upgrading from 55W to 260W). Just something to keep in mind...Andy Baird http://www.andybaird.com/travels/
Re: Connecting a Battery Monitor Reply #5 – December 29, 2011, 12:06:12 pm Yahoo Message Number: 127542QuoteTo make a long story short, it turned out that Chinook had built his motorhome with a 55 watt solar panel (barely adequate for trickle charging) and 12-gauge wiring to match--about fifteen feet of it. (You electrical types will say "That's 30 feet round trip," and you'll be right.) When I heard yesterday that Glenn's HPV-22 solar charging controller was showing a healthy 14.3 volts, while both his LinkLite and his multimeter were showing only 13.2V at the batteries, my suspicion was confirmed. This was precisely the issue when I upgraded our battery location. Our charge controller at the time was located about 15' of fairly small gauge cable away from the batteries - but only about 4' from the panels. Since the controller measures the voltage at its output, any voltage drop in the cable to the batteries will not be corrected for - and this is the sum of the positive and negative run, in my case about 30'. Since controller location was flexible - no display panel to deal with - I was able to relocate it in the same compartment as the batteries. When I upgraded the controller, I chose a model that also did not require a display panel, and was able to mount it in the same close location to the batteries.Steve
Re: Connecting a Battery Monitor Reply #6 – December 29, 2011, 12:35:31 pm Yahoo Message Number: 127543Alright, I have read Andys, Arts and I think Steves comments. Thank you for the responses. I get that the shunt needs to be close to the batteries so that it can access the large - negative cable from the batteries.I am still unclear about the following: Andys commnet.. That means disconnecting any cable that's hooked to the negative terminal of your battery and moving it to one terminal of the shunt; then connecting a short, fat cable from the shunt's other terminal to the battery's now-vacant negative terminal. It looks like the negative from the battery goes to a connector on the shunt, and then the cable continues from the same side of the shunt to the coach. Looking at the diagram provided by Xantrex, the other side of the shunt is for a second battery pack. Does this make sense? Ed[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Re: Connecting a Battery Monitor Reply #7 – December 29, 2011, 01:20:10 pm Yahoo Message Number: 127544QuoteIt looks like the negative from the battery goes to a connector on the shunt, and then the cable continues from the same side of the shunt to the coach. Looking at the diagram provided by Xantrex, the other side of the shunt is for a second battery pack. Does this make sense? Ed The current in/out of the batteries needs to pass through the shunt.i.e.:Chassisst Thus a heavy cable goes from the battery negative to one of the big shunt terminals, and another heavy cable goes from the other big shunt terminal to the chassis. There are a couple of small terminals on the shunt for a twisted pair to carry the tiny shunt voltage to the monitor.Art
Re: Connecting a Battery Monitor Reply #8 – December 29, 2011, 04:35:31 pm Yahoo Message Number: 127548Thank you for the help in connecting up my LinkPro. I just have to learn how to read a simple wiring diagram. All is good, I understand what I need to do now. Ed[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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Topic: Connecting a Battery Monitor (Read 11 times)
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