Just Ordered a Link 10

[campadk]

Just ordered a Link 10 monitor with 15ft cable. West Marine had a decent price, and I found a 10% coupon code online to make the deal sweet! (ok the cable may have been overpriced...).

Anyways, what issues will I have trying to route the cable from the closet/kitchen wall in our Bambi back to the battery box on the tongue?

Since the the blue (battery volt sense) and red (DC meter power) have to be within 7" of the battery, I am thinking I can just wire as per the propane detector through a fused wire to battery positive under the dinette.

This is a 2007 19ft Bambi by the way.

Does Airstream make it easy to pull cable after the fact? Or can I expect to pull out a few hairs attempting such a feat

Thanks!

[Phil Gobie]

What is a link 10?

[campadk]

Originally Posted by Phil Gobie

What is a link 10?

Battery monitor... Xantrex Technology Inc. - Link 10 - Product Information

[5cats]

I ha my eye on the link10, too! Ultimately I went with another Xantrex model.
Here's my experience installing a battery monitor (a pictorial) -- the bulk of time/effort was actually spent de-tangling the rat's nest of wiring the factory did up front by the battery area.

I didn't have the wire routing problem you do, as my coach is a front bed layout. That gave me plenty of options to do my wiring out of site, and pick a nice spot to mount the monitor. Still, my coach seems to have a lot of open space/routing behind floor-level cabinets and access around water lines and such. I expect you have something similar under the front dinette seating, right?

I went with the 500A shunt: I'm considering adding two more batteries in the future, and didn't want to risk overcooking a 100A shunt. Plus, I think 1/10A precision is plenty for this application.

Cheers,
-jd.

[Wayne&Sam]

5cats- your pictorial answered a question I've had. That is, where they put the sub-woofer. I've seen the wiring for it in that location under the bed, but didn't think they would put it way back there without any open ports to the rest of the coach.

[guy99]

Anyone know what the difference in functionality between the Link 10 and this is?
TriMetric with 500 Amp Shunt

[campadk]

Thanks for posting that JD!

Looks like you have a LOT more room to work with.

I pulled out some drawers etc, and looks like it should be ok... might have to remove a panel in the closet, but otherwise I should be able to pull the cable thru.

I see that you put the shunt inside. I was thinking of putting it right in the battery box. Especially since there may be some electrical loads that you bypass if connecting under the dinette. I know for sure that connecting the shunt inside will be bypassing the electric jack. No sure if anything else is bypassed.

Also the Link 10 documentation mentions the shunt should be 7" or less from the battery. I measure about 3ft from battery to inside the dinette were the wire terminal blocks are located. Not sure how much that will effect accuracy.

Assuming I connect the shunt inside the dinette, I'm thinking that it needs to connect between the battery connection showin here, and the terminal strip. This however bypasses the electric jack which is wired directly to the battery terminals up front.

[5cats]

Originally Posted by Wayne&Sam

5cats- your pictorial answered a question I've had. That is, where they put the sub-woofer. I've seen the wiring for it in that location under the bed, but didn't think they would put it way back there without any open ports to the rest of the coach.

I've found there to be plenty of effect as is. That's a giant cavern under the front bed arrangement, and with adjustments on the subwoofer itself plus more on the head unit you can definitely make internal organs shake anywhere in the coach

Cheers,
-jd.

[5cats]

Originally Posted by campadk

I see that you put the shunt inside. I was thinking of putting it right in the battery box. Especially since there may be some electrical loads that you bypass if connecting under the dinette. I know for sure that connecting the shunt inside will be bypassing the electric jack. No sure if anything else is bypassed.

I wrestled with the location for a long time. At the battery was my preferred location, but my existing battery box just didn't have the height/room to support a safe/secure mounting location. I have a buddy that installed the shunt inline, finding the battery cables to be so stiff that the shunt doesn't move at all (good). I just didn't have room for that inside the metal box

And I think you're right about the jack. I decided the jack doesn't get used enough between charging opportunities to be worth considering or the effort to rewire it for monitoring. I never fully determined the full electrical path of the jack. I've only spotted the Pos. lead, without taking anything apart. I think it likely it relies on frame grounding? If so, it may be included in the monitoring. I'll run an experiment to watch for activity on the monitor while Carolyn operates the jack and let you know.

Originally Posted by campadk

Also the Link 10 documentation mentions the shunt should be 7" or less from the battery. I measure about 3ft from battery to inside the dinette were the wire terminal blocks are located. Not sure how much that will effect accuracy.

My Xantrex install guide makes no mention of specific distances in this regard, only stressing the importance of keeping the main cables as short as possible. I think in practice I'm going to be interested in "am I approaching 70%, 60%, 50% remaining capacity?", not so much 65.42% versus 65.41% or really even 12.88V versus 12.87V.

Originally Posted by campadk

Assuming I connect the shunt inside the dinette, I'm thinking that it needs to connect between the battery connection showin here, and the terminal strip. This however bypasses the electric jack which is wired directly to the battery terminals up front.

(Again, true about the jack, I think.)

My coach was wired with two separate Pos. and Neg. leads from the battery box into the wiring block area (on set dedicated to the 600W inverter). So I had to join the two Neg. leads at the battery-side of the shunt, and re-split the load-side back out. I like this arrangement because of the potential load from the inverter.

Your factory wiring is arranged much better than mine was!
I left the components in position to avoid turning the interior wall into swiss cheese, but I was baffled as to why the factory installers seemed to go out of their way to criss-cross the Pos. and Neg. components as much as possible. I'm no electrician, but I would have grouped the Pos. bus together with the battery disconnect on one side, with plenty of distance away from the grounding block. Then the incoming battery cables would lay out cleaningly, along with all the other cabling! I mean, these folks have been laying out wiring for decades, and still haven't figured this stuff out? *sigh*