HOW TO USE THE LINK
CONTROL PANEL
BATTERY MANAGEMENT PHILOSOPHY: Recharge When the Battery is 50% Discharged!The LINK 2000 is a guide to the battery's state of charge. Our Mid-Capacity Rule says you should begin charging when your LINK2000shows that 50% of battery capacity hasbeenconsumed.In Marine andRVsystems,whichare trying to minimize charging time withanenginedrivenalternatororgeneratordrivencharger, thebatteryisnormallycharged only to the 85% level. This means only 35% of the battery capacity is actually available for use. The Mid-Capacity rule is a very conservative approach to battery use. Occasionally dischargingabatterymoredeeplyisperfectlyacceptable.TheMid-Capacityruleisintended asadesignandoperatingguidelinetoprovideoptimalbatterylifeandensurethemostenergy output from the battery over its life, not a law which must be obeyed without exception.
We recommend synchronizing your LINK 2000 to the 100% charged level of the battery. You should begin recharging when 50% of your battery capacity has been consumed. When recharging from an engine-driven alternator or generator supplied battery charger you do not have to charge until the meter reads 0 amp hours consumed. You may cease charging when the LINK 2000 is displaying that 15% of the battery capacity is still consumed. See the example below. When you plug back into AC power, or when your Alternative Energy production exceeds demand, the remaining amp hours consumed will be replaced.
MANAGINGATWO-BATTERYSYSTEM
With a two-battery system we recommend using battery #1 until you consume 50% of its capacity, then switch to battery #2 and use 50% of it. When both batteries are 50% discharged it is time to charge. You should never leave either battery partially discharged for more than a few days.
Suppose you have two 200 Ah batteries for a total system capacity of 400 Ah and youhavesynchronized yourLINK2000to 100%chargedbatteries.Youwouldusebattery #1 until the LINK 2000 showed that you had used 50% (the display would show -100Ah). You would then use battery #2 until you had used 50% of it (-100Ah). At this point charge both batteries up to about the 85% level (-30 Ah on each). If you have other reasons to continue running the engine or plug back into AC power you may continue charging until the meter reads zero.
OVERCHARGE AMP HOURS
If the battery is 100% charged, and the LINK 2000 is in sync with the batteries, overcharge amp hours are displayed as positive. Some accumulation of overcharge amp hours is normal and harmless with systems continuously connected to a charger. For example: a 100 Ah battery at the Float voltage will normally have less than 0.1 A flowing into it. This means that a maximum of 2.4 Ah of overcharge would accumulate in a 24 hour period. If your battery system is larger there will be proportionately more current flow and positive amp-hour accumulation.
If the charging system is a constant voltage type set at 14.2 volts, as much as one amp of current may be flowing all the time after the battery has reached the charged