Xantrex Link 20

[limmer]

does any one have any tips for setting the link 20 so the light bars work correctly, there is the peurkets exponent? that is really messing with my head and I am guessing that this is the issue. long story short is the light bar for the house bank shows single red telling me that the bank is totally dead, but they are not because they are reading at 13.4. I monitor a single start battery and a house bank with 600 AH . any help would be great.

[camaraderie]

No battery should be reading 13.4 as 12.6/7 is 100% charged. You must either have a surface charge on them due to charging current from the alternator or solar panels etc. or you are reading them while running your charging equipment in float mode.
In order to take a proper reading you must turn off ALL charging sources and ALL use sources for 24 hours to allow the surface charge to dissipate. Alternatively, you need to find a battery guy who can put a HD load tester on them.
The LINK if it is working properly is measuring the amp hours left in your batteries...not the voltage.

If you believe the batteries are indeed in good shape and that the link is the problem, the factory reset instructions are on page 22 of the manual which you can access here. http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/76/docserve.aspx
Note that AFTER resetting to factory defaults you will need to go back into the menu to reset the battery capacity to 600ah's for the house bank as 200ah's is the default. It is unlikely that the Peukert exponent setting is responsible for what you are reporting but that should be set properly as well after the re-set.
Note that if you disconnect any of the thin wires from the Link you need to reconnect all in the precise order noted in the manual. You should of course check the condition of all connections as a first step.

[limmer]

I should have said that yes the charger was on and in float mode thats why I have the 13.4 but yes with the charger off I have 12.6 or so. maybe I will try setting the link back to factory and starting over. The problem is that I just do not get the peukert exponent. I think that I am just missing something with the set up in regards to the charged peramaters and rate of discharge stuff. cheers

[Rick]

Your description fits a lack of tracking on the part of the Link20 between the apparent battery capacity and actual (assumed) capacity. The two major factors are: failure to repetitively achieve "charged parameters" when sufficient charge conditions for "full" occur; and using a CEF (charge efficiency factor) that is too small.

A minor factor is whether or not the zero current displayed is in fact zero for no charge current and no discharge current present. Check the displayed zero Amps on the house bank with no load by disconnecting all positive connections to the postive distribution point on that bank. The display should rack between -0.00 and 0.00 by an equal amount over many seconds.

Set the CEF to 99 for the initial purpose of showing a good track at first. Check the charged parameters against the accept voltage delivered by your charge source. Note that if you make many charge/discharge cycles without achieving charged parameters that a large accumulation of negative Amp-hours will occur should the CEF be too low. This would be normal for a lack of good set-up parameters but not useful.