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j-hood · 17-10-2015, 19:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by yttrill

I would suggest systematic fault diagnosis. The first step is to connect the power to the unit. No other connections. They should light up. If not, it is unequivocably a fault in the unit. Make sure to have the power supplied fused to avoid blowing your power cables!

If the unit is working the displays may show rubbish since there are no sensor signals, but you should be able to enter the configuration menu and set the various parameters. You may also get an alarm going off, if the unit thinks your batteries are under voltage.

Once you are sure the unit is functioning you can connect the voltage sensors for each bank, and the amperage sensor on the shunt (which of course is actually a voltage sensor).

I have a pair of e-xpert lite units which look exactly the same as a Xantrex and I think are a cheap copy thereof (or the same unit rebranded). They've both been working flawlessly for 7 years.

This is exactly one of the troubleshooting measures the manufacturer had me perform on the first one, and I repeated it on this unit to no avail. There is that possibility that there is a bad batch of these and I got two of them. I will continue troubleshooting, inquiring, and asking for now. Monday I'll drop the issue back on their tech support if no solutions have come up.

Thanks for the excellent and helpful advice. =)

pcmm · 17-10-2015, 19:59

Do you have a link for these X pert lite units? sounds interesting.

yttrill · 17-10-2015, 20:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by j-hood

This is exactly one of the troubleshooting measures the manufacturer had me perform on the first one, and I repeated it on this unit to no avail. There is that possibility that there is a bad batch of these and I got two of them. I will continue troubleshooting, inquiring, and asking for now. Monday I'll drop the issue back on their tech support if no solutions have come up.

Thanks for the excellent and helpful advice. =)

Sounds like you should take a small battery into the shop and make the salesman connect it and prove it works before buying another one

yttrill · 17-10-2015, 20:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by pcmm

Do you have a link for these X pert lite units? sounds interesting.

https://www.google.com.au/?gws_rd=ss...attery+monitor

http://www.intercel.nl/media/datashe...xpert-lite.pdf

Only problem i have with them is that there doesn't seem to be any way to switch of the low voltage alarm.

smac999 · 17-10-2015, 21:35

All you need is the power and ground wire to make it turn on. If you have 12v at these 2 wires and it's not on. It's probably a dead unit

Quote:

Originally Posted by j-hood

I have checked and rechecked the fuses and the wiring diagram. I did discover that I had to (I think!) move my main negative line that feeds my 12v bus to the system side of the shunt, which I had not realized on the first monitor and attempt, where it still fed to the bus straight from the battery. But alas, still no display after that relo.

.

Umm everything needs to go after the shunt. You should have a single cable coming off the house bank beg to shunt. From shunt to neg bus bar. From bus bar to all other negs and engine battery neg

exMaggieDrum · 18-10-2015, 12:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by j-hood

All excellent advice. The wiring is good, all is in the correct inputs in the back of the monitor. I got 13.08v on my meter at the batteries, from the in-line fuses, and from each of the two positives to the negative at the monitor. The phone support tech ran me through a number of checks, and he was as puzzled as I am.

Again, I am humble enough to know there is probably some very-small error on my part preventing success. Thanks for the help. I'll eventually get it.

Good luck with this. Looks to me that you did the right things in the right order. Good luck with Xantrex. We used to install one of their inverter/chargers about one a week for several years. Then they stopped answering the phone when we called. Email was useless. They just decided that they weren't going to give support. We stopped selling any products from them and if a customer insisted we install one they had from somewhere else we told them that they would have to deal with Xantrex themselves - including phone support, email, and delivery and pickup of bad units to the company. This was several years ago but I have never forgotten nor forgiven.

Stu Jackson · 18-10-2015, 12:16

I agree with Maggie, good post.

Just one question: did you plug the IIRC white & brown wires in in the order in the manual?

j-hood · 19-10-2015, 06:34

Thanks to everyone who replied!

The culprit ended up being a bad bullet connector on their factory-supplied wiring harness. Bastards. I was just breaking every last little component down into stages and checking for connectivity with the ohm meter when, lo and behold, that devilish little brown wire pinged. I clipped it off and replaced it with a properly-installed heat shrink butt connector, and the Xantrex lit up like Christmas morning. life is good.

Thanks again for all the brainstorming!

Maine Sail · 19-10-2015, 06:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by j-hood

Thanks to everyone who replied!

The culprit ended up being a bad bullet connector on their factory-supplied wiring harness. Bastards. I was just breaking every last little component down into stages and checking for connectivity with the ohm meter when, lo and behold, that devilish little brown wire pinged. I clipped it off and replaced it with a properly-installed heat shrink butt connector, and the Xantrex lit up like Christmas morning. life is good.

Thanks again for all the brainstorming!

It is pretty sad these days when we can't even trust manufacturers to use proper tooling or execute proper terminations.

Xantrex is notorious for CRAPPY terminations right out of the box..

Below are decent quality DOUBLE CRIMP friction fit terminals. They are ssupposed to be installed with a double crimping tool. One crimp is for the wire barrel and the second crimp provides strain relief.

Xantrex used a DIME STORE level crimp tool for a product intended to be directly connected to the BATTERIES!

"But wait there's more, buy now and we'll send you two crappy products." Oh wait wrong commercial...

Not only did Xantrex use the wrong tool, they used the wrong tool INCORRECTLY.

If using a staking or dimple crimp tool the dimple/stake always goes opposite the seam. Xantrex FAILED to do this.

This is a pathetically embarrassing example of corner cutting and cost saving at its worst. Sad really..... Shame, shame , shame on Xantrex.....

exMaggieDrum · 19-10-2015, 08:51

Nice job j-hood!

I have a new Xantrex Echo-Charger like the one that MaineSail showed with the bad crimps. I am going to snip those off and put my own crimps on there (double crimped). I have had good experience with the Echo-Chargers in the past but can see how the crimps could be a problem once in a while. Thanks, MaineSail for the post.

Stu Jackson · 19-10-2015, 08:52

Xantrex isn't the only one, Maine Sail.

Every single ring terminal on the harness on my Balmar MC-612, from over 12 years ago, back when we "thought" the manufacturers were doing things right, ALL failed.

exMaggieDrum · 19-10-2015, 08:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

Xantrex isn't the only one, Maine Sail.

Every single ring terminal on the harness on my Balmar MC-612, from over 12 years ago, back when we "thought" the manufacturers were doing things right, ALL failed.

I have a new Balmar 614 regulator to install too.

I will cut off all the crimps on the harness and replace them too. In hindsight I wish I had not bought the alternator-regulator wiring harness since I have to modify it - shorten some wires and lengthen others.

smac999 · 19-10-2015, 23:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by j-hood

Thanks to everyone who replied!

The culprit ended up being a bad bullet connector on their factory-supplied wiring harness. Bastards. I was just breaking every last little component down into stages and checking for connectivity with the ohm meter when, lo and behold, that devilish little brown wire pinged. I clipped it off and replaced it with a properly-installed heat shrink butt connector, and the Xantrex lit up like Christmas morning. life is good.

Thanks again for all the brainstorming!

you told us you had 12v at the back of the unit so you failed too. you obviously didn't have 12v at the meter.

when did the link lite come with a harness? it used to be an option like 10 years ago. unless they've put one back in the past 6 months it doesn't come with one... I've put in like 50 of them. never seen a harness.

weird it's back on their website. they defiantly weren't selling it for quite a while as far as I know.

exMaggieDrum · 20-10-2015, 06:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by smac999

you told us you had 12v at the back of the unit so you failed too. you obviously didn't have 12v at the meter.

when did the link lite come with a harness? it used to be an option like 10 years ago. unless they've put one back in the past 6 months it doesn't come with one... I've put in like 50 of them. never seen a harness.

weird it's back on their website. they defiantly weren't selling it for quite a while as far as I know.

Smac - you failed too. I believe he said he did a voltage test which passed and then a resistance test which did not. Voltage can be seen with just a microstrand of wire but a resistance test can find it. In any case you weren't there and the OP did find the problem.

And, here is a link to a Xantrex connection kit - i.e. harness. Perhaps you never used one but they are available for those who might want to get one.

Amazon.com : Xantrex Connection Kit f/LinkLITE & LinkPRO : Xantrex Link Pro Battery Monitor : Car Electronics

May be you ought to be a little less harsh to those not as competent as you, obvioulsy, seem to be. I say kudos to the owner for persistence and learning about how to do these things. This is a path we all go through (unless somehow one of us has that knowledge in their DNA).