Electrical
June 9, 2003
The Pathmaker battery combiner seems to have froze in the
parallel position. I have to press the manual off switch to de-energize
the solenoid. I'll put it back on the to-do list. Completed wiring
of the last two engine rooms lights. Major changes in bilge pump wiring
that is outlined in the story on bilge pumps. This allowed installation of
the battery combiner switch on the electrical service panel in the pilot house.
August 2, 2002
When we took delivery of Tortuga the only engine room
lighting was battery powered. Adequate for underway maintenance but not so
good for dockside work. The holding tank project "inspired" me
to develop a scheme for lighting that allowed my poor eyes to see. Home
Depot had on sale the Luxmark 150 watt halogen outdoor lamps. They seem
perfect and have a slight nautical appearance. I needed to tap into the
120 VAC line. The only convenient place was in the kitchen since the power
switch was also located there. Of course, previous owners had such little
concern for safety (or appearance) so fixing wiring problems in the kitchen
became a new task prior to getting power to my engine room. An example,
the outlet to the right of the sink had a hole drilled in the teak frame and
they ran a wire out of it hanging loose then up into the bottom of the cabinets.
This wire then fed an outlet above the stove for the microwave. Why didn't
they simply remove the teak box frame and enlarge the current (hidden) hole and
do it right? That task is now complete and its down to the engine room to
install the lights. OK, in case you haven't guessed, I'm slightly anal
about safety and wiring ! |
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The Pathmaker remote control switch also arrived and I
performed a test install. It worked perfect. The next task is to run
the wiring for the panel up to the pilot house and install it under the current
monitoring panels. This will allow me to parallel the batteries from the
pilot house and also notifies me when the system automatically parallels under
charge.
June 23, 2002
The initial installation of the Pathmaker battery combiner
seemed to be OK. But testing this past month revealed that the Pathmaker
was kicking out after a few seconds. I returned it to Xantrex with
diagnostic information. They indicated that the relay contacts where
corroded. Reinstalling this last weekend fixed the problems and we now
have two fully charged house banks.
March 21, 2002
After cutting a hole in the pilot house cabinet to
accommodate the TrueCharge 40 remote panel I was bound and determined to get the
panel to work. A call to the factory and the gentleman on the other end
said I had too long of a cable (60'). I didn't believe him and started to
troubleshoot the problem. It turns out that using a normal household phone
extension cord won't work. There was something funny about the pin outs in
the RJ11 plugs. So I cut the ends off, and reinstalled plugs exactly in
the pin out of the original and it worked.
March 8, 2002
This last weekend was spent connecting the new Link 20
monitoring panel in the pilot house to the new distribution panel in the engine
room. The wiring went perfect using the 50 ft. cable purchased from
WestMarine. The system seems to have blown all three of the 2 amp fuses on
first power up or the fuses could have been bad and I simply missed it.
After replacing all fuses the panel came to life. The only problem now is
that the current flow though the shunt for battery 2 (the starboard house bank)
shows no current readings. Even though current is flowing (the lights are
on) the panel shows zero amps and a direct measurement on the shunt with a VOM
shows zero mV. A call to Heart Interface tech support said to go over the
installation again since there is no way the shunt could behave as I have
described.
After monitoring various loads (running lights, VHF radio,
etc) I have fallen in love with this device. It will be so easy to monitor
battery status with perfect piece of mind. The one problem it did identify
was that the port house bank was bad. A quick measurement of specific
gravity in each cell of the two-battery bank showed very low levels. I
expected sulfation on the plates so I set the charger for an equalizing voltage
level for one hour and took continuous measurements. The specific gravity
only climbed a small amount. So off to WestMarine again to purchase two
new GC2 6-volt batteries. This now provides me with two house banks of 215
Amp Hours each for a total of 430 Amp hours. That's great in the sense
that (without refrigeration) the boat draws an average of 6 amp hour consumption
during the day. A 40% discharge rule would allow me to run for a couple of
days between charging. Of course, when I complete the refrigeration task
I'll need to look at numbers again.
A quick note here as well as in the engine maintenance
section. The gauges for water temperature and oil pressure are now working
following cutting out the junk wiring in the engine room. See the engine
section for more details.
February 5, 2002
I have spent two months rewiring the power distribution
panel. Take a look at the
stories section on the main page for details.
November 27, 2001
Spent Thanksgiving Sunday on the boat completing more
projects. The 120VAC lighting in the solon didn't seem to work.
After tracing down the circuits, it turns out the previous owner had wired the
new lights into the refrigerator circuit. Never having that turned on, no
wonder they didn't work.
Got the genset working at last. Turns out the circuit board was bad.
But there was also some operator error going on. You need to hold the
start switch until the genset completely fires up then continue to hold for 2 or
3 seconds. I wasn't holding the switch long enough and the cut out relays
where energizing before there was a chance to complete the startup cycle.
Removed the dual 8D battery box so that I could get into the bilge to run
additional wiring for the new 12VDC charging circuit. Let me remind
everyone to not try that by themselves. The 8D batteries must way 60lbs
each. A close examination of the battery box shows a very good epoxy job
to make it liquid proof. But then someone drilled two (drain) holes in the
side. What was this person thinking?
Next task - figure out how in the heck the battery cut-out switch for the 24VDC
starting circuit works.
November 5, 2001
The new 12VDC charger was installed during the
second leg of our trip down the ICW. The unit is the TrueCharge40+
unit with the remote display panel. The charger unit went in great
but the remote panel is displaying two voltages at the same time for the
second battery bank. Got a replacement today from WestMarine and
will take it up this weekend. I've connected the two house banks
and the genset battery to the charger.
We lost the direct drive coupling to the alternator (12vdc) on the
starboard engine. That means we have no way to generate power from
the engines during the day. The two house banks are keeping the
electronics running until we dock, then shore power to the chargers tops
the batteries back up. The genset went through major overhaul $$$
while at Swan Point Marina. The folks there seemed to know there
stuff. But the second day of underway we tried the genset and she
failed to start with the same symptoms. Many telephone calls later
we have some hints of what to look at. We're keeping our fingers
crossed. Believe it or not, there was actually a diode soldered in
backwards! My Goodness Charlie, who did you have fixing this
thing?? *&)^%$&( !Final note (Dec 2001) -
remote panel is working great. Genset is working great! |
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August 30, 2001
The new 24VDC charger was installed this last weekend.
Went in with absolutely no problems. Drew 30 amps when first lit off then
after an hour dropped to a comfortable 2 amps. I'll leave the 12 VDC
charger in place for a while until the new house battery system is complete.
Moved the genset battery out of the box forward of the engines (where all other
batteries are) adjacent to the genset itself. This allowed me to remove
the 20' of cable runs and get rid of two red colored lines. Can you
imagine, the negative wire was red???? Now I can install a second set of
house batteries in the original location. No explanation for why the
previous owner removed the second house battery. Will need to completely
trace all wiring to ensure its correct. It appears the 12VDC charger is
already wired to supply current to both sets. I'll be installing a battery
combiner to allow charging from the single alternator.
This still leave considerable work to be completed on the 24VDC engine charging
system. Right now its completely disconnected.
Rewired the mast and all electrical connectors for navigation and anchor lights.
This also required repainting the cover panel on the aft end of the pilot house
(external). I'll get pictures on the next trip.
I checked every thing possible to determine why the genset fuel rack solenoid
wasn't getting power. The only option left is to replace the control
module. This circuit card has the relays and power sensing diodes.
Failure of anyone of these relays would explain the problem.
August
6, 2001
The charger arrived and it was exactly what I
needed. Thank you OnLineMarine. |
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August 1, 2001
The first item for repair is the 24VDC charger to handle the
starting batteries. The current unit is a Sentry Series C converter from
Marine Development Corporation. It's been cooking the batteries in full
charge mode since who knows when. A new Charles Model 5000 charger was
ordered from OnLine Marine today.
BoatUS please take note, they offered the unit at 40% less than you did.
The charger is critical since the 24V alternator on the port engine (12VDC on
the starboard engine) is completely disconnected. That's high on my to do
list also.
Ordered spare filter set for Kohler genset (Model 8CCO).
Parts coming from Nixon Power Services in Nashville. The genset does not
run with the fuel rack solenoid engaged. I think it's the alternator
voltage regulator not providing the right signal. That's been ordered
also!
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