Archive for the ‘Battery Charger’ Category

Smart switching with two alternators?

December 6th, 2010 by Kevin Hannula

Hello,

I’m replacing all of the batteries and the battery charger on my marine electrical system.

I have two starters (one for each engine), and a house bank of batteries. I’m going to install a new two or three channel three-stage electronic charger for the batteries. Volvo Penta alternator

The one part I’m not clear on is what I need in between the two alternators (one per engine) and the starter and house batteries. Should I use just one VSR smart battery switch in between just one of the starter batteries and the house bank? Or, is there someway to wire all three together using multiple VSRs?

Thanks for the help,

Jason

Hi Jason,

I would recommend two VSRs for your boat wiring.

You will want one between your port engine and house battery and another between your starboard engine and house battery. Each VSR would be connected around your battery switches.

  • Run an 8 AWG wire from one VSR terminal to the BAT1 post on your battery switch
  • Run another 8 awg wire from the other VSR terminal to the BAT2 post on your battery switch
  • Bat 1 for each switch will be the respective engine battery and Bat 2 will be the house battery bank
  • Under normal operation, put both battery switches in Pos1. The engine will charge it’s battery first and then charge the house battery bank.
  • In an emergency situation, turn your battery switch to either BOTH to get your engine started.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Posted in Battery Charger, Boat Batteries, Boat Wiring, Cruisers, Marine Battery Switch, Marine Electrical, Runabouts, VSR | Comments Off

Fuse placement and size

November 29th, 2010 by Kevin Hannula

Kevin,

I am fixing my marine electrical system and after a lot of reading and forum exchanges I came up with this boat wiring diagram.

The problem is, I can’t figure out the size of the fuses on the wires from the two banks to ACR and the boat battery switch. Currently there are no fuses at all, and the previous owners did not have any problems for many years. From the common on the switch power is used for navigation lights, cabin lights, anchor lights and stereo system. Nothing else.The boat wiring diagram

Is my diagram working? What size should the fuses be?

Your suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Best,

Horia

Hi Horia,

All circuit protection should be as close as possible to the source of power.

With the marine electrical setup in your diagram, if you put the battery switch in the both position, the fuses in the leads between the battery switch and the battery with blow when you start the engine.

I would remove both of these fuses and use a minimum of 2 AWG between the boat batteries and the switch. I would use a minimum of 2 AWG for the ground wires between the batteries and the boat ground bus. If the ground bus is petite, I would run my common ground wire from battery negative to battery negative or increase the size of the bus.

There should be circuit protection in the lead that runs from the common on your battery switch to your distribution buses. This should be sized at either the load requirements of your distribution system or the maximum current carrying capacity of the components leading up to the load center. For example, if you panel board requires 100 amps, but it is fed by a 10 AWG 105C wire, I would feel safe with a maximum breaker size of no more than 50 amps.

The lead from your battery to your bilge pump and stereo power bus bar should also have circuit protection. The individual leads to your bilge pump and stereo should also have circuit protection. Determine the bus protection rating based on the total size of the loads and the individual lead protection based on the requirements of the components.

Here is a link to determine the size of the fuse required for your ACR.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Thank you very much.

I only have one question. The outboard is directly connected to Bank 1. Why do you say that the fuses between the batteries and main switch will blow if the switch is on C?

Best,

Horia

Hi Horia,

If the battery switch is in the both position, the batteries are connected in parallel. The engine will try to start from both batteries and blow the fuses.

Thanks

Kevin

Posted in Battery Charger, Boat Batteries, Boat Wiring, Circuit Protection, Cruisers, Ignition Switch, Marine Battery Switch, Marine Electrical, Pontoons, Runabouts, Shore Power, Signaling Devices, Switch Panels | Comments Off

Big Boat Battery Basics

November 1st, 2010 by Kevin Hannula

Kevin,

I have twin Volvo engines and Westerbeke generator and would like your advice on my marine electrical setup.

With both engines running and/or generator running with all batteries combined is there a conflict from the three alternators? Do they all put out equally or is one of them going to do most of the work?

Engines are each about 65 amp and generator is 50 amp. Then with generator running, I have built-in charger connected to house and start batteries.Westerbeke Generator

I am looking for a couple of options on how the boat wiring could be set up? All alternators are factory. Starboard engine cranks off house agm batteries and port and generator crank off a single battery bank.

Bo

Hi Bo,

This is a very common marine electrical configuration. The batteries limit the output and there should be no harm to your alternators.

My preference would be to have a battery for each engine and a separate battery or bank of batteries for the house/generator.

Two options configuring your boat wiring:

Manual switch operation

  • Use a battery selector switch for each engine.
  • The port engine start cable is connected to the common post on the switch.
  • The port start battery is connected to the #1 post on the switch and the house battery bank is connected to the #2 post.
  • The starboard engine start cable is connected to the common post on the switch.
  • The starboard start battery is connected to the #1 post on the switch and the house battery bank is connected to the #2 post.
  • The generator is connected directly to the house battery.
  • The house loads are connected to the house battery with circuit protection.

How it works

  • While underway, run the battery switches in BOTH,1, or 2. BOTH parallels the entire system, 1 will run the engines only off of their start batteries, and 2 will run the engines only off of the house battery.
  • While anchored or running DC loads without the engine running, put the switches in any position BUT BOTH. This will help prevent a dead starting battery. If one engine battery is dead, put both battery switches in the BOTH position to perform an emergency parallel

Automatic

  • Use an on/off battery switch for each engine.
  • The port engine start cable is connected to one post on the switch.
  • The port start battery is connected to the other post on the switch.
  • The starboard engine start cable is connected to one post on the switch.
  • The starboard start battery is connected to the other post on the switch.
  • Use an on/off battery switch between the port and starboard engine batteries as an emergency start switch. This would be connected between the two positive battery posts.
  • Install a VSR between your port engine battery positive and your house battery positive.
  • Install a second VSR between your starboard engine battery positive and your house battery positive.

How it works

  • While underway, turn both engine battery switches on. The VSR will do all of the logic that decides when to start charging the house battery.
  • There is no need to change the battery switch position while you are anchored. The VSR will automatically disconnect the circuit between the house battery and the engine battery if the system voltage starts to drop.
  • The third ON/OFF battery switch is only turned on in a emergency start situation.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Posted in Battery Charger, Boat Wiring, Circuit Protection, Cruisers, Marine Battery Switch, Marine Electrical, Pontoons, Runabouts, Shore Power, VSR | Comments Off

Decipher the drawing?

October 18th, 2010 by Kevin Hannula

Hi Kevin,

I’m working off the attached diagram and am wondering if you know where I can get a diagram for the boat wiring connections in the dash. I’m using a stern drive drawing were I will be bi-passing the ECM and Trim components. I swapped a 4.3 into a Shamrock (Inboard)

I can probably figure out most of the plug connections. My concern is the Red/Purple and the Purple wires on the Plug. Where are they connected in the dash?Shamrock boat wiring

Thanks for any Help

Phil

Hi Phil,

The Red/Purple is the ignition feed wire. It provides constant power to the ignition switch. This is usually connected to the B post on your key switch. I would recommend adding an in-line fuse or circuit breaker near the key switch. According to your boat wiring diagram, it is protected by a 50 amp breaker on the engine and most key switches are only rated at 15 amps.

The purple wire is the ignition wire. This is usually connected to the I post on your key switch. Your instruments are also powered by this wire.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Posted in Battery Charger, Boat Wiring, Bow Thruster, Corrosion, Cruisers, Harnesses, Horn, Ignition Switch, Marine Battery Switch, Marine Electrical, Navigation Lights, Signaling Devices, Switch Panels, Trim, Voltmeter | Comments Off

Easy Add Ac

October 11th, 2010 by Kevin Hannula

Kevin,

I own a 1988 265 Baja. My question is “ Do I need a shore power system?”

I would like to pull up to a dock and use the radio, fan, and fridge on my boat without draining my batteries.

Do you know of any marine electrical system I can plug into the dock that lets me use the features of my boat without running down the batteries?

Sincerely,The EzAcDc Marine Shore Power kit makes your boat wiring project a breeze.

Darren

Hi Darren,

The Marine Shore Power Systems from our partners at EzAcDc were designed for your application. Here is a post that I wrote a while back that gives you an overview of the system.

In your specific application, you can use the unit’s exposed AC outlets to power your fan or tv and the hidden outlets to plug in your refrigerator and your battery charger. If you do not have a battery charger, I would recommend a potted, ignition protected unit like the ones from Guest.

Not only will you not drain your batteries while at the dock, you will recharge them. Another big benefit is that you can also purchase less expensive AC devices to use while at the dock instead of expensive DC units. My Walmart does not sell DC 13″ flat screen TV for less than $200, but they have plenty of choices that are AC powered.

The installation of this system is simple. You simply cut a round hole for the shore power inlet and rectangular holes for the AC panel and outlet.

Please let me know if you have any questions,

Kevin

Posted in AC Wiring, Battery Charger, Boat Wiring, Cruisers, Harnesses-AC, Marine Electrical, New Products, Pontoons, Runabouts, Shore Power | Comments Off

VSR OK with weak alternator?

October 4th, 2010 by Kevin Hannula

Hi Kevin,

I’m installing a dual sense VSR smart battery switch system.

Your previous boat wiring posts often mention “total length” of wire. Do you mean everything or just the longest run of one cable? It might be a dumb question as I am familiar with voltage drops and resistance.

My other question is: I have a group 27 battery to run two downriggers and a Optima battery. I’m not sure what size it is – yellow plastic top 750 cranking amps – would this work or do I need to get another 27 battery for VSR to work properly?

Regards,

Paul

Hi Paul,1989 Force 85

Ideally, you would want to look at a complete circuit. For a VSR, the complete circuit would be from battery 1 to VSR to battery 2 plus the length of the ground path between the two batteries.

For a marine electrical charging circuit, you usually size the boat wiring for the maximum current that the charging device can produce. When the battery comes closer to a complete charge, it will take less current, and there will be less voltage drop.

The VSR does not care what type of battery it is connected to. It monitors both battery voltages. If either one hits 13.7 volts, it completes the circuit between them. If the system drops below 12.6 volts, it opens the circuit between them.

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Many thanks for helping me with this boat wiring project.

Here’s a little more information on my setup. I have a Force 120 HP outboard which for some weak reason other than the cost of copper it only produces 7-9 amperes.

If I hook this up to a discharge group 27 battery could I smoke the alternater or is this scenario really a extreme case? I’m tempted to just wire it up and go fishing. What do you think? As long as I keep the batteries at a resonable voltage the alternater should be able to work right?

Regards,

Paul

Hi Paul,

I own a 1989 85 HP Force with one of those weak alternators. I have run a VSR for several years and the alternator still works. When possible, I plug in my portable battery charger to top off the system.

Kevin

Posted in Battery Charger, Boat Wiring, Cruisers, Marine Battery Switch, Marine Electrical, Pontoons, Runabouts, VSR | Comments Off

Test before replacing charger

August 23rd, 2010 by Kevin Hannula

Kevin,

My boat wiring includes a Guest 2623 marine battery charger, it is about seven years old and the middle lights for the charger no longer come on.

Does this indicate that the charger circuit is bad and a new one is in order?

Thanks,
Dana

Hi Dana,

I asked a friend of mine at Guest Marine Electrical about your situation. He wrote that, “…this may be just be the LED is going out and the charger is still good. You could check the output of the leads to be sure. The charger will go through its algorithm as long as it has output.”

In other words, you will want to test the output voltage with a digital volt meter to see if the charge may still be performing even though the lights are not on.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Posted in Battery Charger, Boat Wiring, Marine Electrical, Pontoons, Runabouts, Shore Power, Testing, Voltmeter | Comments Off

OK to combine charger outputs?

July 28th, 2010 by Kevin Hannula

Kevin,

My current marine electrical system includes a Guest charger, Model 2615, and would like to install a Blue Seas 120 amp SI, ACR.

The ACR instructions state to connect the onboard charger to one battery. The 2615 can charge two batteries, is it ok to connect only one battery from the charger?

Thanks.

Pete

Hi Pete,

The ACR or any voltage sensitive relay system acts like a smart battery switch. As soon as one battery has a high enough voltage, the relay between the two batteries closes and connects the batteries together.

I would recommend setting up your boat wiring to connect both charger outputs to the battery in your system that has the most DC loads. The 2615 charger is older technology and may get confused with the relay in the middle.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Posted in Battery Charger, Boat Wiring, Cruisers, Marine Battery Switch, Marine Electrical, Pontoons, Runabouts, Shore Power | Comments Off

36 volt boat wiring

June 28th, 2010 by Kevin Hannula

Kevin,

I changed out my 24 volt trolling motor for a 36. I’ve redone the boat wiring so that the batteries are in series, however I have three wires coming from my trolling motor plug (red, black, and orange)

Question: Do I omit the orange wire and just go with the black and red?

Like your site!!

Scott

Hi Scott,

Yes. Omit the orange wire if you do not need a 12 volt feed to your boat’s trolling motor panel.

Make sure that you have the appropriate circuit protection on your red wire at the battery.

Kevin

Thanks Kevin,

I do have a follow-up question.

If my batteries are run in sequence and pulling 36 volts into my trolling motor, then why can’t I just take my three-bank charger and wire it similarly instead of using each bank (3) for each battery?

Using the same theory for wiring in a series; couldn’t I just use one charger and omit a three-bank charger?

Thanks!

Hi Scotty,

Each bank on your charger is designed to recharge a single 12 volt battery. Since all batteries discharge and recharge differently, this method seems to be the most effective.

If you wanted to use single charger, it would need to be a 36 volt charger and have a method to monitor each battery to ensure the proper charge went to each battery.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Posted in Battery Charger, Boat Wiring, Marine Electrical, Trolling Motors | Comments Off

Low voltage causing VSR chatter

June 7th, 2010 by Kevin Hannula

Hello,

Last year I installed a VSR cluster on my 23’ center console. I have a dedicated starting battery and a house battery. All the electronics are hooked up to the house, and everything is wired according to the diagram that came with the cluster. The cluster includes a BEP VSR smart battery switch, a manual on/off battery switch for the house system, a manual on/off for the starting battery, and a manual on/off switch for emergency parallel.EzAcDc takes the guesswork out of your project with snap-together boat wiring

After a winter lay-up, and with fully charged batteries, I went to start my boat this weekend but it seemed as though the batteries were dead. Both starting and house switches were “on” and the parallel was “off”. I then shut the house off and the engine would turn over at that point. I did this process twice and confirmed that the engine would only start when the house was in the “off” position.

With the engine off, the red light of the VSR switch was on indicating that the starting battery was charged and both batteries were now in parallel. I ran some lights on the boat to draw down some of the charge and the switch kicked off isolating the batteries. But then it started clicking on for a few seconds, then off. It did this continuously for 5 minutes until I shut everything down. I think I read that this was “chattering”. Any idea what’s going on?

Thanks!

John L

Hi John,

You are definitely experiencing chatter from the VSR. BEP has made a revision to the timing circuit on all of their VSRs to prevent this. The latest version needs to have 5 seconds of constant high voltage to make the relay latch and 5 seconds of low voltage to make to relay open up.

On your application, as soon as your voltage settles, the relay should stop chattering. You can force this by turning off the battery switch, starting your engine, or turning on a larger DC load to force the relay open or closed.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Thanks Kevin,

I guess I’m unsure about why this chattering is taking place – the whole marine electrical system was fine last summer. I’ve done what you noted to force the voltage to settle and here are the results:

  1. Shut house battery switch off – the VSR red light goes off and chattering stops
  2. Put the emergency parallel switch on – VSR red light goes off and chattering stops
  3. Attached an external battery charger w/ a 2 am float charge to the house – VSR red light stays on and chattering stops

Also, I ran the engine and the chattering continues during engine operation.

Since I can’t operate the boat in any of the above configurations (emergency parallel would defeat the purpose of this whole setup) I’m wondering if my only option is to replace the VSR with the corrected version you noted? Just can’t figure out why it worked all last summer and it’s not working now.

Thanks again!

Hi John,

Sorry for the delay.

I have been thinking about your problem.

If the system ran fine last year, even though you may have one of the older VSRs, that may not be the entire problem.

The VSR is chattering because the voltage is not staying high. A loose connection anywhere in the system would cause a high resistance and induce enough of a voltage drop to make the unit chatter. As soon as the high current stops, the voltage shoots back up again, the relay latches closed, and the cycle starts over again.

  • Check all battery cluster connections
  • Check all battery connections – replace wing nuts with locking nuts if possible.
  • Perform a load test on each battery to ensure that you do not have a bad battery cell.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Posted in Battery Charger, Boat Wiring, Marine Battery Switch, Marine Electrical, VSR | Comments Off
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