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30-08-2013, 21:24
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#1
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
Boat: Eagle 365 11m
Posts: 19
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Lectrasan low voltage at 5 seconds
Background:
Late last year replaced plates.
All good. Cycled perfectly.
January this year. Major collision. Boat off the water for months.
Had left salt water in lectrasan. (Wellington, NZL)
Recently. Out sailing. Had to heave to for an urgent moment.
Flushed and fast blinking (Low voltage) at 5 seconds!
Somewhere I read that an acid treatment would sort this.
I also did check voltage which was over 13.5 volts at the unit (Not operating). Very fat cables do run to unit.
Have just done the acid treatment and left in for a few hours.
No difference, 5 seconds and low voltage.
Any ideas?
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31-08-2013, 04:58
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#2
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Moderator
Join Date: Jul 2007
Boat: Bestevaer.
Posts: 14,678
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Re: Lectrasan low voltage at 5 seconds
Quote:
Originally Posted by wynmead
I also did check voltage which was over 13.5 volts at the unit (Not operating).
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Sorry I don't know much about Lactrasan operation ( other than they draw a lot of current during some parts of their cycle), but the first thing is to check the voltage (at the Lectrasan end) with it working.
A high resistance connection will give normal voltage with no load, but the voltage may be dropping too low despite your fat cables.
It is such a common a problem it is certainly worth eliminating, before suspecting a problem with the unit.
While you are at it use a clamp on multimeter to measure the current draw.
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31-08-2013, 05:07
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#3
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Kentucky, Little River, SC
Boat: Leopard 47 Catamaran
Posts: 97
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Re: Lectrasan low voltage at 5 seconds
Quote:
Originally Posted by wynmead
Background:
Late last year replaced plates.
All good. Cycled perfectly.
January this year. Major collision. Boat off the water for months.
Had left salt water in lectrasan. (Wellington, NZL)
Recently. Out sailing. Had to heave to for an urgent moment.
Flushed and fast blinking (Low voltage) at 5 seconds!
Somewhere I read that an acid treatment would sort this.
I also did check voltage which was over 13.5 volts at the unit (Not operating). Very fat cables do run to unit.
Have just done the acid treatment and left in for a few hours.
No difference, 5 seconds and low voltage.
Any ideas?
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Just dealt with the identical problem. Inspected the circuit board with a magnifying glass. I found two very small resistors burnt. Replaced the circuit board assembly (215 USD from Raritan or 159 USD from a secondary supplier)
Now it works as advertised.
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08-09-2013, 01:15
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#4
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
Boat: Eagle 365 11m
Posts: 19
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Re: Lectrasan low voltage at 5 seconds
Measured voltage at unit with motor on. 14volts and then started cycle and dropped to 13.9 volts.Stopped after 5 seconds with low voltage blinking.
Is there any other possibility or is the only choice a new circuit board.
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08-09-2013, 06:57
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#5
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Kentucky, Little River, SC
Boat: Leopard 47 Catamaran
Posts: 97
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Re: Lectrasan low voltage at 5 seconds
Wynmead.
Pull the board (4 push snaps and 1 ribbon connector) look at the components with a magnifier. Most likely you will find an obviously fried component. You may be able to get an electronic repair shop to replace the defective parts.
These boards seem to be damaged by attempting to operate the unit a a lower than specified voltage.
You have accomplished all the trouble shooting that the techs at Raritan will direct.
Time to crack open the treasure chest if you want the thing to function.
GOOD LUCK
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27-09-2013, 22:20
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#6
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
Boat: Eagle 365 11m
Posts: 19
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Re: Lectrasan low voltage at 5 seconds
Hi Jim,
yep, pulled the board, evidence of burns on the underside of the board, in two spots. New board and all ok.
Thanks
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28-09-2013, 05:35
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#7
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Kentucky, Little River, SC
Boat: Leopard 47 Catamaran
Posts: 97
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Re: Lectrasan low voltage at 5 seconds
Glad to be of assistance. Now if someone knows why components on a circuit board protected by fuses self immolates let me know.
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28-09-2013, 10:16
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#8
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2011
Boat: Valiant 42
Posts: 6,008
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It's a common myth that fuses protect components on boards. Fuses protect wiring. Many components on a circuit board can fail in such a way that they overheat without opening a fuse.
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28-09-2013, 10:20
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#9
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2011
Boat: Valiant 42
Posts: 6,008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wynmead
Hi Jim,
yep, pulled the board, evidence of burns on the underside of the board, in two spots. New board and all ok.
Thanks
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You should discuss your installation with Raritan. You may not have large enough wire or the connections may not be sufficient. The current drawn by these units is very high for short periods of time and it takes big wire to avoid low voltage which can cause things to overheat.
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28-09-2013, 10:32
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#10
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Winnipeg
Boat: None at this time
Posts: 8,462
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Re: Lectrasan low voltage at 5 seconds
Fuses at the power source protect the wiring. Fuses at the cct. board are supposed to protect the cct. board components. However they don't do a very good job of that because the engineers spec. component values that are to low. Sloppy design/construction of the cct. board IMHO. I have seen it all through my career.
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28-09-2013, 12:06
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#11
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2011
Boat: Valiant 42
Posts: 6,008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DeepFrz
Fuses at the power source protect the wiring. Fuses at the cct. board are supposed to protect the cct. board components. However they don't do a very good job of that because the engineers spec. component values that are to low. Sloppy design/construction of the cct. board IMHO. I have seen it all through my career.
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I don't know if sloppy design is the problem or not. Fuses are simple devices designed to limit current. But heat requires voltage and current at the same time. There is no way for a fuse to tell if some downstream component is hot. Corrosion can cause heating and there is nothing a fuse can do about it.
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28-09-2013, 12:21
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#12
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Winnipeg
Boat: None at this time
Posts: 8,462
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Re: Lectrasan low voltage at 5 seconds
True, but when two resistors are burned out it is usually because the power rating chosen was to low. 1/8 watt rather than 1/4 watt, etc. I have seen it in many pieces of electronic equipment, from ham transceivers to large scale computers (well, they were large scale in their day), radar units, signal processing computers, etc, etc. Usually one could see from the voltage drop that the power rating was to low.
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28-09-2013, 12:47
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#13
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Cruising the Gulf of Mexico.
Boat: 1980 Morgan 415
Posts: 1,452
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I like to keep a bottle of vinegar next to the head. Can it be used with the Lectrasan?
__________________
Working on spending my children's inheritance.
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28-09-2013, 14:15
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#14
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
Boat: Eagle 365 11m
Posts: 19
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Re: Lectrasan low voltage at 5 seconds
Also, maybe of interest, when inspecting all the fuses the B fuse was really distorted eroded by current I expect but still working. Popped in a new one. A and C looked as new.
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