How would you wire a starter battery-house bank connection

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by earthbm

I have not been able to figure this out and now the problem is getting worse - sometimes power to the motor goes out even when it's running.

Here's another attempt to describe the symptoms:

When unplugged from shore power the parallel battery switch on the electric panel turns off after a while (10 minutes). I guess it's as expected to prevent autopilot/instruments/etc draining the starter battery. However when this happens the voltage on the starter battery circuit as shown by the panel indicator goes to zero (0.0) and the motor can't be started at all. Sometimes the parallel switch even switches off when the motor is running and the engine stop button can't be operated. I have replaced the starter battery to fix this and it didn't help. I replaced the Blue Sea ACR and it didn't help. If there is a break in the starter battery circuit then why does the parallel switch stay on for a while? This happens even with the manual switch on the Blue Sea ACR (7622) in the "parallel" mode.

Please draw us a correct wiring diagram. This is likely the only way this will get solved.

The BS ACR sits in-between banks with its own wires. Does not get much more simple. It does not interrupt anything other than bank to bank paralleling...

[cal40john]

Have you taken apart and cleaned all connections including on the ground side?

This is pretty impossible to troubleshoot without a wiring diagram. As said before you don't need to tear the boat apart. Turn everything off, measure the resistance of something that you think is one wire at each end. If it is a short, put that in your diagram, if it is open you need to physically trace that wire to see if it is really two different wires or a broken wire.

[Goudurix]

Hi Earthbm,

when wanting to enlarge the house bank (from 100 Ah flooded to 2 x 90h AGM), keep charging adequately the wet flooded cranking battery, and get rid of the diode splitter, I folowed one of Nigel Calder's proposed solutions.

Of course a parelleling relay seems a more rugged electro-mechanic solutions, and the moreso-called "smart electronic stuff" installed the less easy to solve when those smart items malfunction....
But anyway I wired the dock charger and the alternator charging wire directly to the house bank.
Between the house bank and the cranking battery I installed a Balmar Digi Duo Charger, which funnels a charge current to the cranking battery when it senses the house bank > 13V. This device is programable and is set to a wet flooded battery program to keep the cranking battery happy.

An override is possible to force-charge the cranking battery if needed.

This has worked flawlessly for 4 years now.

Jan

[btrayfors]

Originally Posted by earthbm

.......

At the end of my wits here, the Chinese puzzle is killing me. Is there a standard wiring diagram for the starter battery, the house bank, charging relay, starter battery on/off switch?

Yes, there is. This one works great.

Without a good wiring diagram of your present setup, it's hard to tell what's going on. But you should not have to switch something to start the engine, and having a relay disconnect while the engine is running is a sure sign SOMETHING is wrong.

In your place, I'd be tempted to start over and do it right. If you wire things this way, you won't need to switch anything. The EchoCharge will take care of the start battery, providing whatever amperage is needed whenever it senses a charge on the house batteries.....from whatever source.

Sometimes, starting over with the entire DC supply wiring is easier than trying to make changes here and there with the old system, and never really getting it right.

Good luck,

Bill

[Goudurix]

Indeed the diagram here above is what I have.$ installed.
Only that I do not have and A/B/Both/OFF switch. The house battery bank only has an ON/OFF switch.
If I need an emergency bypass between cranking battery and house battery or house users I have a large jumper cable at hand.

BTW I kept the formerly installed diode splitter installed but disconnected.
Whenever the echo charger (or Duo Charger) would fail I can temporarily get back to the diode splitter setup to charge both banks by the alternator.

Jan

[btrayfors]

Originally Posted by Goudurix

Indeed the diagram here above is what I have.$ installed.
Only that I do not have and A/B/Both/OFF switch. The house battery bank only has an ON/OFF switch.
If I need an emergency bypass between cranking battery and house battery or house users I have a large jumper cable at hand.

BTW I kept the formerly installed diode splitter installed but disconnected.
Whenever the echo charger (or Duo Charger) would fail I can temporarily get back to the diode splitter setup to charge both banks by the alternator.

Jan

Jan,

Yes, I prefer the simple ON-OFF switches, too. I've done those for several customers.

Here's what I did for one of them:



Bill

[smac999]

Originally Posted by earthbm

When unplugged from shore power the parallel battery switch on the electric panel turns off after a while (10 minutes).

this is normal for acrs because the battery voltage takes a bit of time to drop and settle after the charger is removed.

if you are not getting 12v at the wire on the acr (as posted in the first post) then you either have a bad wire, bad connection, or blown fuse (acr wires should be fused)