Hi all,

As part of my electrical system upgrade, I intend replacing my existing 50A alternator with one that can maintain 100 - 150A continuously. The reason for this is to recharge my new 360AH AGM battery bank in a reasonable time (depending on depth of discharge of course, but say within an hour or so). Alternators from Balmar and others meet this criteria.

My problem though, is finding a truly 'smart' alternator regulator - that is, one that monitors the actual battery current and terminal voltage during the charging process.

There are plenty of so called fancy 'smart' regulators around but if they don't monitor the actual battery current and terminal voltage during the charging process, they are dumb - they are just guessing, or the software is being super conservative so as not to cause any damage to the battery.

So, does anyone know of a truly 'smart' regulator, one that charges batteries the way they should be charged?

regards to all,
allan

This link was posted in Shooting the Breeze. Thought it would be handy for us here.

www.rpc.com.au/pdf/Wire_Chart.pdf

After a longer than usual period of inactivity I recently made it back to my boat and discovered that the batteries did not have enough charge in them to start the engine. Fortunately it's a rather old donk and I can manually crank start it so I did this and left it running for a good 40 minutes. Turned it off and attempted to start the engine using battery power again. Still not enough charge in the battery. I have no solar charging system on board.

The batteries are quite old so I am happy to accept that they are at the end of their life and need replacing.

My question is this - before I go buying new batteries is there a simple test I can perform that confirms that the problem is with the batteries and not some other issue that has coincidentally popped up at this time?

Hi Ladies,
It's time to do a full rewire of the cat, including new switch panels.

Does anyone have experience with one of these, BEP battery monitor?
http://www.bepmarine.com/home-mainmenu-8/product-506/902v-dcsm-12-way-circuit-breaker-panel-with-digital-meter .

Basically an 8 way switch panel, for DC, includes + bus bars, and monitors 2 batteries. Once setup, it theoretically gives battery capacity remaining, as well as displaying normal DC V and current, all in a fairly tidy package.

Apart from being fairly $$$$, from the manual it may be an overkill. It has capacity to give warings on low battery, monitor tanks, bilge pumps etc.

Power is fairly precious, as I have limited charging. Scenario is 9.9 Hp with st alternator, twin deep cycle batts, 1 80W solar panel. No AC, no fridge but GPS, radio etc.

The attractive part about the BEP monitor was the ability to see remaining battery capacity,rather than just voltage.But I also subscribe to the KISS principle, and don't know if I really want/need something on the baot that needs firmware upgrades even.

thanks

Hi all,

I decided that it was time to add to the ambiance when out on the boat so I am installing a stereo unit. Purchased a Fusion marine stero system and connected it up but the damn thing wouldn't work.

I am no electrician so it is highly likely that the fault is with the installer rather than the unit but I did check with the multi meter and I have 12 volts getting to the unit as far as I can tell. So to my untrained assessment it has power and should work.

The thing I wasn't sure of was the "ground" wire. Would that not being connected to anything stop the unit from working? I was working on the assumption that even without that connected if there was power to the unit it should work (or at least turn on).

Any suggestions greatfully accepted.

what are the best and cheapest way to have on board power for things like fans, lights, radio, tv