[C320-list] Battery Charging w/Onboard Charger

[Irving Grunes]

Thats how the Pro Mariner works.
It starts with a high charge and drops to a lower voltage after an hour or
so.  That lower charge rate is supposed to bring the battery voltage ofp to
full charge and then act as a trickle charge.
Its that feature, and I still have a Promariner, that sometimes boils a
battery if the lowcharge rate is too high for the battery.
irv Grunes

On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 8:30 AM, <bruceheyman at cox.net> wrote:

> Brian,
> While the currents are related the generator is at 120 volts and the
> charger is around 12.  It might be quite possible for you to see more
> current on the 12 volt side of the regulator than you have on the output of
> the generator.
> Are there any Radio Shacks or similar in the area?  They should carry the
> fuses.
> Bruce
> Somerset 671 SoCal
> Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Amirault Family - S&B" <amiraults at sympatico.ca>
>
> Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:59:06
> To: <c320-list at lists.catalina320.com>
> Subject: Re: [C320-list] Battery Charging w/Onboard Charger
>
>
> Finally did get the generator to the boat earlier this day. T-storms
> expected so the plan was to do some cockpit gel coat repair while the
> generator charged the batteries. No such luck!
>
>
>
> Generator started, AC was created and AC powered cabin fans operated,
> ProMariner 30-3 showed red charging light on but no amps being produced;
> which was confirmed by the battery meter. As the main concern was the gel
> coat, that was dealt with and when completed I went back to the charger
> problem.
>
>
>
> The MANUAL contains a trouble shooting decision diagram which directed me
> to
> the examination of the charger's internal fuse. Access to this only
> required
> the emptying of the cockpit locker and appropriate contortions to remove
> the
> six screws on the bottom of the charger. One then does find a 40 amp fuse
> that was blown. The largest available at Canadian Tire was 30 amp and I
> replaced it with this as the generator produces less than 15. With the new
> fuse in place things actually worked!
>
>
>
> The charger charges both banks regardless of the position of the battery
> switch. Initially the charger was producing something around 12 amps with
> the charge lamp red which was no surprise as the generator produces around
> 13 amps. This quickly dropped to three amps (I assume that this represents
> the power production of the charger switching to a different stage). The
> battery meter was still showing healthy charging on both batteries at this
> lower output. The documentation states that there will come a time when the
> charger will show a green light as the batteries come to full charge, but I
> never saw this as with the sky darkening I put the toys away.
>
>
>
> The generator has proven to be all that the list claimed of it.
>
>
>
> Now, with Canadian Tire not a source for 40 amp fuses, where should I be
> looking to find these so that I can bring the charger back to
> specification?
>
>
>
>
> Brian Amirault
>
> 797 Waltzing Bear, too
>
>