[C320-list] Riddle me this - a battery charger question

[Dave Hupe]

Dean were those fuses in the charger itself?  I have a 1240P Pronautic charger. 
Dave Hupe1994 C320 #32

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android 
 
  On Sat, Aug 15, 2020 at 11:50 AM, Dean Vermeire<dean at vermeire.us> wrote:   Mystery solved!

A couple of you suggested checking the fuses, which, at this point, is 
one of those "well, duh" ideas - but it wasn't at first.

What had me going was that battery 2 would charge back up whenever I had 
the selector switch on "All".  Why would it charge then, but not when 
the selector was on 2?  I don't run the engine long enough to be the 
only source of charging.

Anyway, based on the suggestions, I went out to the lake on a mission to 
check the fuse for battery 2.  I had left the selector on "All" for 
several days and was expecting to find both batteries fully charged.  My 
thought was that battery 2 has been charging by current looping back 
through the selector when battery 1 is charging.  When I got there, both 
batteries were very low!  Based on the looping back theory, it made 
sense that the fuse for battery 1 had also blown during that few days.

Both fuses were blown.  My boat has FNM-30 fuses, which were not readily 
available anywhere near me.  It just so happened that I had a battery 
charger sitting in my car - sheer luck.  So, I hooked that up (with the 
installed charger off and fuses in my pocket) and headed home.  The 
fuses I ordered from Grainger were delivered the next day, and I headed 
to the boat.  I installed both fuses, took off the trickle charger 
(which had done a pretty good job), and fired up the new, smart, 
super-duper ProNautic 1230P with the remote display and temperature 
sensor that took me a whole day to install.  Voila!  The charger now 
senses both batteries and works like a champ.  The remote display is 
very helpful!

Thanks to all those who joined in the conversation!

Dean Vermeire

(#847) Moonstruck II


On 8/8/2020 5:54 PM, Bruce Heyman wrote:
> Hi Dean,
> Sure is a head scratcher.  I see the 1230P is a three bank charger of which you only need two.  It sounds like the red wire that is connected between the charger and the positive of battery two is not doing its job.  Any chance there is a fuse in the line?  Sometimes there is a fuse inside the charger for each of the outputs.  Also, I'm not familiar with that charger.  Do you have to program or configure it to make sure two of the three outputs are energized?  Sometime you have to configure some jumpers or some switches.
> Hope it is something simple!
> Bruce
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: C320-list [mailto:c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com] On Behalf Of Dean Vermeire
> Sent: Saturday, August 8, 2020 2:20 PM
> To: C320-List at Catalina320.com
> Subject: [C320-list] Riddle me this - a battery charger question
>
> I recently replaced the old charger with a ProNautic 1230P.  I have two 4D batteries in the original configuration in a 2001 320 (#847).  Both of the batteries have positive cables from the charger.
>
> The problem is that if I leave the boat at the marina with the battery selector switched to batter 2, the battery runs down, even though the charger is on.  This was true with the old charger, as well.  So, at least I haven't made things worse.
>
> Now, the fact that the battery runs down (the only load was the refrigerator, which was running) tells me that it is hooked up to the selector switch.  The negative terminal is tied to the negative of battery 1.  The charger's positive cable is hooked up.  The charger's negative cable is to the common ground.  The charger works and charges battery 1.  It also charges battery 2 when the switch is on both.
>
> What on earth am I missing?
>
> Dean Vermeire
>
> #847
>
>
>