170968

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the warning. I have been a bit rough with mine at times. It has never blown out so far. My old Lockgate stove did regularly. I couldn't find any flu's on there except kits for each of their stoves. I do have a place to buy one though. Where is the fan positioned? Happily, the wind has died down, so I can have some warmth in the boat for now!

Thanks all. I'm going to order a 1m pipe and see how that does, before ordering an H cowl. That will bring it to > 2.5m as the manual suggests. Do you think a single wall pipe will do or should I get a double walled one?

I'll add a metre to what I have and see how that goes. Thanks again.

Oh dear, that sounds a bit impractical

Yes, this agrees with my observations that it doesn't seem to do much at all. Nice to know why. It does seem to resist the belching when it's closed up fully though. When you say "extra long", how long approximately do you mean? Should it be double walled? I'm also thinking of trying one of those H cowls as people report good results. Thanks for the advice.

Hello. I have a Kabola Old English diesel stove. It has an adjustable vent on the back which I've seen referred to as a "balancing plate". I'm looking for information on how to adjust it. There is a weight that is screwed in/out which balances it, but what would I look for to know it's just right? Thanks. edit: I've been fiddling with it to try and stop the stove belching smoke out into the cabin whenever the wind blows a certain way or something.

Great! Thank you all.

I see. Thank you both.

Great idea. I am currently around Braunston and will be for a while. Something which I noticed earlier and only just thought of as relevant, is that while the engine was running, and the battery light was dimming/flickering, I switched my lithium bank into the circuit, and the current was steady at around 30 amps, which is what I would have expected at that RPM. I was wondering if this would be the case if the problem was worn out brushes? My uneducated brain thinks no. I havent had time to do any waggling yet. Probably do it tomorrow.

What exactly is this "flashing" of which you speak?

Thanks, I'll give it a try and report back. Won't be for a while though as I need to go out.

Yes I'll definitely order a new one and do as you say Perhaps you're right. I was just fiddling with it (testing voltage) and it started working: 14.4v at the battery, the battery/ignition light went out, and the rev counter is working. However, I turned the engine off and on a couple of times to be sure and now whilst everything else is working, the battery/ignition light is flickering and dimming, rather than going out entirely. What does this point to?

OK, thanks. I notice the belt which feeds it goes around 3 pulleys. Is one of these the engine coolant pump and therefore I can't run the engine without it being connected?

The alternator is always connected to the starter battery, so it isn't a disconnect problem. See below for make/model. It's the alternator which isn't heating up. The engine is fine. The alternator does have 12V and I believe is "energised". I do have a multimeter and can read voltages. Yes the battery light comes on but doesn't go off like it should when it's charging from the alternator. Thanks for all the replies. Hope that clears things up a bit. Oh and the engine is a Nanni. I'll get the book out and tell you which model in a minute. Edit: It is a Nanni 4.220 HE

I just started my engine and my alternator seems to be broken. There is no current coming from it into my starter battery, and it is not heating up at all. Also, my rev counter isn't working. Does the rev counter rely on the alternator? Is there anything I can do (tests or whatever), or should I just look for a new one? Does anything else rely on the alternator? Am I safe running the engine in this state? I expect this is due to me using it to charge lithium batteries. I did test the temperature a few times and thought it was OK (about 90C), but I guess it could be a large strain on an old alternator. Lesson learned.

Makes sense. Thanks Tony.

Nice sunny day. Getting lots of free power. Would you (or anyone else) mind sharing your settings for absorbtion voltage and length? I am trying to achieve 85% with a lowish voltage setting. I tried it at 13.6v absorbtion and for only 15 minutes. It went into float whilst the SOC is down at 81%, so that's no good. Should I leave the voltage and increase the absorbtion time so that it stays at 13.6V while getting to 85%, or what do you suggest? I have thought about using the excess to heat water, but not an air-conditioner. It's a great idea and I do have space. Only thing I don't like is the amount of noise the bloody things make.

That all makes good sense. I've only had the boat for a few months and spent the winter in a marina, so this is my first week off-grid with the lithium bank. Hence the micro managing. I think I'm about ready to just "set and forget" it. It'll be interesting to see how things improve over the next month or so.

Yes you got it right. Thinking more about it I realised it's really not worth bothering. I think I just hate wasting the tiny bit of power available at the moment as Im currently on the discharge part of the cycle. Once spring comes I doubt I'll care at all.

I feel like it's a great way to do things. I didn't realise the MPPT had a remote on/off until recently. Now I just want something programmable so that I can have the solar put in slightly less current than what I'm using. Then at 60% go full charge. Like this I can slow down the cycling. Im doing it manually atm but it's getting old already. I dont think such a thing exists.

Good idea. I'll do exactly that. That's to include the starter battery voltage in the app.

Great, my job is done in that case. 👍 I will probably do the same as you and do a monthly (or maybe every other month) full charge. By the way, the input contact is rated at "2.9V and up to battery voltage", so would have been fine. I read a thread on the diysolar forum quoting an older manual which stated the output is 3.5V.

Wow you're brave 😄 OK I connected it all up and fiddled with the settings and it works! The only thing missing for now is a fuse. If anyone knows the fuse size required that would be great. Otherwise I'll stick in a <1a and see how it goes! Thank you all again for the help and advice. I'd be lost without it.

I'm the same with the fiddling. I want to set up all this automation but I'll never leave it alone to do it's thing! Like you say though, a lot of it won't be necessary once spring comes <looks out window at a blizzard>.

The remote port needs to be brought to 2.9V. There's another port next to it which has a positive current. They ship with a small link cable between the two. I'm not sure what voltage is at the terminal and I'm not sure where to poke my negative probe to find out! It does however say in the instructions that you can use a switch between these two to turn it on and off. What size fuse would I require if I used the battery positive as you suggested? There seems to be a disagreement on whether you need to fully charge/discharge the bank now and then. Do you? Thanks for the help Nick. Yes, I was looking at the charts for mine earlier because I noticed when using the kettle, the voltage didn't recover to the level I expected. Apparently this is normal and voltage isn't always the same for a given SOC. I don't know how many times I've thought I understood these batteries, only to find some new information which sends me into confusion again. I do believe I'm getting there...again. I'm trying to achieve the BMV starting the solar charge at 60% and turning it off at 90%. Hopefully Ive understood the thing and this is achievable?