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What circuits to connect to engine batteries


boater123

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Well , if you say so.

 

I was trying to prepare a ( unfortunately lengthy ) reply lifted from a rather equally lengthy article written by a gentleman named Nigel Calder.

You may have heard of him. Then again , maybe not.

 

Something went wrong and it evaporated into the ether .....I put it all back together to fix it all , but I will not bother now.

 

For anyone actually interested , you can message me , as the article was neither " irrelevant " nor " incorrect." , quite the contrary .

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I would have said anything regarding navigation like nav lights, tunnel light, horn from the engine battery through ignition but since they are only required under way it doesn't matter what battery you connect them too since they are powered by neither, they are powered by the alternator. So logically I suppose everything on domestic except engine instruments and glow/start. An anchor light shouldn't come into it as that should be an oil lamp of course!

 

I would argue as others, that only the engine starter and ignition related engine ancillaries should be run from the starter battery. Hanging numerous other devices from the ignition switch only complicates matters even if they are only feeding relays. Just look at the number of issues folk have with alternator excitation. Definately a case for KISS in this area.

 

Regarding leaving tunnel or nav lights on accidentally, a tell tale light at switch should alleviate this.

Edited by by'eck
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Well , if you say so.

 

Yes I do. I note however that you have since edited the diagram to at least make the alternator connection now correct. Well done, that's a big improvement.

 

Tony

Edited by WotEver
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Interesting that your post is marked as "Edited" and that when originally posted it showed the alternator connected to the engine battery.


And the edit was made 50 minutes after my post.

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I would argue as others, that only the engine starter and ignition related engine ancillaries should be run from the starter battery. Hanging numerous other devices from the ignition switch only complicates matters even if they are only feeding relays. Just look at the number of issues folk have with alternator excitation. Definately a case for KISS in this area.

 

Regarding leaving tunnel or nav lights on accidentally, a tell tale light at switch should alleviate this.

Funny how many you see left on, maybe they don't notice tell tall lights in the sunshine

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Interesting that your post is marked as "Edited" and that when originally posted it showed the alternator connected to the engine battery.

And the edit was made 50 minutes after my post.

 

 

There were six diagrams in total....and a lot of text.

 

I only see one , ( the only one that seems to have uploaded )

 

The remainder of the entire post disappeared .

 

We had a rather severe storm last night , 125 km / hour winds and horizontal hail .

 

I suspect the culprit was the intermittent power cuts during uploading..

 

I tried to fix it , like I said before ...nothing more to say ?

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Funny how many you see left on, maybe they don't notice tell tall lights in the sunshine

 

Certainly that was my experience. WotEver's tunnel light switch was easy to accidentally knock on when exiting the cabin and I would never notice the tell tale until a passing boater pointed out that I looked like an idiot! ;)

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Really al this shows is there is no right and no wrong way AS LONG as you understand how the systems work and organise things to minimise potetioal problems, suit your boat and your use of it.

 

 

 

They are not my diagrams.

 

They are drawn by Nigel Calder.

 

Was that not the author Gibbo criticised some year ago? Just because it is in a book does not make it correct, it can be personal opinion and it can e a simple mistake - as I found out a few days ago with one of mine.

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51-s4V0LY6L._SX371_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

 

4th edition and regarded as the " bible" in the US .

 

Regardless of that , I don`t know who " Gibbo " is , or if I should.

 

The whole point was , that he wrote a very good article addressing the issues regarding the original post.

I was given a PDF document of it all , it is not easy to lift something from a PDF and post it here without a lot of effort , ( at least for me it isn`t).

 

It was not nice to go to all that trouble , only to get those comments for the effort.

 

At least I tried.

Edited by boat fan
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Funny how many you see left on, maybe they don't notice tell tall lights in the sunshine

I often leave ours on to dry out the not very waterproof Faria instruments, the instrument illumination comes on with the nav lights - a 3w lamp will get rid of the mist on the instrument glass.

 

Times I've had someone say 'ere mate, yer lights are on' always replied with, 'Thanks, I knows, I turned em on :) '

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Regardless of that , I don`t know who " Gibbo " is , or if I should.

One of the U.K.'s (world's?) leading experts on battery charging and discharging characteristics with extensive knowledge of how that technology pertains to the UK's inland waterways.

 

Calder's book has a 'salty' bias because that was his experience and without knowing what exactly you were going to quote we can't comment on its relevance or accuracy. Certainly the post that you made, showing an alternator controller, was entirely irrelevant to the OP.

 

Tony

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There were six diagrams in total....and a lot of text.

 

I only see one , ( the only one that seems to have uploaded )

 

The remainder of the entire post disappeared .

 

We had a rather severe storm last night , 125 km / hour winds and horizontal hail .

 

I suspect the culprit was the intermittent power cuts during uploading..

 

I tried to fix it , like I said before ...nothing more to say ?

We had bit of a blow, but not that bad thank goodness.

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We had bit of a blow, but not that bad thank goodness.

 

Haha , good for you ...

 

We had this last night , straight from the arctic smile.png

 

proxy.jpg?t=HBhDaHR0cDovL2Nkbi5uZXdzYXBp

SEVERE weather warnings have been issued for large parts of Australia as a massive

pool of cold air arrives bringing hail and snow.

 

The severe weather conditions have moved east from South Australia after smashing the state with horrendous wind and rain, leading to falling trees and massive power cuts. A strong cold front tore through South Australia on Sunday night and yesterday creating gusts of more than 100km/h and bringing in a week of wild and extreme weather.

Weather will still remain chilly with snow predicted for parts of the Adelaide Hills and mid-north with up to 80mm of rain expected by the afternoon with flooding also a possibility.Those conditions combined means the state will struggle to hit double digits temperature wise with a high today of just 11C.

A heavy shower is moving through the Adelaide area and more damaging winds and hail is likely.

We do not get snow very often .....biggrin.png

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smile.png Good grief That travelled a hell of a long way all the way from the Arctic to south of Australia. smile.png

 

Well no , Antarctic actually.

The Antarctic blast about to freeze the nation.

The cold air mass is a "classic Antarctic blast" that originated near the coast of Antarctica during the week, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said.

The coldest air is expected to move through South-West Australia , Victoria and central parts on Monday night and Tuesday, the bureau said.

 

 

And yes , those systems can travel " a hell of a long way " northward , and often do at this time of the year.

Locals just say " arctic " for short abbreviation here.

A bit like your " innit " ?biggrin.png Its fun being pedantic , innit ?biggrin.png

Edited by boat fan
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Well no , Antarctic actually.

The Antarctic blast about to freeze the nation.

The cold air mass is a "classic Antarctic blast" that originated near the coast of Antarctica during the week, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said.

The coldest air is expected to move through South-West Australia , Victoria and central parts on Monday night and Tuesday, the bureau said.

 

 

And yes , those systems can travel " a hell of a long way " northward , and often do at this time of the year.

Locals just say " arctic " for short abbreviation here.

A bit like your " innit " ?biggrin.png Its fun being pedantic , innit ?biggrin.png

Cool. Looks like someones underpants have blown away near Tasmania on that weather chart, undoubtedly from someones washing line innit, they'll be stiff as a board in that frost.

Edited by bizzard
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