Ok, so Far Cove has been plugged in to shore power at the marina all
winter. I go out for the weekend (story at
http://www.bcboatnet.org/cgi-bin/yab...m=117734 3693
), and when I try to plug in again last night, I get a "POLARITY"
light on my panel! Now, I haven't touched my end of the wiring or the
power cord, and I just checked the Marina: they didn't to any work
over the weekend and assure me their connector is correct.

SO: first, is there a diagram somewhere that shows which pins on a 30A
shore-power connector are supposed to be Line, Neutral, and Ground?
And second, is there another reason why a "polarity" light would go
on: maybe a ground-fault?

druid

"druid" wrote in message
ups.com...
Ok, so Far Cove has been plugged in to shore power at the marina all
winter. I go out for the weekend (story at
http://www.bcboatnet.org/cgi-bin/yab...m=117734 3693
), and when I try to plug in again last night, I get a "POLARITY"
light on my panel! Now, I haven't touched my end of the wiring or the
power cord, and I just checked the Marina: they didn't to any work
over the weekend and assure me their connector is correct.

SO: first, is there a diagram somewhere that shows which pins on a 30A
shore-power connector are supposed to be Line, Neutral, and Ground?
And second, is there another reason why a "polarity" light would go
on: maybe a ground-fault?

druid



Not sure if it'll help... looks like there's a diagram in this:

http://www.marinco.com/docs/guides/Boater'sGuidetoACElectrical.pdf

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

On Apr 23, 11:38 am, druid wrote:
Ok, so Far Cove has been plugged in to shore power at the marina all
winter. I go out for the weekend (story athttp://www.bcboatnet.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Sal****er;action...
), and when I try to plug in again last night, I get a "POLARITY"
light on my panel! Now, I haven't touched my end of the wiring or the
power cord, and I just checked the Marina: they didn't to any work
over the weekend and assure me their connector is correct.

SO: first, is there a diagram somewhere that shows which pins on a 30A
shore-power connector are supposed to be Line, Neutral, and Ground?
And second, is there another reason why a "polarity" light would go
on: maybe a ground-fault?

druid

The plug may be full of water .

Joe

druid wrote:
Ok, so Far Cove has been plugged in to shore power at the marina all
winter. I go out for the weekend (story at
http://www.bcboatnet.org/cgi-bin/yab...m=117734 3693
), and when I try to plug in again last night, I get a "POLARITY"
light on my panel! Now, I haven't touched my end of the wiring or the
power cord, and I just checked the Marina: they didn't to any work
over the weekend and assure me their connector is correct.

I wonder what they pay for liability
insurance.


SO: first, is there a diagram somewhere that shows which pins on a 30A
shore-power connector are supposed to be Line, Neutral, and Ground?
And second, is there another reason why a "polarity" light would go
on: maybe a ground-fault?

druid


Is the "polarity" light wired like the
common plug-in types that display three
neon bulbs? Without knowing exactly what
your (custom?) panel is checking and how
it is wired, it is difficult to
interpret the illuminated polarity light.

Normally, a polarity error would occur
if the neutral (white) is hot and the
line (black) is at ground potential.

If you rule out gnomes, an open neutral
might produce a "polarity" error,
although the common garden variety
tester would correctly report it as an
open, rather than as a polarity error.

You might do some **cautious** checking
with a meter (preferably an analog type)
to verify that there is zero volts
between ground and neutral and full
voltage between line and ground or neutral.


Chuck

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On Apr 23, 8:45 am, "Capt. JG" wrote:

Not sure if it'll help... looks like there's a diagram in this:

http://www.marinco.com/docs/guides/Boater'sGuidetoACElectrical.pdf

--
"j" ganz

That's a great document - have saved it to disk and am printing it
now.

Chuck: It's a "standard" Catalina panel, and if it's wired as shown as
"typical" in the above PDF file, it's basically a light between
neutral (white) and ground (green). If there's voltage between them,
the light lights. So, couldn't light if there's any open cct. Also, I
would guess water in the connector would create a short that would pop
the marina breaker, no?

So, no answers so far. I'll head down after work today and poke around
with a meter to see what I can find out (I'll be using a continuity
meter, with the shore power disconnected)

Strange - gnomes may be the answer! (Oh, no: the dreaded Underpants
Gnomes! )
druid

Chuck wrote:

You might do some **cautious** checking with a meter...

ZAAAP!

A good thing to carry with you is one of those adapter that lets you plug a
standard extension cord into the shore power. It's useful for those times
you want to use power tools without running power through the boat panel.
Buy one of those little 3 LED polarity and ground testers and stick it into
the adapter. You can then check the basic marina circuit before plugging
the boat in and not have any arguments with them whether it is your wiring
or theirs.

My tester lives in an outlet near the switch panel so I have a double check
of ground integrity as soon as the outlets come live. When plugged into AC.
it is also a night light.

--
Roger Long

druid wrote:
On Apr 23, 8:45 am, "Capt. JG" wrote:

Not sure if it'll help... looks like there's a diagram in this:

http://www.marinco.com/docs/guides/Boater'sGuidetoACElectrical.pdf

--
"j" ganz

That's a great document - have saved it to disk and am printing it
now.

Chuck: It's a "standard" Catalina panel, and if it's wired as shown as
"typical" in the above PDF file, it's basically a light between
neutral (white) and ground (green). If there's voltage between them,
the light lights. So, couldn't light if there's any open cct.

Well, not necessarily. The neon bulb
acts as a high impedance load and can
light even with a small capacitance in
series with one of the leads. So if the
neutral is open, it may "look" hot to
the neon bulb because the neutral wire
is running in close proximity to the
black wire. Place any kind of load on
the neutral in that situation and it
looks like it's open.

Electricians tend to prefer solenoid
type voltage testers (Wiggy's) to DMMs
because they are less prone to false
readings like the neon bulb phenomenon
I've described.

So obviously, I don't know what the
problem is, but if indeed the polarity
indicator is just a single neon bulb
between neutral and ground (I'm having
trouble downloading the file), then what
you are seeing could be an open neutral
or ground.

Also, I
would guess water in the connector would create a short that would pop
the marina breaker, no?


Not usually. People drop powered
extension cords into seawater often
enough to know that breakers usually
don't trip. As far as conductors go,
seawater is not impressive.


So, no answers so far. I'll head down after work today and poke around
with a meter to see what I can find out (I'll be using a continuity
meter, with the shore power disconnected)


Be sure to use either the continuity
setting or the lowest ohms scale.

Strange - gnomes may be the answer! (Oh, no: the dreaded Underpants
Gnomes! )
druid


Good luck!

Chuck

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On Apr 23, 8:38 am, druid wrote:
Ok, so Far Cove has been plugged in to shore power at the marina all
winter. I go out for the weekend (story athttp://www.bcboatnet.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Sal****er;action...
), and when I try to plug in again last night, I get a "POLARITY"
light on my panel! Now, I haven't touched my end of the wiring or the
power cord, and I just checked the Marina: they didn't to any work
over the weekend and assure me their connector is correct.

SO: first, is there a diagram somewhere that shows which pins on a 30A
shore-power connector are supposed to be Line, Neutral, and Ground?
And second, is there another reason why a "polarity" light would go
on: maybe a ground-fault?

druid


UPDATE: Well, sonofagun, the Government Solution worked: I threw money
at the problem and it Went Away. I bought a new shorepower cord and
no more polarity light! Maybe Chuck was right: open neutral getting
voltage through inductance from the hot. Anyway, it's working now, and
now prospective buyers see a nice shiny new shorepower cord instead of
the the grimy old extension cord I had.

Oh, and Sign Of The Times: this is the first "extension cord" I've
ever bought that's had an Instruction Manual.

druid