Hi All:

Need some advice. Have a 3QM30 with the 70 ah Balmar bolted on w/
their smart regulator.
Have a 400AH house bank using four 6V Trojan T105. Start bank is one
12v. No refrigeration or other amp gobblers.

Have (house) - (start) - (parallel/combiner) switches on the Blue Seas
switch panel.

For a few reason I used a battery isolator with the accompanying 0.7v
drop. Time for an upgrade.

Last year I saw a new product by BLUE SEA. The Battery Link ACR Mod.
7600. Seems much improved over the older batter combiner of 5 years
ago. So here is the question:

What do you think about the BatteryLink ACR? Anybody have one? Up
side? Problems?
Baffeled BOb

"Bob" wrote in news:1171063108.136706.100980
@v33g2000cwv.googlegroups.com:

What do you think about the BatteryLink ACR? Anybody have one? Up
side? Problems?
Baffeled BOb



Bob, drop by any Waste Marine and buy this:
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...oducte/10001/-
1/10001/251401/0/0/battery%20switch/All_2/mode+matchallpartial/0/0

I turned it into a more manageable web address:
http://tinyurl.com/ysmmuy
click on this one to go to west marine.....

Now, connect one post with #2 battery cable to the + lead of the house
batteries. Connect the other post to the + lead of the starting
battery....

Unlike your A-Both-B battery switch, this switch is NOT dangerous to
switch with the engine running which is why I advocate adding it. It
does not cause the alternator to become disconnected from the battery
banks and zap your electronics, like the A-Both-B switch WILL, not might.

I assume your house negative and starting negative are both connected to
the engine block.

It matters not where your alternator is connected with this jumper switch
in the circuit. As long as your main battery switch is NOT set to OFF,
in a normal boat installation, it matters not whether the house is
connected to A or B or BOTH as this switch will bypass those settings
when it is closed.

Crank the engine off the starting battery, first, especially if the house
batteries are discharged. Then, switch this new switch to ON, which
simply puts the house batteries in parallel with the starting battery.
Now, with the alternator FIRMLY connected to BOTH sets of batteries, one
alternator charges them all quite nicely without blowing $100 more doing
the same, exact thing with some "gadget" you know is gonna fail.

UNLIKE the "gadget", this switch also, because it's rated for lots more
amps than you ever have available, creates a fixed-mounted "JUMPER
CABLE" to crank the engine off the house batteries + starting battery in
any worst-case-scenario you might encounter...like a dead starting
battery.

How is your house batteries banks wired to the A-Both-B switch? Are they
all just wired in series-parallel to A and the cranking battery to B like
most boats? I don't like that because if you shut the boat down and walk
away, bank 1 house batteries are STILL hooked to bank 2 house batteries
making a circuit-for-disaster if one of them has a shorted cell. Buy
another A-Both-B-Off switch while you're at Westmarine, so we can
separate these house banks AND switch out the dead bank instead of
sitting in the dark at sea. Leave this switch in BOTH until you switch
the boat off, then switch it to OFF, also to separate the house
batteries. If bank 1 goes dead for some reason, you can leave the new
switch in B and still have half your house batteries to live on until you
can fix it....instead of the hard parallel circuit always connecting the
good bank to the bad bank, discharging it all or melting them.

Don't try to get cute mounting these switches. Mount the ON-OFF switch
as close as you can to between the house bank COMMON (the new house
switch) and the starting battery by the shortest route. So, you have to
open the lazerette to switch it, big deal. Mount the new house battery
switch on the house battery box with just a new short jumper to each
bank. Westmarine has jumpers, measure how long you need when you plan
where the switch should go.

There, now you leave the house battery separator to BOTH, the old battery
switch to the house batteries (which is now a wire from here to the new
house battery separator switch), not BOTH I hope if B is the starting
battery. Close the new ON-OFF paralleling switch after you crank the
engine, but DO NOT MOVE THOSE OTHER A-BOTH-B-OFF SWITCHES AFTER THE
ENGINE IS RUNNING! All batteries are in parallel for charging. You can
open the ON-OFF switch after 30 minutes of recharging from the engine
start if you like, but it's not really necessary. The batteries take
care of who gets how much current by themselves very nicely.....fancy
regulator or not. Just remember to set the ON-OFF paralleling switch to
OFF just as soon as you shut off the engine to prevent discharging the
starting battery when you're discharging the house batteries....don't
forget. A little sign by the engine switch or throttle isn't a bad
reminder...or where you hang the engine key up for storage, either.

There, you have what's Lionheart had before my captain bought me another
alternator for the engine.

The same ON-OFF switch parallels two big golf cart batteries in series in
my stepvan to run my electronics shop....with two red AGM starting
batteries to crank the big 6.2L GM diesel that drives it. It has worked
flawlessly (even if I forget the switch occasionally) for several years.
I can even crank the beast off the golf cart monsters when the AGM
batteries fail by simply setting it to ON, the built-in jumper cables..
(c; Paralleling AGM with Golf cart wetcells has had no effect on either,
charging or, when I forget to open it, discharging....well, except they'd
all be dead, eventually if I kept loading them. My 3KW Honda EU3000i
genset powers the 40A Amel manual battery charger Cap'n Geoffrey gave me
out of Lionheart, which is hooked to the house batteries, permanently.
I'd just crank the genset, set the Amel charger to STUN and cook them all
until it would crank...an inconvenience at worst...(c;

Because the current to run the boat DOESN'T go through this extra
paralleling switch, the ON-OFF between + battery posts, it matters not if
you switch it at any time. It doesn't open the alternator circuit, at
all. It's just a jumper cable.

Everything on the boat doesn't have to include some expensive computer
nanny babysitting you. KISS is a good motto for boats.

Larry
--
VIRUS ALERT! VISTA has been released!
NOONE will be spared!

On Fri, 09 Feb 2007 21:45:22 -0500, Larry wrote:

A massive lengthy tome!

The switches are excellent Isolators "IF" its just one wire in and one
out, no room for more.

However this bit always worries me
A little sign by the engine switch or throttle isn't a bad

You or someone else WILL forget and then you will be in deep doo doo.

KISS is a good motto for boats.

So fit a "good" voltage controlled solenoid split charge system and
then forget it.
I know what I would specify in the UK, which is best in the US I am
not sure.

What really Pees me off is the price of that Isolator in the UK. About
the same number in GBP


--

Richard

Nb "Pound Eater" Parkend G+S
"Governments are like Nappies, they should be changed often."
(For the same reason)

Electricky Dicky wrote in
:

What really Pees me off is the price of that Isolator in the UK. About
the same number in GBP



GBP = USD + VAT

Right??...(c;

Free medical isn't really free...it's just "displaced".

Canadian $ = 2 x USD + VAT
Australian $ = 3 x USD + VAT
NZ $ = 4 x USD + VAT

Larry
--
VIRUS ALERT! VISTA has been released!
NOONE will be spared!

Hi Larry:

Thank you for the prompt and detailed post.

I too am a KISS beliver. Went so far as ripping out the preasure water
system on my boat. The pump was agravatingly noisy plus was able to
deep 6 yards of 1/2 hose and an unbelivable number of hose clamps.

For your post. I need to print it, read word-for -word, and draw afew
pictures to get my non-electical mind wraped around your advice. I do
have one follow up question.
You mention my A-both-B switch. I have three switches on the BS panel.
A On-Off house, On-Off start, and the On-Off parallel swithc that
combines the start and house bank. I dont have the old style single
swithch that has the 1-2-Both setting.

When you say A-B-Both are yhou refering to three seperate switches or
the old single switch with the three setings?

I guess if I was smart enough I would be able to tell from your
response, but........ if I was smart I would not have a boat!
Bob

"Bob" wrote in news:1171133096.800560.48800
@h3g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

A On-Off house, On-Off start, and the On-Off parallel swithc that
combines the start and house bank. I dont have the old style single
swithch that has the 1-2-Both setting.



Wow, I like that KISS. You don't need to do anything! Unless the house
battery is dead, turn 'em all on and crank the engine. Your alternator
is ALREADY connectable to everything at once! The Parallel switch does
what my ON-OFF switch does, already! If you kill the house battery, Turn
just Starting on, first, then crank the engine. Once the engine is
running, throw the other switches to ON and the charging goes to all the
batteries at once...UNLESS SOMEONE WIRED THE ALTERNATOR OUTPUT JUST TO
THE HOUSE BATTERIES! Trace that, please. NEVER, NEVER turn off BOTH the
house and starting batteries at the same time, which unloads the
alternator so its output voltage will eat whatever is still connected
WHEN THE ENGINE IS RUNNING, or when your AC dock charger is running.

Trace the big wire from the alternator and see where it goes. I bet it
hooks directly to the starting battery, which makes my never, never
comment above a moot point as one battery is ALWAYS hooked to the
starting battery. That's where I would wire the alternator
output...directly to the starting battery so it has no chance of running
to an open circuit with your electronic stuff on it to be destroyed. The
alternator output should be wired through a suitable fuse (alternator
rating plus about 25% = fuse amps rating). This is in case the
alternator diode rectifiers short out. I'm a fuse freak when I have to
swim with the sharks because of an electrical fire.

With all the switches ON, all the batteries, house and starting, are
hooked in parallel to the alternator which will charge them....no wiring
is necessary. Just make SURE noone switches both house and starting
switches to OFF while the engine is running, just to be safe as we can't
really see how it's wired up here on usenet...ok? That you'll have to
trace for yourself.



Larry
--
VIRUS ALERT! VISTA has been released!
NOONE will be spared!