A POSSIBLE METER FAILURE

The brutal winter may have taken it's toll on one of the meters of my home built Helm instrumentation panel. I noticed also noticed a lot of condensation inside the plastic face of the panel even though I had a weep hole in the bottom of the case. I'll remove the panel and check on the wiring and replace the meter if it does not come back to life.

BLOG UPDATE:

I went back on board a few days later and discovered the meter that I thought had failed during the winter was now working. So it looks like I might be able to take it off the TODO list.

ANOTHER SOLAR PROJECT: Cockpit Ammeter Junction Box

Temporary cabin meter setup

With the purchase of the new Renogy 100 Watt Solar Panel. I finally got the gumption to get going on another long overdue project. namely moving the Solar Panel Ammeter from inside the cabin where it was temporarily mounted over ten years ago to a more useful cockpit location. Though like many projects my procrastination had the benefit of an improved idea over my original thoughts. For example I had purchased a Cable Connect Waterproof Enclosure Case Junction Box for another project. The measurements were metric and since I think through the dimensions I found the box was too big for my original plans.

 Original Kings LORAN mounted

But,  sipping a beer one day I looked at the space where the original Kings 8001 Loran unit used to reside and found that the waterproof junction box fit very nicely between the still installed Kings mounting bracket. AHA I thought the box would be perfect for the solar panel ammeter moving project. So it began.





 First I decided where on the waterproof box I would mount the ammeter and marked it out:

Then using a hole saw I cut out a hole for the back of the meter to fit through:

It was not quite the right size so out came the trusty Dremel Tool and using a cutting drill I was able to enlarge it slightly to the proper size. Once that was done I carefully removed the front panel of the meter to mark where the mounting holes would need to be drilled to secure the meter:

Once that was done I mounted the meter:

I used Anderson Powerpole connectors for most of the connections behind the panel in the junction box. This will allow for easy trouble shooting or changes in the future should I need to do so:

With the ammeter installed now I could easily see how many amps are heading into the 12 volt house bank and how I can improve on the amount of current by repositioning the movable Renogy 100 watt panel or repositioning the boom:

I also thought up another useful addition to this project that I will post about as soon as some parts arrive to implement it.

A LITTLE TOUCH UP

Work on land has kept BIANKA in port and only allowed me time on the weekends to be on board. Happily, that situation will soon end. In the meantime I keep myself busy on board taking care of small projects here and there of which there is no end. A recent item was securing some of the meters at the helm instrumentation panel.

I use it to monitor the battery voltages and current for the 48 volt propulsion bank. I cut the panel using a hand nibbler and dremel tool and some of the meters turned out to be have a little looser fit than I planned. One meter was starting to work its self out so it was time to secure it.

After removing the six screws that held the waterproof cover of the panel I had easy access to the meters. I also noticed a few scratches from the first install on the painted panel front

I used a little Marine GOOP to re secure it back into the panel. Since I had the cover open I retouched some of the scratches on the front panel using a black Sharpie Permanent Marker:

The Sharpie touch up worked well and I soon had the cover on the instrumentation panel ready to mount it back at it's helm position and could move on to the next project.

INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT REDUX

Finally got around to making repairs to the helm instrumentation panel built last year. One of the 12 volt battery digital panels meters became intermittent and just went south. While the failure of the whole battery pack voltage meter was my fault. The meter was able to read voltages up to 90 volts but,  two of it's leads needed to be connected to a separate 5 to 30 volt supply to read anything over 30 volts. When I tested it on the bench I used 12 volt power supply and everything tested ok:

But, when I hooked up the completed panel the meter measuring the total battery pack voltage went poof! So I bought another meter one that did not require a separate voltage supply but, one that could read 30 to 90 volts directly. With a new replacements for the 12 volt digital panel meter and a proper 90 volt digital panel meter for the 48 volt battery pack voltage I sat down for what I thought would be a simple quick rewiring job. But I was wrong. Even though the displays of the meters match the others on the instrumentation panel the outside dimension of the replacement meter cases were just slightly larger than the meters they were replacing:

Which required me to spend a lot more time in the 95 degree heat trimming the openings in the panel so the meters would fit. So the quick rewiring job took considerably longer and was a little more messier than expected. 

INSTRUMENTATION PART 10: CURRENT METER INSTALLATION

With the battery voltage meter part of the instrumentation project finished. It was time to move on to the important current meter part of the project. BIANKA already had a Xantrex XBM battery monitor but, to see it required that I move away from the helm and lift a cockpit hatch and bend down to see it. It was awkward and inconvenient to look at while underway.

I went looking for another meter that could measure the current being drawn from or charging the battery bank. But, the catch was I did not want to have to put in another shunt for measuring  current in the battery circuit like the XBM battery monitor already used. I wanted to keep any extra connections to a minimum. To do that I needed to use a hall effect type of current meter.  It determines a current value by measuring the magnetic flux around a piece of wire with current flowing through it. I found exactly what I needed with a company called Devicecraft. They had a hall effect current meter with a transducer that would fit the 2 AWG wires that connect to  BIANKA's 48 volt electric propulsion battery bank.



The hook up is farely simple.


The display required a supply voltage and three wires that go to the hall effect transducer.  I needed to run the transducer wires about eight feet and used some   Twisted Servo Hookup Wire,   normally used in things like model cars and planes:

Like I did for some of the wires for the battery voltage meters part of this project I enclosed the transducer wires in a  Techflex General Purpose 1/4-inch Braided Cable Sleeve.  This was to keep the wires together and also protect them from chafing.

The 100 amp Hall effect sensor will fit over the 2 AWG cable that is used in the my electric propulsion system but, would not fit over the existing lug. So I needed cut the existing battery cable. I used a ratcheting wire cutter like a Klein ratcheting cable cutter which cuts heavy duty battery cable easily:

and makes a nice flush cut:

I took the opportunity to trim some other 2 AWG  battery interconnections that were a little too long from my initial electric propulsion installation five years ago too.  The Hall Effect transducer has a polarity in terms of it's display. That is if you a drawing current from the battery the display should show a negative sign in the display. Likewise when charging the battery it is useful to see the current flow as positive (no minus sign) on the digital display.  In order to make sure I got the polarity right I used some of the trimmed battery cables and a jumper to check the polarity of the meter.

Once I had established the proper orientation for the sensor I put it on the battery cable and crimped a new lug on the end and reconnected it to the battery. I then ran the sensor wires up through the cockpit wire conduit I made and into the helm area using one of the  Fiberglass Wire Pull Rods    I carry on board:

It was then just a matter of hooking up the sensor and power wires to the current display and the instrumentation project was finished:

I mounted it the box temporarily at the helm and used it on my fall cruise up the Hudson River and back. I still need to make a permanent platform for the box at the helm location but, that is a project for another day.

HELM INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART NINE CLICK HERE

HELM INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART ONE CLICK HERE

INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART EIGHT: Wiring the Panel

The instrumentation project is pretty simple setup whose purpose is to give me real time access to battery voltages and battery current readings while at the helm. Boats with a diesel usually have an instrument panel to monitor the internal combustion engine in the cockpit. On a boat with electric propulsion it's also good to monitor what is going on down below too though they are different parameters. So the initial setup for the project included a digital voltmeter on each battery, a total pack voltage meter and a current meter to monitor how much current the battery was providing (or how much current was flowing into it if charging).

The above schematic shows the DC Voltmeter wiring. Installing and wiring up the panel was not difficult. The hardest part was deciding what to use to connect the batteries to the panel. I decided to use Anderson Powerpole Connectors.

As this would allow the panel to be disconnected easily for repair or storage as needed. I've started to use them elsewhere on board with good results. They are quality connectors with wiping contacts that hold up very well in my experience.  I already had several  4PDT Heavy Duty Toggle Switches on board that I was originally was going to use for the solar bimini. But, after finding some 48 volt solar panels I no longer needed  to use the switches for charging. So I used it to switch the four digital panel meters for the individual batteries on and off. I installed the switch first since it is rather large and I wanted to make sure it fit correctly:

Then I found a location for the eight Anderson Connectors that connect to the fuses on the batteries:
One nice thing about Anderson Connectors there are various mounting clamps available to install the connectors securely in panels or enclosures like I am using for this project:

With the switch and the Anderson connectors installed it's time to wire the panel up:

I did a bench check of the DC Voltmeters using triple connection jumper. This allowed me to check three meters at a time.:

The second small switch on the side of the box is to turn the whole  pack voltmeter on and off. I did make one mistake with this whole pack voltmeter. I wired it just like the other four meters. The meters I bought can read up to 99 volts but, in order to measure a voltage over 30 volts the meter needs a separate lower voltage power source. If you are just measuring 12 volts you can tie the meter supply and measuring leads together and it will work. I did this for all the meters and tested them using a 9 volt battery. But, when I installed it in the boat the pack meter failed because the 48 volts was too much for the meter. I'll need to replace it and provide a separate voltage to power that meter to measure the whole pack voltage.

Another Anderson connector was installed to provide power for the current meter from the helm power distribution bus. So with the panel wired up and bench tested. It was time to move on the final connections from the battery to the helm. Which I will do in the next instrumentation post.

INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART SEVEN CLICK HERE

INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART NINE CLICK HERE

INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART FIVE: Panel Mounting

Now that I had my chosen enclosure in hand it was time to start working on mounting the meters inside the Polycarbonate NEMA 4X Box .  In addition to the box I also bought the optional PNX-91425 Aluminum Internal Panel which is where I will mount the meters.  First I made and outline of the  panel on a piece of graph paper and then positioned the meters where I wanted to mount them:

I then traced their outlines to the paper and cut them out with an  X-ACTO knife . I transferred the outlines for the meters to the panel and cut them out with a nibbler tool:

After fitting checking the fit of the meters:

I removed them and took the panel outside and spray painted it with some Rust-Oleum flat black enamel spray paint to eliminate any glare from the polished aluminum plate once it was installed in the cockpit. Once that was done and I mounted the meters to the plate all I had to do was install it into the box. Since the panel was made to fit the Bud NEMA 4X Box with screw holes already drilled to match up to the ones in the box all I needed was some spacer hardware.  Happily, I was able to recycle these from the old Kings 8001 Loran hardware that I saved.

 With the meters mounted into the panel I could now start on the wiring of the instrumentation project.

INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART FOUR CLICK HERE

 INSTRUMENTATION PROJECT PART SIX CLICK HERE 

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