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Old 06-27-2022, 11:21 AM   #19
Bmarler
Guru
 
City: Olympia
Vessel Name: Rendezvous
Vessel Model: Blue water 40
Join Date: Aug 2021
Posts: 1,815
Quote:
Originally Posted by koliver View Post
"Recently, I do not see charging on the voltage gauge in the pilot house. The needle goes down to yellow, close to red. "

From your description I am puzzled that you would expect to see how much charging you get from your alternator.
You are measuring voltage at the instrument panel without identifying its source.
When you are on shore power, your charge is not going through the instrument panel, as your engine is not on.
When charging from the generator, your meter is likely reading the same input as when on shore power, so is independent of whether the engine is on or off.
Why, then, do you expect this voltmeter ti tell you the health of your alternator?
i would think that most likely, the panel volt meter is essentially connected to the start bank and would show any charging source voltage influence on the batteries. doesn't matter if the engine is off or on. he may or may not need to turn on the ignition for the gauge to respond at the panel depending on how it's wired, but the source would (should) always be the battery bank itself.
so yes, he should immediately see voltage rise when the engine starts and the alternator is spinning. there might be a small delay depending on how the internal regulator is set up but he should be seeing voltage rise almost immediately, even if the bank is almost fully charged. the fact that the voltage isn't climbing right away leads me to think the alternator isn't putting out. it looks like a pretty new, beefy, leese-neville unit, so i suspect the internal regulator as do some other folks here. or possibly, there's a bum volt sensing wire that should be exciting the alternator. not sure how that alternator gets it's signal to charge.
if the house bank is charging off the alternator/starting bank through a dc-dc charger he'd greatly benefit installing an external regulator like a balmar or wakespeed.
i use my panel volt meter for "at a glance" monitoring of the alternator output, but also have two separate other meters to show actual amp output and voltages/state of charge on the various other battery banks.
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