Side Power Sleipner Bow Thruster Communication Low Voltage

[Raylee]

Merry Christmas everyone wishing you all a wonderful holiday season. Funny how these issues occur when you have semi-firm plans.

I have Bow & Stern Side Power Thrusters. A few days ago when activating the thrusters panel, it flashed 2 errors.. low voltage and communication errors relating to the bow thruster. Which lead me to discover that the PromarinerHD charger tor the bow thruster had died and the AGM batteries were down to 11.81V each.. so above 23V (that voltage should not have triggered a low voltage error). Long story short.. I used my Victron charger to charge/recondition the batteries which seemed to work and found a new charger. Voltage is now 26.2 V.

However, the panel still shows low voltage for the bow thruster and communication errors. The Stern thruster is shown with no issues. I did a factory default reset which cleared the communication error, but the low voltage error is still showing but also now the bow thruster control box is no longer showing as part of the system devices. I did a reboot, checked/replaced all small fuses, then got into the settings & tried different things.. still no luck.

I am not why the low voltage error is still showing and wondering if corrosion in the connectors may be responsible for the loss of communication. The thruster system uses an S-link connectors/cables that resemble the NMEA 2000 cabling to connect the various components.

Before tearing all the cables out and checking voltages at pins, I thought I would seek input from the forum. We are on the water for the next 3 weeks, so sorting this out would be important.

Thank you

Raylee

 

[cosinalaska]

Merry Christmas everyone wishing you all a wonderful holiday season. Funny how these issues occur when you have semi-firm plans.

I have Bow & Stern Side Power Thrusters. A few days ago when activating the thrusters panel, it flashed 2 errors.. low voltage and communication errors relating to the bow thruster. Which lead me to discover that the PromarinerHD charger tor the bow thruster had died and the AGM batteries were down to 11.81V each.. so above 23V (that voltage should not have triggered a low voltage error). Long story short.. I used my Victron charger to charge/recondition the batteries which seemed to work and found a new charger. Voltage is now 26.2 V.

However, the panel still shows low voltage for the bow thruster and communication errors. The Stern thruster is shown with no issues. I did a factory default reset which cleared the communication error, but the low voltage error is still showing but also now the bow thruster control box is no longer showing as part of the system devices. I did a reboot, checked/replaced all small fuses, then got into the settings & tried different things.. still no luck.

I am not why the low voltage error is still showing and wondering if corrosion in the connectors may be responsible for the loss of communication. The thruster system uses an S-link connectors/cables that resemble the NMEA 2000 cabling to connect the various components.

Before tearing all the cables out and checking voltages at pins, I thought I would seek input from the forum. We are on the water for the next 3 weeks, so sorting this out would be important.

Thank you

Raylee

Ray Lee,
The S-Link connectors are not your problem. Yes they are a four pin connector system running a NMEA-2000 serial data with Sleipner proprietary ends. The low voltage signal is probably being generated by the Automatic Main switch. Is the ANL fuse ok? Perhaps the leads on the batteries or the Auto-Main switch has some corrosion? If you have the new E-series thruster motor that may be the culprit reporting the low voltage. If an older SE series motor was modified to a proportional thruster, perhaps the Power Control Unit (PPC) is reporting it? It too is connected into the S-link backbone. I feel it’s a battery primary power cable issue or corrosion on a primary contact. You can always contact IMTRA. IMTRA has a few YouTube videos on T-shooting. Also, on-line Sleipner (Side Power) has manuals & block schematics that may help.
Happy New year…

 

[Raylee]

Hello cosinalaska,

Thank you so much for your useful comments & ideas. They are much appreciated. I replied to you several days back but it never got to the forum. Starlink does this every so often.

I did watch most of the IMTRA videos and came to the conclusion that the AMS clicks its magnet to close the circuit but the power does not translate. Before bypassing the AMS, I took your advice & called IMTRA and they came to the same conclusion re:bypassing it. Once bypassed, the thruster worked, one alarm was resolved.. one remained but now I can use the thruster.

There is a separate power injection going to the AMS to power its circuit board. It has plenty of voltage, all the way to the circuit board. But the AMS is not reading it. A new AMS is over $800… in the past IMTRA used a manual cut-off switch rated for 400A. Maybe I can try that option if its more economical. I would then terminate the S-link that goes into the AMS.

Thank you again,

Raylee