Vetus bow thruster troubleshooting

[donaldt0039]

The Vetus bow thruster in my 27 Chaparral is not working. The bow thruster has a mustard color case. But I have yet to find the model.

The battery is new and tests 12.53V with a conductive battery tester. It's a foot or two from the bow thruster.

When I press the button the first time the light turns blue. Press it a second time within the first five seconds and the light turns to red and a few beeps. The joystick does not do anything I assume because of fault detected.

I have not made too much progress troubleshooting. Not a lot of info on the Vetus website.

 

[Comodave]

Welcome aboard. I Googled Vetus bow thruster troubleshooting guide. It came up with a utube video on error codes. I didn’t watch the video but you might look at it.

 

[High Wire]

Welcome aboard!
Do you know the year? Maybe a picture of the controls?

 

[Pascall]

Do you have the type number of the bow thruster?

 

[North Baltic sea]

Hi,


here are Side Power's trouble shot instructions, you have vetus, but I believe the principles are the same for all makes. get to know and measure the currents while the other one operates the Joy stick, 12.5V indicates that the battery is only 50% full, what size battery do you have and its type?

https://www.jpcdirect.com/side-power-thruster-trouble-shooting-guide/

 

[ranger58sb]

The Vetus bow thruster in my 27 Chaparral is not working. The bow thruster has a mustard color case. But I have yet to find the model.

The battery is new and tests 12.53V with a conductive battery tester. It's a foot or two from the bow thruster.

When I press the button the first time the light turns blue. Press it a second time within the first five seconds and the light turns to red and a few beeps. The joystick does not do anything I assume because of fault detected.

Turning on our Vetus thruster is a two-step operation. Pressing ON once starts the status LED blinking. Pressing ON again makes the status light stay on, no longer blinking.

And at that point, the joystick will work.

If you're doing that, and it still doesn't work, you'll have to resort to troubleshooting per the manual... which is likely available on the Vetus website.

-Chris

 

[donaldt0039]

The red light (rather than blue) indicates a fault of some kind. The joystick will not do anything unless the light is blue.

 

[Flatswing]

The Vetus bow thruster in my 27 Chaparral is not working. The bow thruster has a mustard color case. But I have yet to find the model.

The battery is new and tests 12.53V with a conductive battery tester. It's a foot or two from the bow thruster.

When I press the button the first time the light turns blue. Press it a second time within the first five seconds and the light turns to red and a few beeps. The joystick does not do anything I assume because of fault detected.

I have not made too much progress troubleshooting. Not a lot of info on the Vetus website.

Once you are sure that you have the button sequence correct for normal operation, check the v under load. (As an example, my thruster bank showed 24.7 v at rest but dropped to <10v under load at end of life)

 

[donaldt0039]

Once you are sure that you have the button sequence correct for normal operation, check the v under load. (As an example, my thruster bank showed 24.7 v at rest but dropped to <10v under load at end of life)

With the red light on (fault) one cannot do anything with the joystick so one cannot put any load on the battery with the bow thruster. The battery is dedicated to the bow thruster.

 

[ranger58sb]

The red light (rather than blue) indicates a fault of some kind. The joystick will not do anything unless the light is blue.

Can't help, then. Haven't ever seen a red light on ours. And our ON light is green, not blue.

If you get the red light right after turning it on, before even trying the joystick, maybe that'd suggest it's not a battery problem.

Otherwise, the troubleshooting guide in your manual is all I can think of.

-Chris

 

[Rfritzke]

Vetus 50047665 not working

I just replaced the batteries to my thruster and I can get it to run. I hear it click once when I changed directions but besides that nothing. This voyage drop when I hold the button from 11.5v to 7. Yet it won’t run. We are being launched tomorrow and this is a bit stressful

 

[Comodave]

Have you tested the batteries? Get a tester and check them. Also check and clean all the connections. The boltage can look good with a voltmeter but under load they drop. Had the same problem with my thrusters last year. They are 24 volt and one battery in each bank had gone bad. The voltage looked ok but the thrusters would not run. Tested all 4 batteries and found one in each bank failed the test. New batteries and everything was fine.

 

[Bmarler]

I just replaced the batteries to my thruster and I can get it to run. I hear it click once when I changed directions but besides that nothing. This voyage drop when I hold the button from 11.5v to 7. Yet it won’t run. We are being launched tomorrow and this is a bit stressful

Firstly, 11.5 volts is a dead battery. A fully charged 12 volt battery should be around 12.7 or so. You should charge the battery and try again.
In the mean time, when you’re waiting for the battery to charge, go out and try rotating the bow propellor. It should turn easily, but you also should feel a little resistance from the gearcase and motor.

 

[Wdeertz]

On my last boat I had a 12v Vetus bow thruster that I had to continually clean the dust from the motor brushes. A combination of a shop vac and compressed air cleaned it fairly well and got it working. Not sure if this is particular to a certain model or not but always solved my non-operating issue.