CD-25 Guest Charger Wiring

helm · Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 6:50 pm Post subject:

Warren, you can buy a fluke 117 on ebay for a little over $100. Its easy to use, durable and you can add an ac current clamp if you have the need.
Eric

http://us.fluke.com/fluke/usen/Digital-Multimeters/Fluke-117.htm?PID=55996

thataway · Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 7:16 pm Post subject:

I must have a dozen various digital volt meters scattered all around. It is worthless unless you have it with you. That is why I buy a reasonable quality but in-expensive meter--and have one on each boat, RV, car, truck and in the shop. Frankly you are interested in relitative values, so 2% error is very acceptable.

If you totally loose all of the 12 volt related functions suddenly, it is likely to be either a break in the circuit--ie switch not closed, battery not charged--and falls to critical voltage, or a breaker/fuse blown, rather than corrosion.

Yes, there is definately a place to trace out the voltage step by step, but you don't have to do that in this perticular case at this time--find out what is the catastrophic failure of the electrical system. Go for the big possibilities--and it may well be ground as well as positive. For example a negative terminal may have fallen off.

toyman · Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 2:01 pm Post subject:

AND when trying to track voltage, a little 12v light with probes is much easier to use than ANY meter.

Pat Anderson · Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 4:01 pm Post subject:

Radio Shack, I think it was about $25, this lives on Daydream. Patty recently bought me another one for the house, will have to see what brand it is. I would not be afraid to try one from Harbor Freight...

thataway · Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 4:31 pm Post subject:

Yes, a light works, but it does not give you differential voltage: no amperage measurement, no resistance or short measurement, and no low (AA battery for example) or high AC (110 mains current). Sure I have a bulb with a couple of wires and clips soldered on, but I use the digital meters 100 times for the once I use the light bulb.

Pat Anderson · Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 1:39 am Post subject:

The second digital multimeter is a Greenlee, it was quite inexpensive but works very well.

toyman · Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 2:05 pm Post subject:

The light is much easier to use to trace voltage in a 12v system. Head down and butt up in a dark compartment I can "read" the light - I can't "read" the meter. It won't tell me if I have 11.5 volts or 13.4 though. If you are a creature of habit, driven by those habits and always grab the meter - yep it will work. But with the light you have no trouble telling if a point is hot or not - and you aren't always trying to get the meter where you - or your helper (who doesn't understand the damn thing) can read it. Oh and bifocals don't much affect the light. JMOO

eNORMous

Interestingly, when I took my boat out of the water last year (I had it in the water for 7 days at Town Creek Marina here in Beaufort), I noticed one of my batteries was not charging but wasn't sure if it was going dead. I wasn't sure why I no longer had my starboard-side battery on-line. Well, I put the boat up for the winter in the new garage I built last summer.

Last night I was charging the batteries getting ready for this year. I have two batteries and a cut off swith: Battery 1, Battery 2, BOTH, and OFF. Battery 1 was dead (starboard). Battery 2 was fine (port). On my batteries, I have "in-line" fuses, as well as each battery has a pop-up reset circuit breaker near each battery. There are two red wires running to each battery and attached to the positive terminal on each battery. These wires run into my Guest 5/5/10 Charger. On Battery 1, I removed each of the (two) in-line fuses (they are contained in-line in the cable itself and are enclosed in black hard rubber containers). I think one was a 25 amp fuse (brown), and it was fine - it had significant corrosion deposits on it, but the fuse was fine, I cleaned off the terminals of the fuse and replaced it. The other red cable with the in-line fuse had a 5 amp (orange) fuse. I removed it and the fuse is blown.

My Guest Charger 2621A-OEM 5,5,10 Amps battery charger displayed GREEN. However, the helm station panel demonstrated no amperage at all in Battery 1. Therefore, I'm concluding I have an "open" circuit and the Guest Battery Charger is incapable of either charging the battery with the blown fuse or creating a closed circuit so I can use the battery.

Prior to getting out the meter to see if the battery was actually dead, I grabbed some new fuses and replaced the 5 amp in-line fuse (leading into the Guest Charger). This resolved the issue - closed the circuit, the amperage (reading 11.5) returned to the helm amperage panel, and the battery is charging fine - issue resolved. Cheers, Norm