Problem with Blue Sea Automatic Charging Relay

Rob & Karen

I recently installed a Blue Sea ACR along with the remote switch. Yesterday in the driveway with the battery charger operating, the ACR connected the batteries within about 5 minutes. Today when we took the boat out for the first time after the install, the ACR would not connect the batteries automatically. After about 45 minutes of running, I finally changed the remote switch from auto to on just to see what would happen. The ACR did respond and connect the batteries. After a few minutes, I changed the switch back to auto and the ACR kept the batteries connected. We then anchored for a couple hours. Then we rode around some more and I went through the same process...ACR still will not connect automatically, but does seem to work after I manually swich from auto to on and then back to auto.

I am going to call Blue Sea tomorrow to see what they say. Just wondering if anyone can offer an insight on the problem. I am kind of discouraged after spending a fair amount of time on the installation.

Thanks,

Rob

Minnow · Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 7:42 am Post subject:

Are you sure that you have the voltage sensing wire on the "primary" battery?
It would seem that if it were backwards, that it would respond as you describe.

Rob & Karen · Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 8:53 am Post subject:

I have checked and re-checked the wiring....everything is as the instructions indicate.

thataway · Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 1:37 pm Post subject:

The sensing wire goes to the same battery which the alternator is connected to--Ie: the starting battery. This battery charges first. You may want to varify all of this with a digital volt meter. I agree, it sounds as if the sense wire is in the wrong place--or a defect in the sense circuit.

The battery charger should charge both (or all) batteries, and thus the relay would not come into play at the dock. (Although it may sense and close the relay). You can also put a remote "Manual" switch on the relay.

oldgrowth · Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 1:05 am Post subject:

Rob – I hope you have your problem figured out by now, but if you haven’t there are two things to look at.

1. Is your start battery connected to terminal A. If it is connected to B, reverse the connections. House Battery to B and start battery to A.

2. If your overload adjustment is too low, the combiner will not combine the batteries. This can happen if your start battery is run down and the alternator is putting out a lot of voltage to bring it back up, for instance it is putting out more than 14.5 volts and your overvoltage adjustment is set for 14.5 volts, the switch will not combine your batteries until the alternator output is less than 14.5 volts.

If you have some other items connected to your start battery besides your outboard and they are on and creating a draw, the alternator may never catch up so the output will continually be over the overvoltage adjustment.

You should have an instruction pamphlet describing the adjustments. It is in the last section of the instructions. If you don’t you can download it here. http://bluesea.com/viewresource/281 It is a PDF file so you will need Adobe reader to view it.
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Dave