battery integrator

This looks like a pretty nice item as far as it goes. Basically this would isolate the house batteries from the starting battery until you have the motor running or are putting a charge on the starting battery. But you would still want to have a switch to enable you to use the house battery to start the boat in situations where the starting battery is dead.

From looking at the picture this is basically just a relay with a special switch that turns the relay on at a certain voltage. They probably use the same type of circuit as is used on alternators so I would think it would be pretty reliable.
 
with a quizzical look on my face, I wondered, well when would I run down the starter battery, when all the draining stuff is on the house battery? All of a sudden I pictured myself in my old car, in the rain, corroded posts, hitting the starter over and over, hoping she'll catch. Good point. I think I'll integrate a switch into the integrator.

Rob :smiled
 
This is the auto charge relay that I have installed. http://www.honda-marine.com/acc.aspx# (scroll down to Misc. parts & accesories). It's about $130 and includes the battery distribution cluster. Using it is a no-brainer as it eliminates thinking about switch positions. The only problem is with the wiring diagram. They have the emergency parallel switch connecting the batteries, not the loads as does the Blue Sea unit. Honda's way would not allow you to disconnect a dead or shorted battery, and still power the motor and house loads.


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Hey Minnow, I followed the link and saw the " Battery Distribution Cluster
Single Outboard Motor". Is it simply the left-most component in your picture or is it everything including the housing? Where did you mount it?
 
The enclosure in the photo is made of Azek plastic lumber and mounted under the starboard aft seat just forward of the house battery. All of the wiring enters from the top left corner (in pic), so that I can pull a couple of screws and swing the whole box out of the way for battery access.
The Honda part is made by BEP Marine of New Zealand http://www.bepmarine.com/showproduct.cfm?productid=501 and I'm real happy with it.
The part is just the cluster in the lower left corner. The rest of the stuff is fusing for the panels and windlass, the negative side shunt for the Linc 10 battery monitor, (cool unit btw) , and the small always-hot fuse box for the bilge pumps, Link 10, stereo memory, battery charger back-feed, and should be Wallas, but mine was wired to the nav panel from the factory. This setup gets the individual fuse holders off the battery terminals.

At the Eastern Shore gathering, I was showing a new CD25 owner how his bilge pumps operated, and found that they didn't. Nobody at the factory or the commisioning dealer had installed fuses in the fuse holders. How's that for a potential liability?
 
Has anyone had any dealings with the "STEARNS", '4 Battery Gauge Panel'? At abt $44 it seems like a viable means to monitor a 3 to 4 battery system which could fit most of us with twin power.

Sea Angel
 
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