Dual Batteries Wiring and Voltmeters 2015 242 LS

[OperationROL]

So, I am trying to figure out if something is wired incorrectly from the factory in my boat. Everything looks good, but the voltage reading on both batteries are ALWAYS exactly the same. There is no way they should be equal, especially when the boat is moving. The "Start" battery has the single red cable from the "Start" switch running to the positive lead; the negative side has a connector wire running to the negative lead on the "House" battery. All the other ground cables are also attached there; and all the other power cables are attached to the negative lead of the House battery. The only thing I can figure is the DVSR Cluster (as pictured below) has a bad parallel switch that causes the batteries to always be linked. What do you think?

 

[Glassman]

What happens when you disconnect one battery?

 

[OperationROL]

What happens when you disconnect one battery?

I didn't try that. I did however, switch each battery off independently to see if anything that is supposed to be on the other battery would still have power. They worked as designed when I did that. I will try disconnecting each this weekend.

 

[Glassman]

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Anything beyond an "On/Off" switch is above my pay grade.

I don't have a 1/2/Both switch, I would screw that up!

 

[john94si]

If the boat is running then yuo ae reading the alternator. Check each battery with the boat powered down.

 

[Williamsone46]

Mine is the same way. I'll check it tomorrow

 

[scubarick314]

Mine was the same also when I took her out a couple of weeks ago. I'm curious about this as well. When we were in float mode listening to the radio they both stayed the same.

 

[Jackew]

This is happening to me. But crazier...

I was trying to get my 10 hr break-in time today. I was getting a low volt warning. Both batteries we at the same volts - like noted in this thread. So when I got the warning the volts dropped below 10 volts. So my first plan was run the boat and it would charge the battiers so I am running the boat at 6,000 rpm. The volts would not raise. It was 9.6 then continued to drop until 8.5 volts. This was happening the whole to I was running. I was like what the heck - why isn't the alternator charging the batteries or at least the volts.

Then I turn the emergency switch on - the alarm stops and the volts on both batteries are at 12.9 volts. Again both the same volts.

The volt never drops. So now I am like the heck????

Anybody can help??? @Williamsone46 or @MikeyL - have anyone of you heard of this ??

 

[MikeyL]

Yes, I have had same situation on our 2013, but someone else had to figure it out as it was traded in.
It developed after I switched out n Optima Blue for a Interstate battery for trade in. I know I did not attach the cables correctly. But with that year, we didn't have the instantaneous voltage readings like we do now.

Couple questions - ok. 3 questions:
1) have you switched out any batteries ?
2) have you attached any new or extra cabling to 1 or more of the 2 batteries ?
3) can you describe in detail the wires attached to each battery ?

I have been where you are. We will get you thru this.
Best Wishes, Mikey Lulejian - Lake Oconee, GA

 

[txav8r]

When you see voltage over 13V, your looking at what the stator/magneto is charging the batts at. Both batteries combine in parallel anytime a charge of sufficient and correct amount is on either battery, so that is what the voltmeters say when you read them running. When at rest, you should see something around 12.8 or 12.9V. @Jackew , if your seeing considerably lower voltage, your looking at a depleted battery, as 10V is dead for practical purposes. It should also be too low for the DVSR to allow combining, as that is going to create a bunch of heat when a full battery depletes itself into a drained battery. A fully charged battery, without a drain or load on it, after the surface charge has been dissipated, is about 12.63 volts for a 12 volt battery.

• Other states of charge are:
  12.60 volts = 93% charged.
  12.55 volts = 89% charged.
  12.50 volts = 85% charged.
  12.45 volts = 80 % charged.
  12.18 volts = 50 % charged.
  12.00 volts= 25% charged.
  11.90 volts= 0% charged.
  The stereo will need at least 11.5V to operate. And if you see anything below 10.2V, you have a battery problem and it probably won't accept a charge, and as I mentioned, the DSVR shouldn't even let it try to. So 9.6 and less? Don't know but that battery is a problem.

 

[subysti]

it looks like you have the emergency parallel switch on which will link the 2 batteries. If everything is correct that should only be on if your starting battery is dead and you need to combine both batteries to start the engines.

 

[subysti]

Here is a pic of the charging diagram from the manufacturer. The e switch should be off.. The charging relay will isolate the 2 batteries and charge the starting battery until it reaches 13.4VDC then switch to charging the house battery.

 

[Jackew]

Thanks for the quick responses!

@MikeyL Q1- no changes to batteries, factory installed.... Q2- I have not added anything..... Q3- top of my list to get done this morning, I'll get back with info.

@subysti - thanks for your responce. Wow your volt reference is great information. Based on your response I will like to add some " before yesterday events " information that may be contributing factors after seeing you chart.

Based on subysti post I guess I have the following questions now... But to justify why I ask these questions and to better understand how I got to this issue, I provided a summary of events that lead to the low volt issue.

1. Will the boat motor alternators/charging system not charge the batteries at the volts I list below? My 2013 AR240 only had one battery. I had ran that one battery dead, jumped it the water. Then ran the boat and the batiers would charge, why wouldn't the batteries charge with the 2 battery system???

2. The emergency switch - the way I used it can it damage anything? You comment concerned me that it is for use only to start the engines

3. Should both batteries show same volts - as mentioned ??? Or is that a sign that something is wired wrong.

3. Any feedback on my issue - based on the events that lead to the low volt warning...

I truly appreciate any feedback and thanks for your time.

Sorry for the long post... I hope that this information in proper location and I am not high jacking @OperationROL post??

So I got my new boat March 21, 2015. Possible key point I would like to point out "I've never charged the batteries with a charger" bought the boat from the dealer - put the boat on the water that day for 4.5 hours and then the boat has sat on the trailer ever since.

While sitting on the boat trailer I had spent about 20 hours on the boat going through all the features of connext, listening to the stereo, turning lights on/0ff. Then of course like any proud new boat owner showing it off to all the family, friends, and neighbors that would dare asked me how I like my new boat or say that boat looks nice. .... Ok so my point is I probably worked the batteries pretty hard without charging them - ever. BUT NEVER GOT A LOW VOLT WARNING , nor could I tell you what the volts were showing, just don't know. But subysti volt has really got me thinking!

Fast forward to yesterday. The rain finally took a break (or so I thought) - no work - I get to take the boat out for the second time! Lunched the boat no problems. Doing my usually breaking in routine. Then a server thunderstorm pops up and we haul butt off the lake - dock the boat and wait out the storm. Because I only got a little over 1 hour on the boat, I decided to wait the weather out, back at the house.. Then weather cleared 3 hours later. Then back off to the lake... So note , nothing was on, keys out the ignition - BUT I DID LEAVE THE BATTERY BANKS ON..battery bank was left on for 3 plus hours.

Back on the lake - turned on the blowers. Loaded the boat and launched. Note forgot to turn off the blowers. So we about 30 minutes in the boat ride and while in no wake mode for about 5 minutes - my first alarm goes off. LOW VOLTS. Looked at the system it shows 9.8 volts. I noticed my blowers was on. Turned off my blower and left the no wake zone to run the boat at 6,000+ rpms to charge the battieries. I GUESS THIS IS WHERE I GOT CONCERNED AND I DIDN'T REALIZED THE VOLTS MEANING AS NOTE ABOVE.

Once blower off and running at 6,000 rpms - volts were at 10.8

30 minutes later volts down to 9.8 with only radio and connext on.

So we no wake mode and idle around in open water looking and checking things out . Now the low volt alarm has been on for an hour and now the volts are at 8.5.

Then I start getting "communication error with stereo" 8.5 volts and no matter how much I ran the motors - I never could get any build up in volts - only a steady fall in the volts. So at this point I said - let try the emergency switch. Once I switched to emergency (now all three switched on) - Connext go to 12.9 volts and no more warnings.

These events lead me to my first post - I posted to this conversation because I thought it was strange that the volts were always the same on both batteries and it was something to do with this issue... From my past exprience - I also know with one battery I had on my AR 240 , when I drained the battery low that running the boat would chage the system and on this boat runing the boat lowered the volts.

 

[tdonoughue]

I have nothing definitive, but a few more questions, guesses and suggestions:

First, have you checked the water level in the batteries?

Second, it sounds to me like the main battery is not taking a charge. It may be that your battery is dead, that your charging system is faulty or your wiring is faulty. My bet is on the battery. I would get a charger first and see if it will take a charge. Or yank it and take it to the local auto parts store to have them test it.

If it is the battery, note the date of the battery. You should not have the issues with such a new boat, but batteries age and deteriorate even in storage. If the dealer put in an old battery, you may still have a problem that would be 'normal' (which is not to say it is acceptable, just normal for an old battery to die, even if it hasn't been used).

Note that while the motor is running, you are actually seeing the voltage of the charging system, generally, rather than the voltage of the battery. You can't 'see' the battery because of the greater voltage at the charging system. However, you will see the net of the two (the average of the battery source and the charging source). So, in your narrative, it is important to note when the measurements were done with the engines on and when the engines were off.

As a future note, if you get a low volt warning like that, I usually turn off everything that can be turned off until a proper battery level is restored. The magnitos of our charging system are nice in that they are bullet-proof mostly. But they don't produce a mess load of electricity.

And get a battery charger.

 

[txav8r]

Another good note here and common misconception, is that alternators on cars produce more than our stator/magnetos, and they do, but that is to run systems, not to "charge" batteries. Batteries can only take about 10-15 amps of charge per hour. A depleted battery will take HOURS to charge, not a few minutes, but hours of continuous charge. That means that your not charging hardly at all while running and shouldn't expect that to "charge" your batteries...unless you go 100 miles and are not consuming energy from your battery at a rate faster than your stator/magneto can replace it. It is true, that our charging system is less than an alternator, but again, a battery can only recover so fast anyway. But it does limit what excess we have to run other equipment, like a high power stereo system. Even then, it is sufficient to run all stock, and many moderately powered systems with a balance to the battery bank. But shore charging on these is mandatory, for the most part, shore charging on any boat battery is mandatory one way or another if you spend any time at all with systems on and engines off. To address your issue again @Jackew , I think you have a battery problem, but even a loose connection can cause a drain and errant voltages.

 

[Jackew]

Ok- so I may be making progress.

Will have to take out on water to confirm.

Charged the batteries last night. @MikeyL was kind enough to give me a phone number to call. Thanks very much for the great conversation and time spent with me on the phone.

Mikey and I went cable by cable to check to see if something was connected wrong.

We found that the small black wire from (DVSR) on the battery bank was connected to the positive post on a battery terminal. That was different from Mickey's wiring and from the diagram @subysti posted.

So we corrected the connection.

I've ran the systems on the boat - with out engine power and it seems that this might be fix! Only Aux battery volt meter is showing activity and it's different from the starter battery.

Again thanks Mikey!

 

[subysti]

Don't forget the way this charging system works is that the house battery only gets charged after the starting battery gets a full charge. The DVSR is designed to only charge one battery at a time and it starts with the starting battery. Also because these boats have a stator system they put out more volts at higher rpms, so going no wake mode is not charging your batteries.

 

[Jackew]

@subysti do you think finding this wire connected wrong (to the positive post) - was my issue???

 

[subysti]

@Jackew Absolutely! That's the negative connection for the electronics in the DVSR. Without that it would only charge your starting battery and never switch over to your house battery. If I remember correctly the connext system should show you voltages for each battery, what were the readings for each battery?

EDIT. actually I forgot that you had the emergency switch also on, that means it was always running on both batteries, draining both when running the electronics and trying to charge both at the same time when running. But when you were at no wake speed there wasn't enough output from the stator to charge both batteries and you were still draining both. Soooooo, if you had the switch off and the black wire wrong you would at least recharge the starting battery. Even with the black wire fixed you shouldn't keep the emergency switch on because that will allow you to drain both batteries. I always had one 3 position switch on my boats, off, on and combine. It was left in the on position unless you had to combine both batteries to start the engine.

 

[Jackew]

@tdonoughue thanks for the response - the batteries have pleanty of water. I need to get me dual charger - any suggestions ?