Electrical Qs: flashing light while docked, DVSR , Connext voltage

[COtoFLsurf]

1) When boat is on the lift, I notice that every 60 seconds (or so) the red light on top of the tower flashes. Any clue what that is all about?

2) My house battery does not seem to be charging. After reading thru the threads I suspect I may have a DVSR issue. How can I test the DVSR?

3) My Connext always shows same voltage for both batteries, which is obviously not right. I have read that this is a common issue, but does anyone have a fix?

Kinda suspecting these might all be related somehow ...

Thanks,

Bobby.

 

[subysti]

I don't mean to sound like a jerk but this is all in previous posts. The list flashing every minute is because you still have the battery switch turned on. It also runs the bilge pump to check for water. If the house battery isn't charging there are a few things. First make sure there is the small black wire from the dvsr going to a ground post on a battery. Make sure there is ground wire connecting both batteries together. Also don't forget the system also always charges the staring battery first and once it's fully charged it switches to the house battery. So if you don't drive it long enough it won't switch over. As for the voltage fix there is a whole detailed write up here on how to fix it somewhere.

 

[COtoFLsurf]

@subysti, thanks for the response, I did indeed search for the first two topics, guilty on the third (I thought of that weird issue as I was typing my other questions, shoulda done a quick search).

1) Very helpful info on the blinking light, saw no reference to that anywhere in my searches, makes sense.
2) On the DVSR question, I had already confirmed the small black wire connection and common grounds between batteries, so still curious if there is any meaningful way to test the DVSR. My initial suspicion is that the DVSR is OK and that I am simply suffering from the inadequate recharge capacity of the stators. Cranking stereo at the sandbar then a short run home, pretty clear house battery is not fully recharging. Next project: on-board charger!
3) Saw the good work by mainah and others on the Connect voltage meter issue. That is total BS on Yamaha's part, pretty simple for them to test/confirm, will see how my local dealer handles it tomorrow.

 

[gmtech16450yz]

Read what I posted in this thread...

rpm big difference twin engines

And btw, I KNEW there was a post about this info because I posted it. Even still, I had a hard time finding it myself. I try to look for the info too, but a lot of time what you need is buried in another unrelated thread like this was. For that reason, I never pick on guys for not searching or asking questions that have been answered before. Another person asking the same question can sometimes, often actually, bring new light on a subject. Nothing wrong with that.



"Thanks again guys! You're all too kind.

I just thought of another tidbit I think I've seen mentioned as a problem...

The second time I had this new boat out I got a battery low warning on the dash. Both batteries read 9.5 volts, exactly. Connecting both batteries didn't change the voltages. That right there told me they weren't reading two different batteries but actually they must be reading both voltages off one battery. The engines ran and started fine so I knew the starter battery was charging fine.

Got home and did a little troubleshooting. Yeah, there was NO COMMON GROUND between the two batteries. Evidently there's a ground connect cable that the dealers are supposed to hook up during the prep. It's obviously sitting on somebodies tool box because it didn't get put on my boat. I made a ground connect cable and cleaned up the ridiculously long battery and ground cables at the same time. I also added a Samlex 1215 onboard battery charger/maintainer. That fixed the fact that the house battery wasn't getting charged at all.

Next was figuring out why the Connext display wasn't reading both batteries. I had an idea of how they would wire the display, I expected they took one of the voltages internally and the other had to come in by a separate sense wire. I found a small gauge red wire hooked to the battery isolators and disconnected it. YES! One of the voltages stopped reading. It was hooked to the same battery as the display itself was hooked to, the house battery. Idiots! I hooked that sense wire to the starter battery and guess what? The Connext display now reads both batteries. Amazing. haha. Not really. Just another example of the shoddy workmanship at the dealer prep level and also the boat assembly level. Pretty disappointing.

So if your Connext display doesn't read both batteries, simply move the little red wire from the house battery to the starter battery.

The Connext display will read the house battery as "System" since that's what it's getting it's power from. The starter battery will be the "Auxiliary" battery voltage."

 

[Mainah]

This reminds me that I still need to check my batteries for that small gauge wire at the batteries the next time I am at the boat. I will be leaving mine as is since I already did the mod but will most certainly update my post if my boat has that wire too.

 

[COtoFLsurf]

Two updates:

On #2 above- I connected battery charger to the starter battery with both battery switches were in OFF position. Initially the DVSR light was OFF and the charger topped off the starter battery. Once the starter battery was fully charged the DVSR light turned ON and the house battery charged. That confirmed to me: a) my DVSR is working, b) the DVSR does indeed connect the two batteries even when the battery switches were in the OFF position. Both batteries now at 12.6V.

On #3 above- I have a 2015 and do not have the small gage red wire that @gmtech16450yz refers to on his 2017. I do have a small gage black wire from the DVSR to the battery negative terminal (label on wire says it must be connected to "common negative terminal"), but since the two battery grounds are connected then it would do nothing to move that wire to the other battery. Guess I have to dig-in to the other thread for my 2015.

 

[Mainah]

Every single 2015 & 2016 240/242 had the same issue with the battery voltage reading. If it were a matter of how the cables were hooked up to the batteries at least some would have worked right as it is the dealer that installs the batteries. I did attempt to reach out to Yamaha through a 3rd party to let them know what the problem was in 2016 and was told that they already knew. My guess is that the new little red wire simulates the fix I came up with by providing a sense wire directly to the SPU. Problem is that new wire can be hooked up to the wrong battery and they should have installed it behind the battery switches to prevent that.

I still firmly believe there should be two wires direct to the spu to get accurate readings of the battery condition direct from the battery.

 

[gmtech16450yz]

If only Yamaha had the quality of wiring diagrams that GM has. All this stuff would be simple if guys like us could actually SEE what the inputs and outputs were to these modules and displays. Trying to work on or diagnose electrical issues without fully detailed wiring diagrams is like doing heart surgery with the operating room lights turned out.

If I get around to it I'll map out the inputs to my '17 Connext display myself and let you guys know what's going in and out of it. Mainah, you could very well be right in what you figured out about the older setups. But the display doesn't NEED two input wires to sense the voltage of two batteries, it only really needs one external sense wire. It's going to have it's own battery input and can sense that voltage internally, which is the way a lot of displays or modules sense voltage. In literal terms, you're 100% right though, it would have to have "two" inputs, it's just that one of those might be redundant with the main power input of the display.

On this little red wire thing, if I remember right my wire was actually connected to the battery side of the DVSR? OP, did you look around under the DVSR for that wire in addition to looking on the batteries themselves? Just a thought. Hell, IF the earlier Connext displays had that same input wire, they could have put that sense wire anywhere in the boat where they thought they could pick up battery voltage. Of course when you want to see battery voltage it's best to actually be ON the battery, but manufacturers don't always go to the trouble of running a dedicated wire all the way to the battery sometimes.

 

[Mainah]

If only Yamaha had the quality of wiring diagrams that GM has. All this stuff would be simple if guys like us could actually SEE what the inputs and outputs were to these modules and displays. Trying to work on or diagnose electrical issues without fully detailed wiring diagrams is like doing heart surgery with the operating room lights turned out.

If I get around to it I'll map out the inputs to my '17 Connext display myself and let you guys know what's going in and out of it. Mainah, you could very well be right in what you figured out about the older setups. But the display doesn't NEED two input wires to sense the voltage of two batteries, it only really needs one external sense wire. It's going to have it's own battery input and can sense that voltage internally, which is the way a lot of displays or modules sense voltage. In literal terms, you're 100% right though, it would have to have "two" inputs, it's just that one of those might be redundant with the main power input of the display.

On this little red wire thing, if I remember right my wire was actually connected to the battery side of the DVSR? OP, did you look around under the DVSR for that wire in addition to looking on the batteries themselves? Just a thought. Hell, IF the earlier Connext displays had that same input wire, they could have put that sense wire anywhere in the boat where they thought they could pick up battery voltage. Of course when you want to see battery voltage it's best to actually be ON the battery, but manufacturers don't always go to the trouble of running a dedicated wire all the way to the battery sometimes.

You can dowload the service manual with full pin out connector style wiring diagram from yamahapubs.com for $75.

 

[swatski]

I have done the original @Mainah voltage fix with the extra wire and have not had any issues since. I believe my voltage reads are accurate, and that takes away some of the anxiety that can be associated with boating.

--

 

[gmtech16450yz]

You can dowload the service manual with full pin out connector style wiring diagram from yamahapubs.com for $75.

Yeah I have the service manual in hardcopy actually after using the online manual. Like I said, the Yamaha wiring diagrams leave just a little to be desired. lol. They're not the worst I've ever seen, but they're right up there.

 

[subysti]

Not sure about that small red wire either. No one here has ever mentioned that before, maybe something his dealer did to try and fix the voltage issue? The small black wire is needed to activate the DVSR and can be connected to either negative post.

 

[Asok]

So I looked at my boat last night and I did have the little red wire. The little red guy was soldered in and I did not want to cut it so I took apart the battery switch and swapped the leads coming out of it. . My battery switch was labeled for the lead with the little red wire to be going to the starter battery. This was not how it was set up. I fixed that by doing the swap and I now have two good and different readings on the display. This seems to be a prep or a manufacturing issues at least on my boat.

 

[Leendert]

I have a 2017 242X and exactly like you guys said in here. Just move the sens lead over from terminal C to terminal A.

 

[Corvettedan22]

1) When boat is on the lift, I notice that every 60 seconds (or so) the red light on top of the tower flashes. Any clue what that is all about?

2) My house battery does not seem to be charging. After reading thru the threads I suspect I may have a DVSR issue. How can I test the DVSR?

3) My Connext always shows same voltage for both batteries, which is obviously not right. I have read that this is a common issue, but does anyone have a fix?

Kinda suspecting these might all be related somehow ...

Thanks,

Bobby.

help!


Hi I’m going through old posts trying to find info abs in hoping you can help me.

I just put my 2016 242 in a slip and left the house on to keep the bilge activated. At first I thought it was lightning and then I thought it was an electrical short. I don’t remember seeing this in the manual, annddd why the hell would they make it do this ? I’m pretty sure the manual recommends leaving the house on for the bildge. Also if the tower is flashing are all my interior lights as-well ?

any help would be appreciated

 

[MidnightRider]

help!


Hi I’m going through old posts trying to find info abs in hoping you can help me.

I just put my 2016 242 in a slip and left the house on to keep the bilge activated. At first I thought it was lightning and then I thought it was an electrical short. I don’t remember seeing this in the manual, annddd why the hell would they make it do this ? I’m pretty sure the manual recommends leaving the house on for the bildge. Also if the tower is flashing are all my interior lights as-well ?

any help would be appreciated

I have a 2017 212X and the white anchor light on top of the tower flashes every time the bilge pump tests for water. The way the bilge pump works on my boat is it cycles on every X minutes (5 or so?) and checks for water (using a type of resistance test) and pumps out if needed or turns right back off. I guess the idea is being able to see from a distance that your bilge pump is doing its thing and give you warm fuzzies. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯