Battery Watch

[gpv]

Battery Wach is a Vetus product that allows to charge and isolate different battery banks in order to distribute power to the various sections of the boat. I tried to connect it to the Yanmar 6LSEZ 300hp but does not charge the batteries. Any suggestions?

[Scubakid]

There are two types of alternator 'battery sensed' and 'machine sensed' the battery type uses the main battery cable to sense the state of charge of the battery and is not good for long battery runs as the volt drop on the cable can cause charging errors. the machine sensed has a seperate wire to check the state of charge and as this carries very little power the volt drop is minimal. I had the Yanmar 230Hp and this was machine sensed, you should be able to tell if you have two thin wires connected to the alternator then it is machine. One is the bulb the other the sense. You will need to switch this connection to the battery you want to charge otherwise it will not know how much to charge the battery. Hope this helps if not please feel free to contact me and I will try to help.

John

[gpv]

Thanks,
I'll try to locate the wires.
I believe that connection should be switched to the battery watch unit that will then take care of the distribution.
Should this not solve the problem I will take advantage of your polite offer for help
George

[John Kennett]

I haven't any experience of the "Battery Watch", but I think there's unlikely to be anything special about the electrical system on the Yanmar.

Are you sure the Battery Watch is installed correctly? Have you contacted Vetus or your supplier?

John

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John Kennett
RIBnet

[gpv]

John thanks for your promt responce.
According to Vetus connection should be made directly to the altenator after disconnecting the cable that goes from the altenator to the starter. I suppose that the sensing mechanism that trigers charging is driven by the above cable. Vetus claims that the Yanmar altenator must have a "L" and "D"
terminal in addition to the used ones where Battery Watch shoul be connected.
Given their reply I feel that they are not sure and I'm afraid that the Yanmar(Mercruiser) people are not as helpful as one would expect them to be thus my cry for help