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Post by Quiddle on Mar 16, 2015 9:15:10 GMT
In the last week my panel meter has started to misbehave. When on shore power boost charge I have had the overcharging alarm go off a couple of times, showing 14.8V charge (meter on battery showed 14.2v so I don't think the battery charger is at fault). The charging voltage also seems to fluctuate every 30 seconds between 14 and 14.4v when on boost charge. I've reset the system with a long hold of the circular button, but this seems to provide only a temporary cure. Has anyone had similar experiences?
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Post by so36idavid on Mar 17, 2015 4:43:15 GMT
I have a 36i ('07). I haven't seen this problem. I would assume that either the shore power charger is on the fritz or the electronics in the panel is. I'm guessing the latter. Sorry, that's not very helpful.
I don't really use the voltmeter in the panel though. I installed an A-h meter which I find very useful. I was surprised to see that the voltage reported on the panel is consistently different from that of the A-h meter. I validated that the A-h meter is reporting the correct voltage by using a digital multimeter at the batteries. I believe that there are two problems with the panel voltmeter. First is that the panel does not report voltage at the batteries, but rather what it sees at the panel. Loads induce voltage drops in the wiring so it tends to underreport voltage when under load. Second is that the panel voltage is just not properly calibrated.
The bottom line is that I wouldn't trust the panel voltage at all. I recommend installing a voltmeter or A-h meter with sense wires directly on the battery terminals. I'd be happy to post some pics of how I did it, although it's pretty self-explanatory.
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Post by Quiddle on Mar 19, 2015 20:21:43 GMT
Thanks David. I've also used a meter directly on the batts, so am sure it's the panel at fault. I'll look into an AH meter - maybe the Nasa BM-1, as an alternative.
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Post by so36idavid on Mar 20, 2015 3:09:22 GMT
FYI I installed the Victron unit. MaineSail's excellent site has step by step instructions on how to do it.
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Post by stamps on Mar 20, 2015 9:51:16 GMT
2009 36i
I have just joined the forum because of problems similar to the voltage measurement / indicators resulting in over voltage alarms. Are there details of the electronic circuit boards available? In my case the top voltages appear randomly when the PV cell controller sets the voltage to 14.8 for a brief period when on the maintenance charge process. We adjusted the controller for a different battery type reducing the maximum to 14.4. However we have no confidence in the wiring to the boat control circuits , hence the request for circuit information, which we would use to recalibrate the alarm circuit(s).
We agree with the difference between battery and meter indications. With the frig. on the difference is more than 0.5 volts. This shows that the voltage at the battery is good while the on board indication is close to 12Volts.
A previous fault could have caused us a big problem; we took over the boat(SunSail) and found the fuel level was zero. Along came a little man who change a fuse We set off. We congratulated our selves on very low fuel consumption over 2 weeks as the fuel gage showed much less than quarter had been used. Until we filled the tank which accepted three quarters of a tank full! The circuit board was defective and changed by SunSail and was the cause of the fuse blow. We now keep a log of engine hrs on a day to day basis.
Stamps
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Post by Trevor on Mar 21, 2015 11:16:36 GMT
Hello stamps, Welcome to the forum and congratulations on getting your hands on a really great boat. If you are after very detailed schematics of the actual display panel you may be out of luck but if you are after the wiring diagrams I think you can find it here. www.jeanneau-owners.com/Manuals/Jeanneau%2036i%20Owners%20Manual%20Schematics.pdfThe fuel gauge I think on many of the boats is just an indicator and not very accurate. We saw that on our SO36i and we see that on our boat now. Another issue that may be worth pursuing is the voltage drop from the battery to the electrical panel. I think two things could contribute to this. Firstly I think the cross sectional area of the cable from the battery switch to the panel may be a little small if any real current is drawn. It does run a fair distance so some voltage drop will be evident unless bigger cable is installed. The culprit on our boat however is the battery switch itself. My house battery switch currently reads about 5 ohm when it is closed and it should be virtually zero. I am looking at replacing our battery switches now to newer better performing switches. If you flick the battery switch from on to off several times it may resolve that issue, at least temporarily. Regards,
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Post by no3l on Aug 2, 2015 15:57:20 GMT
Hi All, I installed a Victron battery monitor (602S) over the winter, as anticipated it is showing a different voltage to the meter on the main panel, a difference of 1.8V. imgur.com/HHW4nf6My problem is that as I now use the Victron monitor I am allowing the voltage on the panel meter to drop lower than the alarm threshold. Is there anyway to reset the alarm value on the panel meter so that I can align it with Victron and avoid the alarm going off? Thanks Noel
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Post by so36idavid on Aug 3, 2015 2:42:49 GMT
Noel,
I turned the alarms off completely, I found them to be useless. Particularly the low-voltage alarm which went off literally every time I raised anchor. High current flowing to the windlass briefly pulled the apparent voltage down triggering the alarm.
Anyway, I'm not in the habit of depending on a low-voltage alarm to tell me that something is amiss in my electrical system. Since I have an A-h meter I typically glance at the state of the battery at least twice a day - first thing in the morning and in my final check in the evening. If there's a problem I'm highly likely to spot it early. And if not, well then the alarm isn't going to help anyway because by the time you get down to the point where the alarm is triggered then in all likelihood the battery is seriously discharged. You can disable the alarms at the panel, fiddle with the options until you see it.
B.t.w you shouldn't be using voltage to tell you when the battery is discharged. Using voltage makes sense only if there is no current flowing from the battery and it has been left that way for some time, which in real life happens basically never. You have an A-h meter. Rule of thumb is not to let your batteries get below 50%.
David
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Post by no3l on Aug 3, 2015 22:22:40 GMT
Thanks David,
No arguement with any of your points, that's why I installed the Victorn unit. However I do like to understand how the equipment works and would iike to align the two meters.
Regard Noel
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Post by so36idavid on Aug 4, 2015 1:02:55 GMT
Hey Noel,
I don't think that in general it is possible to get them to align exactly. They're measuring voltage at different places, one at the battery terminals and the other at the end of (I would guess) 40 ft of quite skinny wires. If there's any kind of current flowing through those wires then the voltage is going to be off. You could calibrate it to the zero load case but if say you turned on the fridge (5A) then I would expect something like a 5% voltage drop in the wiring, which is something like half a volt across the positive and return wires, or 0.25V at the panel.
Having said that, the voltage at the panel is way off and if you do figure out a way to calibrate it then please report it here.
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Post by MalcolmP on Aug 4, 2015 14:17:01 GMT
I turned the alarms off completely, I found them to be useless. Particularly the low-voltage alarm which went off literally every time I raised anchor. High current flowing to the windlass briefly pulled the apparent voltage down triggering the alarm. Noel and David Thanks for the reminder you can turn the alarm off on the Scheiber panel. I also fitted the Victron gauge - a BMV 700 which has been brilliant and reassuring. However when using the windlass I do increase the engine revs in neutral so that there is a good supply of amps which generally stops alarm issues Digressing from topic though the Quick windlass controller which had worked OK for 7 seasons , now has a dodgy micro-switch - in fact jammed in the On/up position which was not nice. I am changing it out for a waterproof Lofrans unit next week and in the interim have also fitted an internal over-ride switch, so the windlass can be used from below
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Post by so36idavid on Aug 6, 2015 2:41:29 GMT
Hey Noel, If you search the project pages you'll find an example of someone who wired in a wireless remote into their windlass solenoid. I copied the idea and I have to say it was the best $50 I've spent on the boat. You can run the wireless from below, the bow, mid decks, the helm, anywhere up to 300' away. Just the other day I needed to do some maintenance on my bow roller and I needed to gently lower the anchor onto the dock, so I operated the windlass from there too .
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Post by no3l on Aug 6, 2015 9:42:22 GMT
Hi David,
I too installed that mod, I did it last year before we headed up to Scotland: it worked really well as I usually sail short handed.
Noel
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Post by elecco on Aug 9, 2015 16:03:29 GMT
In the last week my panel meter has started to misbehave. When on shore power boost charge I have had the overcharging alarm go off a couple of times, showing 14.8V charge (meter on battery showed 14.2v so I don't think the battery charger is at fault). The charging voltage also seems to fluctuate every 30 seconds between 14 and 14.4v when on boost charge. I've reset the system with a long hold of the circular button, but this seems to provide only a temporary cure. Has anyone had similar experiences? Hello fellow Jeanneau owners, Have read this particular thread with great interest. I have a 2007 39i which is also experiencing low voltage alarms on the stock electrical panel multi function display. Very intermittent....I can go for weeks without the issue. Typically happens during one of the following events: -Extended use of the inverter -Use of the windlass -Use of the electrical coach roof winch I have a Xantrex LinkLITE battery monitor installed and have verified that the low voltage alarm is false. Yesterday the alarm went off and the Xantrex showed 13.1 volts. I'm aware that the panel voltage display is not accurate (reads lower) than my Xantrex as the Xantrex gets it reading at the battery. I followed the advice of another post here and turned off the battery voltage alarm. My question is....with the alarm off does that completely inhibit the alarm or just the annoying sound? I'm hoping it completely inhibits the alarm. I've found the only way to reset the alarm is to cycle the negative switch from on to off, then back to on. Hoping I will no longer need to do this. At least I won't have the false alarm anymore. ~Ed s/v PainKiller Alameda, CA
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Post by ForGrinsToo on Aug 13, 2015 13:46:56 GMT
In our case last week, the panel meter actually read higher voltage than the Victron monitor, which was also a bit high, I thought. I was very concerned until I read the Lifeline battery manual which said we were still within absorption charge range. Voltmeter probe of both batteries confirmed the Victron readings. There really ought to be a way to "calibrate" the Schreiber panel.
We also learned that the fuel gauge reading is no better than a guess while the water tank readings are very good.
Geoff 36i For Grins Too
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Post by so36idavid on Aug 14, 2015 19:50:38 GMT
Geoff, I treat the fuel gauge like a warning light. I know from experience that when it's at a quarter then I have two gallons left in the tank. Anything under 1/2 a tank is an urgent situation. I (mostly note the date and hours when I fill the tank and I generally average about 3/4 gal/hr. So I know within a few gallons how much is in the tank. David
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