BigBarney
09-13-2005, 11:34 AM
At least a dim glow.
Anyone that has read some of my recent posts knows that I have been struggling over a few issues lately. Here's the background:
When I first took my boat out this summer, everything seemed to be working fine. The next trip out -
1) PP would not display speed
2) Fuel gauge was not correctly measuring fuel
3) Deep cycle battery hooked to isolator was dead
Last night about 9:30 after putting the kids to bed, I decided to see what I could find out. Went outside to the boat and got to work.
PP: I first used a voltmeter on the PP plug running from the master module and every wire checked out. I gave up on that issue and moved to the isolator.
Isolator: My desire is to have a setup where the cranking battery starts the boat and the deep cycle battery powers everything else (when the engine is off). I pulled the side engine panels off and found the starter. I traced a large red cable from it to the battery post. The battery also was connected to a red/white cable.
Wow - the boat is already setup with the starter circuit separate from the other house loads. I disconnected the house load cables and turned the switch to on. Nothing worked, no blower, no lights, no radio. I then tried to turn the boat over (not literally - just cranking). It turned. So now I just need to wire the isolator correctly and I will have what I want.
Back to PP: Then I noticed something that I probably never would have seen if it had not been 11:30 at night (VERY DARK!). My perfect pass display was very dimly lit. No LED characters, just a soft green glow. And this with the battery cable supplying power to it removed from the battery. So obviously I have a short somewhere. Which probably explains why the speed display is goofing up. At least I hope.
Fuel gauge: Too tired to work on this. Could be connected to the above issues. If I can fix them first and see.
Back to PP again: Just a note to all future people who have the misfortune to know nothing about electronics and PP is giving them problems. Wires run from the PP master module under the floor to the bilge area where the paddle wheel is located (all this assuming your setup is like mine). There is a plug on the end of the wires from the master module that connects to a plug running from the paddle wheel. When I was inspecting this plug, I must have tugged on it too much. The brown (water temp) wire came right out of the plug running from the master module. These wires are very delicate. I could try to put it back in the plug, but I will probably just direct wire it to the paddle wheel. So check your plug connections if you have display issues, but BE CAREFUL!
Anyone that has read some of my recent posts knows that I have been struggling over a few issues lately. Here's the background:
When I first took my boat out this summer, everything seemed to be working fine. The next trip out -
1) PP would not display speed
2) Fuel gauge was not correctly measuring fuel
3) Deep cycle battery hooked to isolator was dead
Last night about 9:30 after putting the kids to bed, I decided to see what I could find out. Went outside to the boat and got to work.
PP: I first used a voltmeter on the PP plug running from the master module and every wire checked out. I gave up on that issue and moved to the isolator.
Isolator: My desire is to have a setup where the cranking battery starts the boat and the deep cycle battery powers everything else (when the engine is off). I pulled the side engine panels off and found the starter. I traced a large red cable from it to the battery post. The battery also was connected to a red/white cable.
Wow - the boat is already setup with the starter circuit separate from the other house loads. I disconnected the house load cables and turned the switch to on. Nothing worked, no blower, no lights, no radio. I then tried to turn the boat over (not literally - just cranking). It turned. So now I just need to wire the isolator correctly and I will have what I want.
Back to PP: Then I noticed something that I probably never would have seen if it had not been 11:30 at night (VERY DARK!). My perfect pass display was very dimly lit. No LED characters, just a soft green glow. And this with the battery cable supplying power to it removed from the battery. So obviously I have a short somewhere. Which probably explains why the speed display is goofing up. At least I hope.
Fuel gauge: Too tired to work on this. Could be connected to the above issues. If I can fix them first and see.
Back to PP again: Just a note to all future people who have the misfortune to know nothing about electronics and PP is giving them problems. Wires run from the PP master module under the floor to the bilge area where the paddle wheel is located (all this assuming your setup is like mine). There is a plug on the end of the wires from the master module that connects to a plug running from the paddle wheel. When I was inspecting this plug, I must have tugged on it too much. The brown (water temp) wire came right out of the plug running from the master module. These wires are very delicate. I could try to put it back in the plug, but I will probably just direct wire it to the paddle wheel. So check your plug connections if you have display issues, but BE CAREFUL!