aardvarkash10

loving that coach bolt! True #8 work right there.

Where are you, and have you got a model name and number for the alternator? Unless its weirdly unusual, pretty much any auto-electrician should be able to help you out. If its a larger unit, find a sparkie who does a lot of heavy commercial work.

Here to expand your vocabulary KM. Service to the Community. Fridge access sounds good though...

I really like that he "passed the batten over". An appropriate homophone for a sailing forum.

Bumping - still available.

^ pretty much what I had in mind.

...the more I hear the more I'm inclined to just chuck an alternator-switched coupling relay at it and call it done...

Correct on the comparative, and in your situation the absolute readings were not particularly relevant. Every DVM has a measuring and sampling error. Once you are down into hundreths of a volt, that error is significant for everything except lab-calibrated equipment. For day-to-day stuff in a 12 or 24V system, 1/10ths of a volt is all the resolution you will ever need and most digital meters (even cheap ones) should be reasonably accurate in that range.

Thanks MH, but I suspect that would seriously overcapitalise our yacht. The charge control device is interesting tech though - thanks for the link. We don't have any real problem with capacity atm, but I would like to take the "human cock-up factor" out of the charging network which is manually controlled by the isolator switch currently. I did my time as an auto-electrician, so I can turn the alternator thats fitted into any configuration (int/ext regulated, machine/battery sensed etc) without too much trouble. I was going to put a diode splitter into the battery system and

very unusual if it was - batteries are only slightly advanced on rocks as complex devices. Best tested under load - 20 - 25A (more if you can get it) draw of the entire bank, look for a battery that has significantly different readings to the others

yeah but I'm a lazy leftist who relies on the hard sweat and skills of the business classes to enlighten me Thanks Fish - very helpful and informative as usual. So was KM, in his own ideosychratic way.

0.04V difference between them? Thats almost measuring error levels - less than 1%. I'll bet that if you check with a hydrometer you will find slightly different pH levels across them too. I wouldn't sweat it. but I would monitor it (without getting paranoid).

Here's Stepping Out's history on Racetrack. What do the numbers mean?

Two smallish batteries, start and house. Isolator switch is fitted that allows either or both batteries to power the starter. Machine sensed Ingrams Bosch pattern alternator - I'm assuming 55A. 120w solar panel. Normal loads for a low-specced 10m yacht - cabin and nav lighting, vhf, stereo, fridge, pi-plotter and screen, occasional charging of cell phones and laptop. I'm thinking this is sufficient for a VSR - any comments? Also, the existing laptop and cellphone charging devices cause a lot of interference on VHF and FM radio signals. The radios share a masthead ant

https://www.yachtingnz.org.nz/boat-search/zigzag-fullstop Yup - it WAS up on TM as late as last week