Last fall, before I put everything away, I decided to add two batteries to my boat. I have one battery to start the boat and the other for the house (listening to radio w/o fear). I tested to validate that everything came on, before I put it away for the season and the start of this season. I dropped it off at my marina for them to check out a few other things and they said everything looked great. Though it looked like my house battery was dead, when I tried to use it, so I combined the batteries and everything came to life. After a while of crusing around shut it off took a look at a few things and switched it to "On" and it appeared that things were working. Though after running it for a while it appears that the house battery is only getting a charge, when the battery switch is set to "combined". I tested both batteries after I combined them for a while and I was seeing 12.2v on house and 12.6 on the starting battery, while the engine was turned off. The voltage of the electric system was about ~13.2v, while the engine was running, which seemed a bit low. Both batteries are about 4-5 years old, so I am planning on replacing the starting and using the old starting as the new house.
I wish I would have tested the voltage of the house battery, when the switch was in the "On" state and the engine was running as I am guessing I would have seen a 12.2v on the house, then that would have meant the relay wasn't switching on. Maybe not enough voltage is being supplied via the alternator as it looks like I am supposed to have more voltage than that?
I also got a CEL after a few minutes though no limp home mode or anything like that. I am wondering if the low voltage caused that.
Note: I used a Multimeter to check the battery voltages of the batteries. Though I used the NMEA 2000 system to view the voltage of the system via the MCU. I should have used my MM to test the system w/ the motor on.
I wish I would have tested the voltage of the house battery, when the switch was in the "On" state and the engine was running as I am guessing I would have seen a 12.2v on the house, then that would have meant the relay wasn't switching on. Maybe not enough voltage is being supplied via the alternator as it looks like I am supposed to have more voltage than that?
I also got a CEL after a few minutes though no limp home mode or anything like that. I am wondering if the low voltage caused that.
Note: I used a Multimeter to check the battery voltages of the batteries. Though I used the NMEA 2000 system to view the voltage of the system via the MCU. I should have used my MM to test the system w/ the motor on.
