My boat is being a boat . . .

[nola mike]

CAT engines came in around 2012 (ish). My boat, being a 2016, has the Mercury (Mercruiser) in-house built 6.2L engines with the CATs. The engines/outdrives are the SeaCore option, which includes stainless steel engine mounts and full closed cooling. So, it is a similar set-up to how I had my old Formula 330 configured (less the CATs).

So far, the CATs have not been an issue . . . but now that I said that, I'm sure they are listening

Maybe you were the one set on the closed cooling (I remember you going between 2 different MCMs) and @alldodge was against the cats

But definitely have ears (couldn't help it)

 

[tpenfield]

Well, I spent the day installing a fume detector, as the boat did not have one. After hours of feeding wires, connecting everything, and getting the detector and sensor mounted . . . I go to test it . . . and nothing, nada.

Then, I start checking other electrical stuff lights, blower, bilge pump, etc . . . nothing

Thinking to myself that I really messed things up, but not sure how . . . I start pulling the instrument panel apart where the electrical feeds are located, thinking that I'll never find the problem in the rats nest of wiring

I find a main power stud and just touch it . . . stuff started working again

It turned out that the nut securing all the power connections was loose and my jostling things around during the installation had made the difference.

A quick tightening of the power stud and all was good. The fume detector even worked

 

[flashback]

I find a main power stud and just touch it . . . stuff started working again

Glad it was easy! That's something I could deal with!

 

[alldodge]

Another lack of quality control issue

 

[Scott Danforth]

I find a main power stud and just touch it . . . stuff started working again

It turned out that the nut securing all the power connections was loose and my jostling things around during the installation had made the difference.

A quick tightening of the power stud and all was good. The fume detector even worked

Could this have been part of your electrical gremlins last year?

 

[tpenfield]

Could this have been part of your electrical gremlins last year?

I was thinking the same It could have been. I'll hook up the Diacom to see if the 'system voltage' and the 'battery voltage' are in better agreement now that I tightened the power stud.

I'm just surprised that the power blackout did not happen before. Here are some pictures of my handy work. CY provides a conduit for adding wiring, as all the other paths inside the sidewall seem the be dead ends.

 

[tpenfield]

Quick update and to @Scott Danforth 's question . . .

Looks like the 'system' and 'battery' voltages are still the 1.0 - 1.1 difference that they were last year. So tightening the power stud at the helm did not make a difference there.

.
But maybe there is yet another power location. through my research last year the PCM (PCM112) is getting the power references from 2 locations. One would think that the system voltage can be no higher than the battery voltage.

Maybe it is wiring, or maybe the PCM is not measuring the battery voltage accurately. (It gets voltage references from 2 different pins on the PCM connector).

In other news, the VHF radio did not want to power up yesterday as I was testing the electrical issues. Today it powered right up

 

[Lou C]

Electrickery at work; aided by its cohort CAN BUS eh?
I had an overcharging issue on my old OMC I would have never found except for the fact that I bought an ARCO alternator; in the instructions it said that on OMC Cobras there can be high resistance in the alternator sense wiring. Suggested fix was a minor wiring change & presto no motor over charging.

 

[tpenfield]

I converse regularly with another owner of a CY 338/328. He actually bought one of the CY boats that I passed on (a CY328 that was local to me).

His electrickery has been to replace the 7 (seven) AGM batteries with about 4 LiFePO4 batteries for a weight savings of about 400 lbs. !!! I know the alternators don't like LiFePO batteries, so he had to put in some DC converters to regulate the current draw.

Anyway, I'll find the cause of the voltage disparity . . . someday

 

[Scott Danforth]

In other news, the VHF radio did not want to power up yesterday as I was testing the electrical issues. Today it powered right up

My VHF died this year. its on the list to get ordered ASAP

 

[Lou C]

tip: always do a radio check while out on the water, my Standard Horizon would receive but not transmit, so I replaced it 2 years ago. If I didn't do a radio check I would have not known that.

 

[alldodge]

Electrical gremlins, pesky little B-word

 

[tpenfield]

I plan on installing a microwave oven (that I've had sitting in the box for a year ), so I'll be pulling the cabin electrical panel, where much of the main power is routed to. . . . might find a few more loose connections

 

[Lou C]

Remember Arthur C. Clark’s famous quote on technology?
Any technology when sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic…

 

[tpenfield]

Remember Arthur C. Clark’s famous quote on technology?
Any technology when sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic…

A little magic might be good

 

[ejnichol]

I'd go over inch of electrical and check for loose connections and remedy those found. Electricity and fuel as I'm sure you know is a volatile mix.

I was amazed at the sheer number of feeds and connections in my boat when upgrading to a flat panel from analog and adding the engine gateway.

 

[garbageguy]

Thanks for sharing your electric/magic experiences, always informative and entertaining - that's a great mix!

To me, "engineering" is the PRACTICAL application of TECHNOLOGY (and, for me anyway, I get to decide on the definition of those terms)

 

[tpenfield]

Thanks for sharing your electric/magic experiences, always informative and entertaining - that's a great mix!

To me, "engineering" is the PRACTICAL application of TECHNOLOGY (and, for me anyway, I get to decide on the definition of those terms)

I was able to wire-up and install a microwave oven without incident. Behind the electrical panel does look like spaghetti though . . .

I did check for loose power studs behind the panel, but everything was fine. I may probe the connections with the volt meter so see if I can isolate a voltage drop similar to what I'm seeing on the Diacom readout.

 

[tpenfield]

Quick update. . .

I checked all the 12 volt feeds to the 12v electrical panel in the cabin, both helm and house feeds. They were all exactly the same.

Now onto the helm station itself to see if there is a voltage drop there.

I'm also working through my list of 'improvements' that I identified during the first year of usage.

One item being some additional storage space in the cabin. I found a whole bunch of 'dead space' behind the forward cabin wall, which is under the bow seating area. So, I modified the access panel (black panel in pictures), giving it a fairly large cut-out. Then I added a picture-hanging cleat and some velcro for quick removal of the backrest cushion.


.

.

.

.
There is more storage space forward of the cabin wall than there is in the cabin . . . should come in handy as the cabin was always filled with stuff.

 

[alldodge]

As time goes along and you find that your mileage is dropping might want to check those spaces and just how much stuff ya got in there