Blue Sea ACR Batttery Charge Regulator question

[windypatrick]

I've installed a Blue Sea ACR. Currently it is in using the quick install schematic, I only just this weekend connected it AND ran a wire from the start swithc console to the area the ACR lives in. The swithc wire is not connected yet.

The LED is flashing. the rate is about twice a second (2 Hz) is that the slow or the fast on this chart? Anybody...Anybody?

I am running two house and one start battery, The Blue Sea M2 monitor sez everything is fine...thought?

Thanks folks in advance.

[Starscream]

To me, 2 hz is a fast flash indicating under voltage on one battery bank. Should be easy to test.

If you remove the start isolation wire from the ACR terminal and watch the blinking, you can eliminate it as the source of the problem if the flashing continues.

Did you put those big 90A or 100A breakers that you need in the connections from the ACR to the batteries?

I have the same ACR. I can post the wiring diagram that I used, or photos, if you like, tomorrow tho. I did not wire in the start isolation function.

[windypatrick]

Thanks for the hint, yest I put those huge fuses and fuse blocks and #6 wire on; thanks for asking. I also have a manual crossover on a larger M series switch with 2/0 wire.

Please share your schematic if it is convenient. For me, this is an entire re-wire.

Best Regards,
P

[Starscream]

This is more or less what I did.

The start isolation wire has been run to the console, but never connected. Also, I didn't actually put an off switch in the ACR negative line, and the batteries were fine over the winter. And I put in 100A breakers instead of the 90A ones I originally planned.

The factory fuse-panel is nowhere near enough for all the extras I have...fans, water pump, USB ports everywhere, toilet macerator, Propane/CO2 detector, bilge pumps, anchor light, horn, etc. so I put a bus bar wired from the selector switch under the galley, and fused each individual line coming off the bus bar. It started out looking good but has grown into a bit of a rat's nest unfortunately. I at least STARTED labelling the individual wires and fuse sizes.



I snuck the ACR into the battery compartment, not worrying about the possibility of a massive hydrogen gas explosion.

[macowneril2015]

So I have 2 multiple purpose batteries an ACR, remote bus and remote fuse panel, where would I need separate fuses / how do you size the fuses?

Also on your where did you install your bilge and where is the discharge? This has been on my list for a long time to do.

[BOAT]

What's an ACR? What does it do?

[Starscream]

Our bilge pump is under the galley. Discharge runs up to a plastic through-hull, also under the galley, that is mounted as high up as possible. You can get it up over the chine. I kept the check "valve" in the discharge line because I've had the windows under water, so the bilge pump thru-hull would also be under in those conditions. It is wired to a Auto/off/on switch mounted to the side of the galley, and I actually decided to wire it not directly to the batteries, but to the selector switch so that it's off when the batteries are off.

I have another low-profile bilge pump that I'm going to mount on the other side, under the ice box. I'll plumb it the same way, but I might just wire it directly to the batteries.

Fusing is an art. Russ gave me the idea (too late) that I should have used something like this: https://www.ecosia.org/images/?q=blue%2 ... 6A343CFF04. Currently I have bus bars, also under the galley, epoxied to the fiberglass between the galley space and the little seat beside the companionway. Each time I add something I put an inline fuse from the bus bar, sized according to the device's requirements. If I want an on/off switch for the device, I'll add it separately. It started out as a wire or two but it's grown to a bit of a rat's nest.

[windypatrick]

FWIW, I've enclosed a rough schemetic for Dragonfly, The Blues Sea downloadable installation information includes a chart to help you select fuse size. They will be large.

[BOAT]

When you get the boat from the factory there is no ACR - there is not even a charger.

The batteries are just connected to the motor.

So the motor charges the batteries - does the motor have an ACR? If you need ACR to charge the batteries what happens when you just running the motor? When all the charge power is coming from the motor alternator (like the factory set up) is that okay?

[Russ]

When you get the boat from the factory there is no ACR - there is not even a charger.

The batteries are just connected to the motor.

So the motor charges the batteries - does the motor have an ACR? If you need ACR to charge the batteries what happens when you just running the motor? When all the charge power is coming from the motor alternator (like the factory set up) is that okay?

ACR= Automatic Charging Relays

It allows the "combining" of batteries for simultaneous charging when one battery is being charged.

eg: I have 2 batts.
1 - Dedicated motor
2 - House

When the motor is charging it combines them so BOTH batteries get charged. When motor shuts off, batteries are separated.

I thought you had once of these.

[BOAT]

I do? Okay, I was not sure, your probably right - I probably do have one of these and just don't know it.

I have a thing called a GUEST MODEL 2611 10 AMP ON BOARD BATTERY CHARGER with Two Outputs.

Maybe that IS an ACR and I don't know it. The instructions say:

The charger will supply 5 Amps to each battery output for a total of 10
Amps. When unequally discharged batteries are connected to the outputs, the charger
will automatically steer more current to the battery that needs it.

They call it a:

a “3-stage” electronic battery charger with two independent outputs. 2611 will not boil off the electrolytes in lead-acid batteries when left
unattended.

I do not understand any of the gobbledygook gook but it seems to do a good job taking care of the batteries (which were original to the boat) I finally replaced them last year.

So that might be an ACR - I guess - I will look around on it and see if it says ACR anywhere. I thought it was just a charger,

So if ACR is so important what happens if you don't have one?? Does the motor do ACR when it's charging? Does the motor alternator do all the stuff like in the graph attached too? Or will the alternator "boil off the electrolytes" like the instructions say other chargers do?

(Charger stuff is complicated - when I put solar in the van I had to install all kinds of strange charging things).

[Russ]

BOAT, from what I can tell, that is a charger ONLY. It is capable of charging both simultaneously from shore power.
It does NOT appear to be a combiner.

My boat came outfitted from BWY with a charger like that AND an ACR/combiner.

How are your batteries connected? Do you have an A/B switch?
This is all post OEM stuff as the factory has a single battery.

[BOAT]

'boat' came with two batteries and the perko switch. I guess when I think about it your right, that did not come from the factory, I guess Mike Inmonn must have done that when he sold me the boat.

So what does an ACR do? Is there a reason why I would want the batteries combined? (Whatever that means). IF the perko is set to ALL is that combined? I always wondered about that. My perko has a knob that selects battery 1 or battery 2 or ALL or OFF and something else I think I can't remember - I will try to get a picture of the perko.

Here it is:

[Starscream]

FWIW, I've enclosed a rough schemetic for Dragonfly, The Blues Sea downloadable installation information includes a chart to help you select fuse size. They will be large.

Ok, THREE batteries. That complicates things.
I don't pretend to understand your schematic, although I gave it a shot. My first comment is that it looks like a lot of on/off switches. Would some of those be better served with selector switches that could be left in "combined" mode? https://www.ecosia.org/images?q=blue+se ... 5E76C87DFA (like S4 and S5 for a specific example, couldn't those be a single combiner?)

You have a dual-bank battery charger, but it looks like you have to play with S-4 and S-5 to make sure it gets both house batteries? (Maybe you need a second ACR between these two batteries?) I only have two batteries, which simplifies things for me. I used to have a dual-bank battery charger but when I added the ACR I took the opportunity to downsize it to a single-bank charger that does both batteries through the ACR. Saved a bit of weight, space, some complexity, and a bit of wiring.

The ACR is there to allow BOTH the solar panels AND the engine alternator to charge both banks of batteries simultaneously. I can sort-of see how that might happen in your schematic, but it's not obvious to me.

Boat: you likely don't have an ACR: it's not a factory thing. The ACR has two positive lugs, each one connects to a positive terminals of one of the two batteries. The ACR has one negative lug that connects to one battery (but the negative terminals of the two batteries are connected together anyway, so the ACR is connected to both battery negatives). When the ACR senses a charging voltage on ONE of the battery terminals it allows the charging voltage to be delivered to BOTH batteries. That way you can charge BOTH batteries automatically by just running your engine or solar, instead of having to use the selector switch to determine which battery gets charged. When the ACR senses that one of the batteries is being discharged, it separates the two batteries automatically so that the selector switch governs which battery gets used.

WindyPatrick: I guess my question on your wiring diagram is: like I said to Boat above, the ACR is there so that you don't have to fiddle with switches to automatically charge both batteries from either your alternator, solar, or single-bank charger. Somehow your diagram makes me feel like you are still going to have to play with switches? But maybe that's just me not understanding. Actually, most likely that's me just not understanding. But isn't the point of the ACR to do things automatically?

[BOAT]

FWIW, I've enclosed a rough schemetic for Dragonfly, The Blues Sea downloadable installation information includes a chart to help you select fuse size. They will be large.

Boat: you likely don't have an ACR: it's not a factory thing. When the ACR senses a charging voltage on ONE of the battery terminals it allows the charging voltage to be delivered to BOTH batteries. That way you can charge BOTH batteries automatically by just running your engine or solar, instead of having to use the selector switch to determine which battery gets charged.

But I don't understand Starscream - My perko switch says "ALL" - doesn't that mean 'all' the batteries?



So if I have the perko set to 2 when the motor is on I am only charging battery 2, or if it's set to 1 I am only charging 1 - right?

I can tell you that I always set it to "ALL" before I start the motor and I never touch the switch if the motor is running because it says to not touch it on the switch when the motor is running or something like that - I dunno - I just never touch it when under power. I'm confused because Russ said the motor is charging both batteries at the same time. I guess that's true if I am set to 'all' batteries, right? That's why I do that but maybe it's not needed??

So do I still need ACR?