battery connections help

[Trav White]

My 2 batteries were shot, and in my haste in the rain with 4 kids, I made a rookie mistake. As I disconnected my batteries, I didn't have any tape, so I tied the connections with string, thinking I could just hook them back up. Wrong. When I put the batteries (2 group 29s) under the port side seat, the cables all slipped out. I managed to connect the 2 in parallel, which are connected to a Perko 1-all-2 switch, so the motor works.

My 2 questions are:
1. I also have a Guest Charge Pro charger with 2 red wires and one black wire. I assume the reds go to positive and the black to only one negative terminal, since they are in parallel?

2. I have a flat white wire that encloses a red and yellow wire. I am assuming this is my DC circuit that runs the lights and 12V plugs. I tried both ways, but the lights won't come on. How do I hook these up?

[Craig LaForce]

No clue, since those were probably added by an owner.

But if you still have the original white plastic fusr holder for the wire to the lights, it might have been bumps and lost contact. That fuse holder is very substandard, and should be repalced with a better one if it has not already been replaced.

[DLT]

1 - Your charger only has three wires? Well, ok, I guess... It sounds like it is a two bank charger designed to charge two battery banks, with a common ground. So, I assume then that you treat your two batteries as separate banks with a common ground. That means that you should connect one of the charger's red wires to the POS terminal of one of the batteries and the other red wire to the POS terminal of the other battery. You will also need to connect the two NEG terminals of both batteries together and connect the yellow wire to either (as they would then be connected as a common ground).

2 - The flat wire sounds like standard MacGregor wiring. The yellow wire should be connected to the common ground. The red wire should be connected to the common terminal on your switch. Note that the 1 terminal on your switch is probably supposed to be connected to one of the POS battery terminals and the 2 terminal on your switch probably should be connected to the other POS bettery terminal.

Final note, I believe what I've described is pretty much the standard way to connect what you describe. This lets you charge the batteries with the Guest charger, regardless of the switch position and lets you control which battery is used to power the lights and such. But, there are other ways to connect this stuff, and without actually seeing what you have and finding out how you want things to work, I can't be sure which you'd prefer.

[Trav White]

Thanks for all the help. After spending about 2 hours tracing lines, I realized that I had a white/white wire going to the Pos and Neg bars on my fuse box panel. Here I was looking for red/yellow! It looks like the white/white is standard Macgregor wiring and my Red/yellow is after market installation for 12V outlets. One white wire was connected to the common on the Perko switch, so I connected the other side to a POS terminal, thinking POS is POS. I simply moved the white wire from POS to NEG, now everything works fine!

I just hope new Macs have the standardized red/yellow.

[atzserv]

I hope someone can help me get the light in my head to come on.

I bought a perko 1-all-2 switch. I only have the one battery that the boat came with. I installed the switch and have all the black wires ((-)negative, common) going to the neg on the battery. The Pos cable on the battery is going to the Pos on the switch (No 1 position right now). Everything works either as On or Off when I turn the switch to position No1.

I understand the 2 batteries get a cable from the neg to the neg. The 2 pos cables go to each connection 1 and 2 on the switch.

When the com connection on the perko switch is mentioned this is where I get confused. Is the com on the switch for the ((-)negative, common (black) wires)? I mean do any and all (negative (-) , common) wires terminate here?

I guess what I am trying to figure out is what the switch is doing inside.

I want the (house) No2 position to run everything when the motor is off.

I am getting the additional cables and another battery really soon and just needed some clarification.

Thanks in advance,

Gary

[tangentair]

Forget the black or ground or negative wires, they are common that is they are all electrical the same point.

Now think of a Y with the 1 in the upper left, the 2 in the upper right and the both in the bottom. the switch is in the fork. The potential (or for simplicity the voltage) flows from the top of the Y to the bottom. When battery 1 is select the switch passes its voltage on to the bottom output to be used in the circuits, when battery 2 is selected the same occurs, when both are selected the switch selects both - this put both batteries together combining their potentials (if one is significantly lower than the other then the higher battery will "charge" the lower through the switch, just like when you jump a car. Hope this helps PM me if you need to.

[Mike Ford]

The "common" terminal on the "1-all-2 switch" goes to the motor positive lead so that the motor starter and motor charging output can be switched to the battery on terminal 1 or the battery on terminal 2 or both.

[atzserv]

Mike,

Thanks, I have had Tangentair walking through this with me and he was great.

I think perko would have faired alot better calling this common anything else. Common too closely refers to the negative side of electricity to me.

I did hook up a switch once like a plug outlet and remember the excitement when I turned it on. Bet it would be something with 2 large current batteries.

Thanks for the input, I was chasing some new magical electrical connection. I just needed to remember a switch is a "switch".

Gary

[Boblee]

Trav the normal colour code for positive and negative is red and black here so we just consider white to be black and Aussies will argue white is black till the cows come home

Mike
I think the normal would be for common to go to your circuits as Tang said, this way the motor will charge it's battery as a separate circuit and you can have other charging including solar panels on your house battery/s but by switching you can isolate your house circuits or connect to either battery bank and also charge all or either battery.
At least thats how mine works

[Kelly Hanson East]

just hope new Macs have the standardized red/yellow.

Thats just funny....

[Mike Ford]

Boblee,

Based on my recent reseach to install a second battery using a 1-all-2 switch :

The "common" terminal on the "1-all-2 switch" goes to the motor positive lead so that the motor starter and motor charging output can be switched to the battery on terminal 1 or the battery on terminal 2 or both.

The house load would often be connected to circuit on terminal 2 so that the house load only uses the dedicated house battery. The switch allows battery 2 connection to the "common terminal" for emergency starting or charging by the motor.

Alternately the house load can be connected to the "common terminal" so that the house load and starter can be switched to either battery.

In either case above manual operation of the switch is requird to keep both batteries charged by the motor. An electronic battery combiner can be added to combine the batteries during charging so one does not need to do the manual switching.

For my installation I have my house load on terminal 2 circuit. I do not have the electronic combiner but I have a dual bank shore powered charger that keeps both batteries charged. If I were away from shore power and needed to charge by the motor I could switch both batteries in while the motor is running but must remember to switch back.