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Originally Posted by Fish'n John
My system is pretty close to the drawing you posted. The Dual Phase II book says to remove the series connection between the 2 aux batteries. This was done. It also says their unit ..."is equipped with internal series/parallel switching. Therefore all other series connections must be removed or severe damage may result..." There are two output connections on the side of the charger, one for 12v and one for 24v. The 24v is hooked up to the trolling motor.
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OK, it sounds like the charging system is putting the batts in parallel (neg to neg, pos to pos) to charge them (simultaneously) off a single 12V tap. Then when the charger isn't charging it connects them in series to make a 24V system. While I suspect NB is correct (you'll need to see a pro) let's try to do a little simple, non-destructive testing to see what's working and what's not.
To that end disconnect the trolling motor from the system, leaving the charger and batts as shown in the diagram (minus the jumper btw the batts, remove that per the instructions). That should give you 4 wires from the charger to the batts. With the charger off, measure the voltage (seems you know how to do this) between the neg on "batt 2" and the pos on the other batt. It should be 24V if my thinking above is correct. Turn the charger on and see if it's now 12V. Indeed a measurement from the neg of any batt to the pos of any batt should be 12V (again assuming I'm correct above). If the above works then the charger would seem to be doing it's job. My concern is that it might not be coming out of the "charge configuration".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fish'n John
When I noticed the trolling motor slowing down, I checked the voltage at these terminals. Both read 12v.
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I assume you measured as above, from the neg of batt 1 (in the pic) to the pos of batt1 and then also to the pos of batt2 (from the neg of batt 1) ? I'm a little unsure of where to where you measured.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fish'n John
When I tried to hook the batteries up directly, I bypassed the charger as shown in your solid lines using the wires that were installed from the tr. motor to the charger. I smoked the wires and burned out a 30A fuse. I put in heavier wires (#8) and a 60A fuse. The motor ran at 24V until I melted the connection from my boat to the trolling motor. This told me that the motor was never set up properly and that I only had 12v from the start.
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I'm a little confused as to what you did. Did you remove the charger completely and have the batts connected to each other (re-install the jumper btw the batts) and the trolling motor (controller) as shown in the pic (solid lines = wires you had, no wires coresponding to the dashed lines) ? This certainly should have given your motor 24V, assuming the batts are good and the connections are good and the wires big enough for the current. On this latter point ... what wires were in the system when you got it ? Was this all working at some point in time ? The #8 wires should be OK, assuming they're not overly long as I'd expect your motor to draw less than 30A. Which leads me to suspect something isn't right in your motor/controller. It shouldn't have popped the 30A fuse nor melted anything (I'm assuming the motor plug/socket is really clean). I have a suspicion that your motor is somehow setup for 12V, not 24V, operation. Not to be too stupid but how sure are you that it's a 24V motor ? Is there any chance that the motor has a 12V option (ie - can it be wired to use 12V or 24V) ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fish'n John
At this point I got a little gun shy and have been trying to get some professional help...
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I don't blame you. I'd be a little concerned about popping 30A fuses and melting wires !
Still it's best the divide and conquer these type of problems. First make sure the batts are both good and not just at no load conditions. Make sure the connections are all clean and tight. Try to see if it's the charger or the motor that's the problem. It appears you've already thought along these lines ! If there's no other way to connect or configure the motor/controller (12 vs 24 V) then it's time to pay the pro.