Hello, I have recently begun a Victron power system conversion on my 2007 hunter 45cc. I removed to old inverter charger today and installed a Victron multi-plus II. Once I had everything connected correctly I turned the AC power back on at the breakers in the aft cabin, but the inverter/charger does not seem to be getting any power. The batteries in the boat were nearly dead, and I jumped them thinking that maybe the low voltage was stopping some relay from switching. Unfortunately that did not seem to fix the AC power issue. Does anyone know why I wouldn’t be getting AC power through the AC pannel since removing the battery charger? I even removed the pannel cover and attempted to get a reading with a Multimeter but no luck. The panel above the nav station still reads 120v as normal. Thanks for any help you can provide!
Help with Hunter 45 CC AC power.
- Thread starter S/VPainkiller
- Start date
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 23,398
The 2 thoughts
- the connection is not done correctly. Look back to your wires.
- Where do the lines from the meter (showing 120V) go?
In addition to turning on the breakers, there is a battery charger switch on the control panel. This controls a DC relay in the breaker box
Did you turn this on?
Without 12v, this relay won’t energize, so battery voltage is essential
so who at Hunter decided this was a good idea.... kill your battery plug into shore power and nothing happens since there is no 12v to energize the relay ... you have to drag in a car charger and an extension cord and give the batteries and independent jolt .... dumb idea
Anyway i've always wondered where that relay was sounds like it's built into the breaker box vs say the invertor charger or mounted some where way under the floor. Can it be removed? can a manually controlled switch be put in?
Ok, here is an explanation
The “clunking “ sound that you are hearing are some 50 Amp relays that connect either shore or genset onto the AC bus.
There are some (much smaller) relays that control the large ones.
The small relays have 12vdc coils, because they are controlled by the small rocker switch on the panel which selects “shore” or “genset”
So, here’s the topology…
The rocker switch controls 2 DC coil relays. Then, the contacts on these DC relays are used to select AC coil relays, which then energize one of the 2 50 amp relays (which have AC coils)
Essentially, they are isolating the rocker switch, and have it control a LV dc load, instead of running 120v to it.
Firstly, it’s safer.
But, it also gave a way of controlling LV leds (shore or genset) from the rocker switch.
So, you need 12vdc to power the isolation relays.
If you look at the schematic with this explanation in mind, it will make sense
Hope that helps….
Art ... I will say it explains their thinking and why it's wired the way it is ... but I still find the set up crazy.... With a little thinking I suspect a smart engineer could have come up with a user friendly switch that allowed some one to turn on the shore power or generator when the batteries were dead.
Oh well at this point I'm used to it and manage my batteries to avoid it
Oh well at this point I'm used to it and manage my batteries to avoid it
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Funny you should say that…
On the Blue Seas ACR they installed, there was actually an “override switch”, which permitted you to join engine start to house.
Not sure why, but BS dropped this option from their current ACR line.
I did have a “dead house” situation awhile ago, and used this to get my charger back online.
But, I took some precautions..
I disconnected all of my house batteries except one. I thought it would be too large of a current dump, and once things were running, I reconnected them one at a time
Quite honestly, the electrical eng. on the large hunters is excellent. I knew the designer at Hunter quite well, and he was very competent
Trouble shooting some electrical issues on my 2007 45cc. I can not get my low voltage led's to work (confirmed they are not burned out) either shore or genset. In addition lv to hot water heater relay has no power. I thought the heater was the lv relay specific to the heater, but that is confirmed good. It appears that I'm not getting any power out of the "big" relays in the distribution panel. Any idea - I do have a replacement of that on order just in case. However, there is a separate one of those for the genset. Orange and green between control and distribution panel on one relay for shore power and brown to another one for genset. So could both relays have failed or is something else upstream causing the no power to those relays?
If your charger or outlets are working, then you are getting AC power.
You’ll have to meter this out. I suspect it will be obvious at that point
I assume you're hitting the shore-power switch at the nav station that selects No power, shore power or generator.
If you move that switch to shore power and do not hear the loud click, then your contactors are not activating to connect the power to the inverter. If you have the power distribution panel open behind the port side dinette seat, you can use an AC Voltage detector by placing it near the contacts at the contactor and see if you have power there. It's possible that a) your contactor is bad or b) you are not getting low voltage through your nav station control panel, so when you throw the switch, it activates the contactor. The contactor should have a 12V DC coil connected to the nav station panel. I believe those wires come in on the left and right side of the contactor in the middle (between top/bottom), with the shore power 120V AC at the bottom and the ships power at the very top.
If you move that switch to shore power and do not hear the loud click, then your contactors are not activating to connect the power to the inverter. If you have the power distribution panel open behind the port side dinette seat, you can use an AC Voltage detector by placing it near the contacts at the contactor and see if you have power there. It's possible that a) your contactor is bad or b) you are not getting low voltage through your nav station control panel, so when you throw the switch, it activates the contactor. The contactor should have a 12V DC coil connected to the nav station panel. I believe those wires come in on the left and right side of the contactor in the middle (between top/bottom), with the shore power 120V AC at the bottom and the ships power at the very top.