Mystery Switch

[Jon Bastien]

Hello everyone,

I have just purchased a 2000 Hunter 290, and I'm still getting familiar with all if it's quirks... Some from the factory, and others introduced by previous owners.

The boat has some electrical gremlins, but this one has me baffled. Can anyone identify the purpose for the switch circled in the attached photo?

Thanks,
--Jon Bastien
H290 'Just Enough'

 

[Ron20324]

Strobe light on the top of the mast?

 

[kappykaplan]

Do you have a tri-color at the top of the mast?

 

[Peggie Hall HeadMistress]

Appears to be a keyed switch...

If it is, it's prob'ly the switch for a macerator to dump the waste holding tank at sea. The $64 question: did you get the key?

If it's not a keyed switch, that's prob'ly not what it's for.

 

[sailaway78]

I think

I think what you have is a masthead anchor and steaming light. With the switch on steaming, you only have the front half lit. With it on anchor, you have both halves lit, and a 360 degree light. I have a similar setup, but have two serperate switches.

 

[Jon Bastien]

Thanks for the replies!

@Ron/Kappy: I haven't had a look at the lights at the masthead yet; I'm not sure if there's a tri-color or strobe up there. I don't believe there is, but it's difficult to check- The aforementioned gremlins include a short to ground in my running lights, and I don't trust any of the mast wiring.

@Peggie: There's a macerator aboard, but it has its own circuit breaker and button at the panel. (That's not a keyed switch, btw- Just a standard toggle.)

@Nice N Easy: There are already separate switches for the anchor and steaming lights, but it's possible that it's a switch between an anchor light and a tri-color?..

It may be helpful, so I'm attaching a picture of the full panel (so you can see what other switches are there).

Thanks again for the replies! We'll get this figured out yet...

--Jon

 

[seadaddler]

Tuffy

It was add by the PO for sure and not from Hunter and so open the panel and you will need to trace where the wires go to if that is at all possible other wise you will go crazy.
I had a 2001 290 and that boat has most needed circuit breakers for every thing needed and that switch was added for some thing by the PO like maybe a light
.Nick

 

[Ron20324]

Operate it and see what happens. Maybe a horn. Is the top an 'on', and the bottom a momentary contact?

 

[seadaddler]

Exhaust Blower

My 2001 290 did have an exhaust blower so maybe a blower or a fan in cabin or light but unless you hear or see some thing when it is used you will need to follow where the wires go.
Nick

 

[Forrest15112]

Nitrous oxide switch- for motor sailing.

 

[kloudie1]

Just looking at it and the location and the pictogram, it looks like a steady light or a flashing light selector?? maybe for the anchor light or a selector to select anchor or strobe??

 

[Bob S]

How about asking the PO.

 

[zeehag]

looks like could hbe a rheostat or a sail raising switch--i have seen electric switch sail raising on some hunters in this marina.... gooodluck and hope y e find out-- didja try it yet???? not a bad idea, do it at night whenye can see any differences....

 

[Jon Bastien]

Hello all,

Thanks for all your suggestions! I was hoping someone had seen the pictogram on the switch, and knew specifically what it was. I especially liked Forrest's answer, but I'm not sure NO2 is a good thing for Diesel engines...

Anyway, I did some digging behind the panel. The mystery switch is a 2-position switch, with a black and yellow wire attached. The black leads to ground, and the yellow leads to a small circuit board wrapped in heat-shrink tubing.

Also coming out of the heat shrink are 4 other wires. A red wire leads to the Anchor Light breaker (load side), a white wire leads to the Steaming Light breaker (load side), and the other two wires (I forget the colors) lead to the Anchor and Steaming lights.

MY BEST GUESS... is that this switch/circuit board is in place to turn the combined steaming/anchor light into a blinker (strobe).

Now for the really screwy part. The supply side of the Steaming light breaker is wired to the load side of the Anchor light breaker-- Meaning the steaming light can't get power unless the Anchor light is turned on (Yes, I know, this is backwards-- I didn't do it!). Since I haven't had a chance to try the lights at night yet, it is entirely possible that the breakers are mis-labelled... but based on the other electrical gremlins, I'm not holding my breath.

Now to hunt down the short in the running lights...

 

[CarlN]

OK. I'm really guessing.

A common trick when have two masthead lights and only two wires going up the mast is to install diodes at the top of the mast. At the bottom you set up switches so that you can swap the polarity on the two mast wires. Depending on which way you set the polarity the diodes make a different light come on.

While I guess this could be done with a strobe, I've always seen it done when there's a tricolor and an anchor light at the top of the mast. You never want more than one on. Is there a chance you have a tricolor up there?

What I don't understand is the steaming light label. Is there a chance that they just didn't have a label for "tricolor" so the PO used a "steaming" label for the tricolor?

I agree it's very confusing.

Carl

 

[Jon Bastien]

Mystery solved! ...Sort of

Made it to the boat in twilight hours, so I could actually see what was going on at the top of the mast... It's a combination anchor/tri-color lamp with LED bulbs.

Unfortunately, though, the wiring is very screwy, and makes little sense at all to me. If I switch on:
Anchor Light switch by itself: Nothing.
Steaming light switch by itself: Anchor light.
Steaming light switch combined with Anchor light switch: Tri-color.

Mystery switch: Absolutely no effect whatsoever. May be a photosensor?

And, the real kicker... I can't see any way to configure it for a steaming lamp, and thus, the boat doesn't have one.

On the up-side, I figured out the problem with the running lights! It seems the circuit breaker is defective. They're now wired to the windlass breaker (until I can replace the other one).

 

[Rick D]

Re: Mystery solved! ...Sort of

OK, this sounds like a ground wire mystery that will take a combination of switches to figure out. IMHO Play with it a while and let us know. Seriously.

 

[CarlN]

OK. I think you have several things going on.

Is there also a strobe on that tricolor? You can use the reverse polarity trick to drive a tricolor, anchor light, and strobe with just three wires.

In your picture, the steaming light breaker label looks partially unstuck. It may have been moved. If that breaker used to say "tricolor", things make more sense. Some other labels also have different fonts like they were changed.

I'm not sure your running light breaker is really broken. Remember that you want the steaming light on only when you also have the running lights on and are under power. Look at the back of the running light breaker. Does it get it's supply from a common bus or from another breaker?

I would trace the steaming light wire from the mast (try powering it first to see if the bulb is OK). It's the place to start unraveling this mystery.

If I had to bet, I'd say that the top breaker used to say "tricolor", the mystery switch turned on the strobe (which might be broken), the "steaming light" was another breaker, and then the PO tried to "fix" things somewhere along the line by rewiring. :bang:

Carl

 

[Jon Bastien]

Clarifications and conclusions

After some digging with the wiring diagrams in the manual and poking around behind the panel, I've come to the following tentative conclusions:

- The PO changed the existing 2-bulb masthead light (Steam/Anchor) with an LED combination tri-color/Anchor light, and got rid of the steaming light altogether. I haven't found any combo lights that include Anchor/Steaming/Tri-color in one unit; I'm confident that the one on my mast probably isn't unique. Best guess is that the PO intended to use the anchor light for steaming (and display an extra white to stern). I know this is illegal, but I've seen it on quite a few boats around here.

- The circuit breaker for the nav lights is definitely bad. It wasn't connected to the masthead spaghetti in any way; even with the load wires disconnected, it will not stay in the on position. In fact, the switch stopped 'tripping' and is simply loose in its housing now (won't reset). I moved the load (lights) to the windlass breaker (a lower amperage breaker, and I don't have a windlass on the boat- there was nothing else connected to it). Bow and stern lights function as they should now, other than being mis-labeled at the panel.

- Carl's right about the labels being moved, but there's no label underneath the Steaming Light label- Just a hole for the backlight. Several breakers have been moved from their factory-installed positions on the panel (It's amazing what you discover when you RTFM).

- All of the breakers except the one labelled 'steaming' get their power from a common bus. When I first started looking, the steaming light's source side was connected to the anchor light's load side- so the steaming light breaker would not have power unless the anchor light was switched on. (I intend to source the power for the 'steaming' breaker from the running lights, once I get the masthead lighting/mystery switch sorted out.)

- Given the number of other electrical gremlins aboard (my AC outlets are only producing 84 volts, but I have 115 at the panel... My tach and fuel gauges don't work (but the hour meter does!)... the LED indicators on the breaker panel are hit-or-miss... the refrigeration unit doesn't seem to work...), I intend to ring out ALL of the onboard wiring. I suspect I'll be 'fixing' quite a bit more as time goes on. (Btw Rick, I think you're right- There's a grounding issue somewhere.)

Thanks again to all for your comments! As soon as I know what's what, I'll post a definitive answer.