Xantrex Pathmaker remote failure

[jviss]

Well, like most of the electrical and electronic things I bought new back in 2000 when I refurb'd the boat, the remote control for my Pathmaker battery combiner has failed.

At least, I think it's the remote that has failed, and I think it's just the switch.

The Pathmaker is a fairly robust battery combiner with two huge relays and voltage sensing controls. It was in the $250 neighborhood.

The remote is a small, overpriced unit ($100+) that connects via a telephone cord, and is "potted" - meaning it is encapsulated in epoxy, so it is not repairable (nor easily reverse engineered).

The remote allows one to put the Pathmaker into disabled mode, automatic mode, or, via a momentary position on the double-thro toggle, put it in "forced connect" mode, which bridges all the batts for 5 minutes.

I wish I knew what was in the potted assembly so I could replicate it with a more reliable switch.

Does anyone know?

Thanks,

jv

 

[Stu Jackson]

"disabled mode, automatic mode, or, via a momentary position on the double-thro toggle, put it in "forced connect" mode, which bridges all the batts for 5 minutes."

For field repair:

Disabled mode: you could put a toggle switch in the ground wire, like I did with our WM combiner

auto - if it still works normally when when you bridge the remote, then the relay is working, you're done

forced connect - put another toggle in wired around the relay and turn it off manually after five minutes


jvss - I like the 5 minute feature, but with our reserve bank used just that way, it's always full except for some periods where I charge it up, i.e., it's not always being charged when we're charging the house bank and in most cases my "combiner off" toggle switch is positioned to not charge the reserve bank.

So, it depends a lot on how you use your combiner and how much you liked the 5 minute thing, if you used it.

In retrospect, if the combiner failed, I'd replace it with a simple switch. Actually we do, the one on the ground leg of the combiner!!! Think about it...

We have our alternator output wired directly to the house bank, so the 1-2-B switch only is used for determining the battery bank output choice. In the old days, when the AO was wired to the 1-2-B switch, the combiner made a lot of sense. These days, a simple switch would do to replace a combiner to charge the reserve bank, primarily because the combiner is not current limiting. What we do is keep the combiner off most of the time and only charge the reserve bank rarely because it doesn't need much of a charge -- we use the house bank to do everything, including starting the engine, as discussed so well by Maine Sail here on this board. If we had a current limiting echo charger, I'd probably do the same thing.

In summary, with the AO to the house bank, a simple switch, instead of a more expensive combiner or echo charger, would serve the purpose very well. A battery monitor or at least a check of the reserve bank voltage, would show that the fully charged reserve bank will hold a useful charge to serve as an emergency, reserve, backup bank for months.

If I knew then what i know now...