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September 28, 2005
DC Hell
If you read my Santander Race report you will know that my father and I experienced quite a few problems with our electronics. I spent some considerable time, money and effort resolving them and figured I would share with you my findings.
At the start of the race we lost every instrument! Everything just died. In Santander we pulled the switch panel apart and discovered that the rear of each switch panel had been heavily eroded. Water had somehow got itself into the area and done its worst. One panel was badly burnt, a result of a previous owner’s exclusive use of 10amp fuses no doubt. We managed to get all the important stuff on the one semi good panel and disconnected the other.
Even running on the one panel we had issues, The NKE system would only work with the engine running. With the engine running we noticed that the system reported a little over 12 volts of charge (should have read about 13.7 volts). With the engine off the system reported that the battery level dropped to just under 11 volts. Back home with shore power on we managed to get the system to report a 13.1 volts.
Blaming the problem of the remaining dodgy panel I purchased 2 new switch panels ripped out the old ones and carefully installed the new ones in. In doing so we also managed to find the wires for the compass lights and finally got them working. HOORAH!! My father would no longer sail in circles!
Unfortunately even with the new panels installed nothing worked correctly. Volt meters were used extensively and every cable end was remade, crimped and insulated. Nothing made a difference.
I purchased some very expensive boat cable and rewired large chunks of the system. I arrived with a single reel of cable and pulled out 2 large bags full of redundant old cable. The NKE bus was originally wired using chocolate block connectors, my father and I had never liked them so I purchased some spade connector blocks. The new spade connector blocks would now in effect become the bus and I would connect each instrument accordingly.
My 1st observation came when I connected the NKE remote. As the bus was initialised with the remote connected it reset itself and lost its master.
The 2nd observation came when I connected the mast head wind unit. As it was connected the entire bus voltage dropped. Without it the system voltages where correct, with it nearly to volts were lost. With the engine running or the shore power connected while the mast head unit was wired into the bus the whole connector block got very warm.
After a quick conversation with NKE tech support we agreed a new cable was required. It turned out that the cable was a special (& expensive) NKE cable. A new remote and cable were ordered.
A week later it all turned up and I winched my father to the top of the mast. We used the existing cable to pull a mouse through for the new cable. As we pulled the old cable out we discovered that the main halyard had been rubbing on the wire and had cut its way through the cable creating a big mess and huge short.
With the new cable in place and remote installed I switched on the bus. Everything worked.
Phew...
Posted by ninjod at September 28, 2005 03:15 PM