Ahhh. I think I understand now. The battery in question had been part of the house bank, but powering the genset's starter caused the voltage to drop too low. Now, you are using that battery only as a starter battery so starting the genset doesn't affect anything else. That makes sense. Is the genset supposed to recharge its starter battery (like a car recharges its battery)? If so, I doubt you need anything else. If not, I see why you would want to use the Xantrex. Information I just found on the web for the Xantrex Echo shows it has only 3 wires, so if you connect it to charge the starter battery from the house bank, you will have connected the grounds together.
Pat
--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, Steve Dolan <sdolan@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Pat,
> "IT" was the Genset start draw on the battery (At the time the house bank). The electronics would temporarily shut down do to power draw on the bank. I also didn't understand why it would make a difference. Hope that helps clear "it" up. :o) As for the second part of the question I wasn't sure if the Genset battery would charge without a combined ground to the house bank. When I'm done I'll have a complete set of diagrams for the next owner, something few boats/manufactures provide at the start and always a good idea for electrics.
>
> Again thanks!
> Steve
> 410SE Lagoon Electric Cat
>
> Hi Steve,
> I will try to answer your question, but I am a little unsure of your situation. Can you draw a schematic or block diagram? If the "it" in your second sentence is the battery, I don't see how it was causing all kinds of problems with electronics. Or was "it" the genset? Since there is no "real" ground in most boats, you don't "need" to connect the grounds of isolated systems together. However, you might want to in order to avoid confusion later on if someone not familar with your boat starts changing things or adding equipment.
>
> Pat
>
>
> --- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, Steve Dolan <sdolan@> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Since I only got a "because" answer elsewhere I thought I would ask this question here.
> > I dedicated a single battery from the genset. Before it was from my house pack and was causing all kinds of problems with the electronics on start-up. I isolated the ground and power only from the genset but was told I needed to combine the grounds. Since the Genset is used exclusively to charge the propulsion bank on long runs and the alternator is used just for the Genset battery. Why would the grounds need to be combined?
> >
> > Now I'm thinking of installing a Xantrex Echo charger to run from the house bank to the genset battery. Does there need to be a ground connected between the 2 batteries?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Steve
> > 410SE Lagoon Electric Cat
> >
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
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