Re: [electricboats] Motor not powering up

Good point Matthew. 

When I turn the key to power up my sevcon you can hear the contactor pulling in. If you're not hearing the click, it's not pulling in.  I'm not at my boat but I thought there's also an inline fuse between the contactor & control on the low voltage side.

Bob

On Sun, Sep 13, 2020, 5:45 PM Matthew Geier <matthew@sleeper.apana.org.au> wrote:

Is the contactor even pulling in ?

I have a completely different system, but my contactor has a resistor across it (pre-charge) so when the contactor is open, there is a voltage there. The resistor is to trickle charge the input capacitors on the motor controller DC supply. Most designs have them. The resistors allow the capacitors to slowly ramp up volts instead of a large current suge through them when the contactor pulls in cold.

I have had a main contactor fail. They might look sealed, they are not. I assume moisture corroded the contacts or the connections to the coil corroded.

On Mon, 14 Sep 2020 at 05:14, Larry Brown <elcapitanbrown@gmail.com> wrote:

Definitely solid Green.  It's the only light I see on the sevcon too.

On Sun, Sep 13, 2020 at 3:07 PM Ryan Sweet <ryan@ryansweet.org> wrote:

Are you sure the light on the sevcon isn't blinking an error condition? I would think it's low voltage error would trigger if there were only 10v coming from the contactor. 

On Sep 13, 2020, at 11:51, Larry Brown <elcapitanbrown@gmail.com> wrote:



Reading up it seems I could leave the throttle in (off position) run a screwdriver across the Line and Terminal contacts and should see the clearview showing the correct voltage to confirm the contactor is not fully engaged?  I'm unsure as to why it isn't simply 53V or 0V on the Terminal side to the controller.  Seems it would act like a physical switch and either be on or off...  But bridging the two with no load seems like it shouldn't hurt.

Larry

On Sun, Sep 13, 2020 at 2:13 PM Larry Brown via groups.io <elcapitanbrown=gmail.com@groups.io> wrote:

I went down to the boat yesterday to clean the bottom and figured I'd run the motor a little to keep that warm and fuzzy feeling that I'm ready to go when I need to and no warmth or fuzz to be had.  Turning the key on to activate the Sevcon caused the sevcon green light to illuminate and the Clearview screen to come on.  However, the clearview shows 00 for voltage.  My battery monitor clearly shows the voltage at 54V (48V system).  When I check the lead going into the contactor to ground I get 53V but on the lead coming out of the contactor going to the controller I'm readying approximate 10V.  I suspect this is the culprit?  Or is there a reason the lead between the contactor and the controller would read low?  

Looking at the contactor it looks like it's a sealed/waterproof unit (From the Thunderstruck kit, or at least water resistent).  All wires nuts are tight on their wire leads from both incoming wire from the battery bank and outgoing wire to the controller and the two that run to the key switch.  It's in a dry spot and I've run the motor maybe a dozen times in the 2 years I've had the equipment.  (my project was on hold).  There is no apparent corrosion externally whatsoever so I'm not sure what could have caused it to fail.  We are not far away from the lightning capital of the country (Lakeland Fla) but I don't see any charred marks on anything, the solar charge controller is working fine.  Are contactors flaky parts or parts that I should always have a spare available for?  I really thought having such a simple system that's relatively new that was working as advertised would be doing so for quite a while.  Glad I found out at the dock when I didn't need to move the vessel :-P

Thanks in advance for anything you guys can offer as advice.

Larry

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Larry Brown

S/V Trident

Palm Harbor, FL

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Larry Brown

S/V Trident

Palm Harbor, FL

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Larry Brown

S/V Trident

Palm Harbor, FL

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