Re: [electricboats] Motor stopped, then was fine…. Any thoughts?

For the prop issue, when everything's fine, you can get a "feel" of how it is rotating by turning one of the pulleys by hand. If something gets stuck somewhere, you will know the difference in feel.

On Thursday, 5 August 2021, 00:23:25 GMT+8, Ryan Sweet <ryan@ryansweet.org> wrote:

I'm with you I feel like it must connection related and maybe just righted itself before I checked the meter, but I have tried to rule that out checking everything. 

It's almost a year old. There are four 48v 150ah lifepo4 powerwalls in parallel. 

Everything appears corrosion free (below deck inboard but sea air constantly, ventilated when on shore power, which is most of the time). 

I took it out again this morning just motoring, for a couple of hours, in heavy chop, at a fairly high draw (120a) and didn't notice any problem, which is only mildly reassuring. finding a problem so I could fix it would be more reassuring. 

I wonder if I caught something on the prop, and then later whatever it was came loose?

On Aug 4, 2021, at 08:24, Dan Pfeiffer <dan@pfeiffer.net> wrote:



I would check all connections. 

How long has this system been installed?  What sort of corrosion environment are you in?  A little corrosion on any of the connections could cause intermittent contact that could result in all sorts of problems.  Check them all.   Make sure they are clean and properly protected with contact grease.   Check all of them.

battery cables
controller to motor cables
throttle connector contacts
motor sensor connector contacts
temp sensor wire contacts
BMS contacts

What sort of battery bank do you have?  How many cable connections are there?  Any one of them could be a problem.   Would the controller scram if a battery contact in the middle of the pack had an intermittent contact problem?   Or a temp sensor contact?


Dan Pfeiffer

 

On 2021-08-04 6:56 am, Carsten via groups.io wrote:

 

Ok, seriously, not Windows !

 

80A could not be overheating.

 

William, did you record (or remember) any details of your motor "blackout" ?

Running it for extended time, at high power, or ?

Or just a dropout ?

Controller brand and type ?

 

On Wednesday, 4 August 2021, 19:11:50 GMT+8, William Heintz via groups.io <bheintz=hushmail.com@groups.io> wrote:

 

 

I've experienced a similar situation that I attributed to overheating.

> On Aug 4, 2021, at 01:46, Ryan Sweet <ryan@ryansweet.org> wrote:
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> Thunderstruck 10kw kit, me1917, sevcon Gen4, 600ah lifepo4 bank....
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> So I was enjoying a wonderful sail today, left the marina with a full charge, used maybe 8ah getting out, and sailed around, no motor, for a couple of hours. At a certain point I turned into the wind to stop the boat and change sail configuration.  After getting settled I started the motor to help get back on a good course and get some distance from a couple large boats coming my way. I had the throttle at about 80a.  it ran for a minute or so and then stopped, throttle still on. I tried turning it up, nothing. At this juncture I couldn't really troubleshoot because the wind was picking up and there was a fair amount of other traffic, so I sailed further out in the bay until there was room and turned into the wind to stop again. I looked at the voltage on the victron, 52.6v. I looked at the capacity meter built into the BMS, 52.8v and it read full (it's not super precise). The indicator light on the sevcon was solid green (no error). without thinking clearly about process of elimination I turned the system off at the key switch, and back on, and tried the throttle and it was fine. I changed my plans for the day (decided to stay close to home port, sailed a couple of more hours, checking the motor at various intervals, and then intentionally motoring at full throttle about 30m and low throttle 10-15m to see if it happened again, it all worked fine (as it has on every other voyage).
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> When I got back I checked the belt, shaft, all the connections, I can't find anything loose or worn.... I am at a loss to explain the "stall", and kicking myself for toggling the key switch before doing more diagnostics!
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> Any ideas what could cause that? It feels like a software (sevcon) problem, since the off/on cycle let it work again, but I would have expected the indicator light to be flashing an error code.
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> Head scratching!
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