North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Fruity wrote:Hi I got one of these, and it works well, MBCM-24 from http://www.atkinsonelectronics.com. It charges your start battery then switch's your 24 Volt battery system from series to parallel and charges electric batteries using Motor alternator. If you use your electric, the unit switch's battery back to 24Volt system.
It also has switch to connect electric to Start battery should it go flat.

It is also US coastgu
ard approved.

grumpy wrote:Just been looking at the Trollbridge24 Combiners to run my 24 volt trolling motor from the current 2 x 12 volt batteries in my boat while keeping them charged from the main outboard.

My reasoning is I have a separate 24 volt battery that weighs about 35 kilo up the front that doesn't charge off the motor and I want to cut down on weight.

Has anyone tried one of these?

http://www.yandina.com/troll24info.htm

Cheers grumpy

That look the go Grumpy.....good timing because I have been thinking about putting an electric motor on the boat and was wondering how I was going to configure it. At the moment I run 2 identical batts and I was hoping to not have to put in a 3rd..for the same reason...want to keep the weight down.

I have a Sterling Pro Sport Waterproof Battery Charger - 1 x 24 Volt 5 Amp Output. Works well. Helps top up the batteries.

https://www.keoghsmarine.com.au/BATTERY ... put-PS1255

I just put mine in last week - it looks like the trollbridge24 equalizers the batteries. My worry is that if one battery fails you will lose all power from both batteries? Is that right?

jonr wrote:I just put mine in last week - it looks like the trollbridge24 equalizers the batteries. My worry is that if one battery fails you will lose all power from both batteries? Is that right?

It is correct to an extent with 2x 12V batteries in series to give the 24V. If the failed battery somehow managed to open circuit itself, then you will lose all power. However, most battery failures would result in a loss of capacity and a corresponding loss of ability to maintain voltage. Wether or not you lose your ability to operate the leccy will be determined by the voltage able to be provided by the combination good/cr.p battery under load, and the low voltage cutout settings on the leccy... Hope that makes some sense...

Cheers, Mick

I chickened out on the trollbridge & opted for the 36v batteries in series + on-board sterling charger.
Completely separate from the starter battery.

Cons are cost & additional weight.

I am thinking of getting one of those small "jump
Starts battery packs for a back up

Jonr. I did have the same concerns so I set a low voltage alarm on my sounder for 10.5volts.

jonr wrote:I just put mine in last week - it looks like the trollbridge24 equalizers the batteries. My worry is that if one battery fails you will lose all power from both batteries? Is that right?

Hi jonr I would think that if one 12 volt battery failed you would lose your ability to have 24volts for your electric should still be able to operate your main engine on the good 12 volt battery.

Might be a good question to send off to Yandina I know on the website somewhere it has a shi...t load of questions and answers.

Cheers grumpy

This is the response i got from them which confirmed my suspicion.

"Yes Jon, when not in use the batteries are in parallel so if one were to fail it would discharge the other.
However it is extremely unlikely that a battery would fail when sitting idle, they nearly always fail either on charge or discharging into a load at which time you would hopefully notice something was wrong.

Regards,

Ann-Marie Foster,
[email protected]

Cheers mate

Ann is always willing to help.

was wondering how the battery run times are going fellas and has it shortened battery lifespan
i was going to take this path myself but decided that charge time would probably not be enough between drops if im not out wide.my outboard alternator only puts out 40 amps.im running 2 x 70ah batteries and another one for the motor and a 100ah for the house for a fridge and inverter if im going away.itd be nice to drop some weght but im a bit over technology lately were reliance is the key

I haven't got my big batteries yet. So just using 2 normal starting batteries I get about 4 hours flat out holding in 7m of tide run or a whole day of just slow trawling or working snags.

a fella here in broome runs 55ah batts thats about what he gets to my knowledge,his tinny is around the 14 ft mark.the longest ive done is 4 hours mixed on a 17 1/2 ft poly,the indicators tell me the battery is full its been blowing its arse the last 5 months conditions havent been pretty.been hangin out to see what i actually can get.i work the boat by myself most times so im tide dependent as we dont have much of a ramp.both are 80lb minn kotas