Battery Charger: Prosport 12....Installed

I'll keep you posted on the LED's. I'm ordering them sometime next week, been busy with other projects. I'm also adding LED rope lighting in blue under the gunnels, purchasing it all from yachtlights.com I plan to take pictures of my current set up the night before I remove the current lights, and the night after with the new lights installed. Boat is out of water, but still should be able to get a good idea from pictures. I also have a halogen light for my bow at the house so as soon as the LED's arrive I will hook both to a battery in the garage to compare there as well since it is dark in there, can get a decent comparison of that as well. I will post pictures as soon as I take them, I know many are anxious to see them...as am I. :D

glad to hear the charger is working well for you. Honestly, not sure how I managed without one on my 226, looking back I wish I had added one, for the little work involved it is well worth it. look forward to seeing the Dodge in the slip... :lol:
 
I looked at their rope light as well, I don't have room for 6'6" sections, so I'm buying 2 lengths of what I need, probably around 3' each, and I need 2 connectors, 1 for each side. Will cost a few bucks more but i know it is good lighting and since I'm already buying the LED spreader's from the guy might as well stick with him and have it shipped all at the same time. I could get very high end LED rope light from work, but it would run about $15/ft, not worth it on a 26ft boat, if I had a cockpit over 100 sq ft I might reconsider then. Most 12V outdoor led's are made by the same handful of brands anyways. What color are you going with? I'm going with blue...enough light to see when fishing, but not too much to kill my night vision, also will look nice with the blue hull :D If the hull wasn't blue, I might consider red since it would retain night vision the best for fishing, white is too bright to me, seen it on a lot of boats at work and hated it personally.
 
I am installing the blue rope lighting, ultimately because it will match my future underwater lighting. I sword and snapper fish at night, and it will be nice not to worry about the battery drain from the incandescents on board.

Have you installed a new breaker panel to support the extra electrical circuits? I was trying to avoid this but when all is said and done the additional switches will be necessary, factory panel is maxed out as it is.
 
I am adding a blue seas 6 switch panel. Last season we used my aux switch for all my lights with a bigger fuse, not how i want it wired. I am wiring the 2 cockpit spreaders to one switch, my 3 bigger spreaders to another, rope light to the third, autopilot to the 4th, and leaving 2 empty for future additions, possibly underwater lights next season. Always put in a panel with an extra switch or 2, can never have enough. I'm outting mine in my hardtop electronics box, removing the satellite phone, never use it, original owner put it on the boat, plus I have a buddy who goes offshore with me and has one so we use his if needed....why should I pay if he has one :lol: !!!
 
The blue-seas stuff is nice, may go the same route but definitely not to the E-Box. Without a dedicated chase its alot more wires to run in the aluminum.
 
Blue looks really cool, but I've read that it can be pretty tough on the eyes after awhile. I think the articles I read (unrelated to boating) indicated that red/amber caused the least strain. But blue will still look really cool on a Grady! Let us know how it works out.
 
Red is easiest on eyes at night, then light blue, then green, then dark blue, then white being the worst on the eyes. If you are used to looking at halogen spreader lights, the blue LED's will not be a problem, plus they are tucked under the gunwale so you are not staring at direct light, just the reflection basically, and it is below your wasit so having it bother your eyes really isn't that big of an issue.
 
Red is the best for night vision but be careful running with red or green lights besides the ones on the bow.
 
I have noticed that Blue always seems to transmit the best through water. White reflects off of suspended particles and green doesn't carry as well. Starting with blue underwater lights will mean carrying that thru to the indirect cockpit lighting since I dont want an "ambulance" theme.
 
Blue and green are best for fishing, I've had better luck with blue then green personally, and most swordfishermen are starting to agree as well as NE tuna fishermen. Blue has a crisper color in the water, green keeps the murky color and does not travel as far. As for your eyes, first the rope light is below your wasit, and the rope light is under the gunnel so your only seeing the reflection of the light, not the direct beam if they are installed properly. Red is easiest on eyes for night vision, blue isn't bad though. fished on boats with blue rope lighting and underwater lighting and never once had my eyes bother me. Darker blue's seem to be easier on the eye's then lighter though.
 
Pictures as promised......not my truck but a very real fear for all trailerboaters.

P2270131.jpg
 
Wow!!! that really stinks for that guy.....that is a BAD day. I'd be a little shocked if i was running through my marina and saw that sticking out of the water.

Walker's Edge, my LED spreader's and LED rope light will be in by Friday, should be installed in about a week, I will post pictures as soon as they are installed. I am going to take pictures both before and after the install to compare the lighting quality of the LED vs my current hologen's, although it shouldn't even be close, going from 4000lumens of light to 5760lumens. I will also compare a single LED vs a single Halogen if I have the time.
 
My LED ropes should be here in the next few days along with the northstar fuel monitor. One or the other will be installed by this weekend, the rest will have to wait since the weather is looking excellent to get offshore both days.

I'll follow-up with pictures shortly thereafter.
 
Battery Charger

I installed a ProSport 20+ (3 bank) charger in my Islander. 2 starting batteries and a Group 27 deep cycle battery for the house. This Feb. we had the boat in FL and were having a low battery problem. We ran the livewell and refrigerator all night. Some nights we had two livewells running. About 5 to 8 amp continous load. When we got up in the AM we only had 12 volts. When we ran out to our spot the batteries only came up a little - never to 13+ volts.

We found two problems. First of all three batteries MUST be commoned together in order for the Yamaha engine to charge. The plus side was hooked up but the negative side wasn't because I accidentially left the common off. Once the common connection was installed the starboard engine charged the battery when we were running. By the way the Yamaha altenators produce 15 amps at idle and 45 amps at speed!

The second problem had to do with the Pro Mariner charger. The problem was that the charger would charge the battery and go into float mode. The overnight load was taking the battery back down and the charger wasn't coming back on. After a lot of email to Pro Mariner Support they suggested that we connect the house battery to the bank wire set closest to the power cord ("bank 3"). When we connected Bank 3 to the house we had 13+ volts in the morning after running the load all night. Nowhere in the documentation does it state this but it was a definite fix.

That being said, I would install a ProSport 15 or 20, a deep cycle battery for the house (group 27 if you have the room), make sure your engine wiring charges the house battery (voltmeter on the battery with the engine running), and for added flexiability the 1/2/off/both switch in place of the on/off.
 
Hookup,

The promariner instruction manual diagram page shows one specific output of the three as HOUSE. So they are treating differently this output.

A battery with house load can't be distinquished from one with no load by the charger. So if the charger misinterpreted a weak battery for one that well charged, it could effectively overcharge it and ruin it (too high voltage for too long).

All negatives of batteries need to be connected together. Blue Seas makes a nice multipoint 5/16 in. stud power bus for such common bus needs, same bus can connect all your other negatives at the stern.
Daisy chaining from battery to battery to make the common bus is not advised, since if you need to remove a battery from the boat, the remaining power system may malfuction reflected by unexplained low voltage under load conditions.
 
Battery charging

ProMariner ProSport 20+ Generation 2 manual has two examples of a house battery connected to the lead closest the power cord. It's labeled output 1 (but support called it bank 3). The manual makes no reference to the significance of the lead closest the power cord being connected to the house battery.

I watched this charger do its thing everyday for two weeks while troubleshooting the problem. The charger can't "see" the load, it just has a harder time bringing it up to the proper voltage because part of the 20 amp charging current is feeding the house load and the other part is charging the battery. Eventually it does get the battery charged and the charger goes into float mode (green light). This is where the problem starts.

The house load continues to discharge the battery. The charger doesn't appear to ever go back into charging mode probably because its not properly monitoring all three banks. After moving the house battery to output 1 / bank 3 (it was on output 3 / bank 1 during the problem) you could see the charger staying in charge mode longer (several hours) before going into float mode. In this configuration the charger appears to properly detect the battery voltage going out of range and turning back on.

I passed this info on to ProMariner. They wouldn't confirm or deney a design problem but I strongly suspect there is one. It looks like once in float mode the charger only "looks" at one of the banks to monitor voltage.

If you have a ProSport charger and seeing less than 13 volts on your house battery after a overnight or extended period of the charger being on you need to consider this "fix".

As far as the common ground buss, from the factory the boat has three batteries and two heavy guage cables to common all the negative posts.
 
Hookup,
Page 11 of the instruction manual, Figure 8 is your system.

Figure 8 shows Output 1 labeled HOUSE and shown graphically adjacent to the AC cord.

As far as charging, where did you take the voltage measurements ? and did you use a digital voltmeter?

It doesn'matter what color light is on with respect to a battery being discharged or not, just what the voltage is at the battery terminals, no where else, readings taken with a quailty digital voltmeter or multimeter.

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Note: I have no affiliation nor profit from any association with promariner, Interstate, Blue Seas, etc., etc.
 
Battery Charger

My charging problem is solved and this is a confirmed fix. I posted this to possibly help the next guy who owns a ProSport charger to save them the time and frustrastion of re-discovering a solution should they have a similar problem.

The lights on the charger are important in determining what the charger is doing at the moment. This is the first question ProMariner support will ask you.

All voltages should be (and were) measured at each of the batteries with a quality digital volt meter. This is the second question ProMariner support will ask you.

Now that things are working properly I'm extermely pleased with my ProMariner ProSport charger. I think its the best charger on the market. It's certainly one of the best high tech designs I've seen. Installs easily, comes with cables, waterproof, battery friendly charging profile and inexpensive by comparison. I think you'll be very happy with your new unit.

Oh...did I mention that I'm not on their payroll either.
 
Just saw the post guys and appreciate all the talk and help that was provided wish I was monitoring the forum then.

The products keep getting better and better with each passing year.

Just so you know we do offer a customer appreciation program so if you see a product that we make and would like to purchase one let me know and I can get you a price.

All the best and happy boating.

P.S if you have any questions or concerns let me know at the below.

Jim
 
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