Max Power CT100 bow thruster not working - switch flashing & beeping

Skylark

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Season launch was Friday and over winter the Max Power CT100 bow thruster has stopped working. It's batteries are fully charged. Normal procedure is to simultaneously press both port and starboard switches for one second, with engine running, and it becomes energised. There's a green LED in the middle of the port switch to confirm.

Pressing the two switches now gives 5 beeps and 5 flashes of the green LED. No power to the bow thruster.

The boat was launched in August 2013. All connections look clean and intact.

The Troubleshooting guide makes no reference to this and Google doesn't seem to recognise it, either.

I'm going to send an e-mail to Max Power in Italy but, hopefully, a helpful formumite may hold the key!

Any ideas, please?

Many thanks.
 

PhilS

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Hello,
I am bringing back this old thread to find out what happened as I have exactly the same problem. The boat was put back in the water on Wednesday. When I tried the bow thruster this morning everything was as in the thread a year ago. My installation is also 2013. It seems to have lasted a year longer!
Can you say what you found out and any advice on fixing it?
Many thanks!
Phil
 

Skylark

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Hi Phil,
My problem was a faulty temperature sensor. An easy DIY fix for less than £20. The Italian manufacturer put me in contact with their UK Distributor, A R Peachment of Norfolk. An incredibly helpful guy, Steve Aldridge, diagnosed the problem and sold me a replacement sensor. I removed the old one, cut the wires and soldered the replacement in place.

Just to confirm that you have the same problem, try this. Near the top cover plate you'll see two small yellow wires coming out of the bow thruster body, led to plug. Simply unplug this, the sensor. The bowthruster should now work. The sensor is there to shut down the power when it over-heats.

To replace the sensor, carefully remove the top cover plate and unscrew it. The wiring goes through the cover plate and is a bit fiddly, I simply cut it and soldered the new one a couple of inches away from the (old) plug.
 

Skylark

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Hi Phil,

I've found a picture of the faulty sensor. The top cover plate is removed but is still connected by the sheaved, yellow sensor wires. The (blue) sensor is removed by undoing the top nut. I cut the yellow wires near to the plug and soldered the new ones in place.

Hope this helps.


IMG_0020_zpsuwk9hicr.jpg
 

CGrann

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Hi Phil,

I've found a picture of the faulty sensor. The top cover plate is removed but is still connected by the sheaved, yellow sensor wires. The (blue) sensor is removed by undoing the top nut. I cut the yellow wires near to the plug and soldered the new ones in place.

Hope this helps.


IMG_0020_zpsuwk9hicr.jpg

Hi all
Thx for this post! I also had the same issue when launching the boat and was frustrated that just because it had been on land for 6 months it was not working. Also a Goolge search did not help but this forum did:)
Two questions:
1) any thouhgts on why max power chose this - I mean if the wire breaks there are no protection? It is a NO switch but normally a wire detection safety will be with a NC switch?
2) replacement of coal? When do you do that? Mines has 1,2 cm left so guess it goes a long way. And where to buy coal?
 

penfold

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Assuming you mean brushes, if Peachment or Max Power cannot provide spares then a motor refurbisher should be able to supply brushes, although they will probably want to see the motor.
 

FrankKW

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Hi Phil,
My problem was a faulty temperature sensor. An easy DIY fix for less than £20. The Italian manufacturer put me in contact with their UK Distributor, A R Peachment of Norfolk. An incredibly helpful guy, Steve Aldridge, diagnosed the problem and sold me a replacement sensor. I removed the old one, cut the wires and soldered the replacement in place.

Just to confirm that you have the same problem, try this. Near the top cover plate you'll see two small yellow wires coming out of the bow thruster body, led to plug. Simply unplug this, the sensor. The bowthruster should now work. The sensor is there to shut down the power when it over-heats.

To replace the sensor, carefully remove the top cover plate and unscrew it. The wiring goes through the cover plate and is a bit fiddly, I simply cut it and soldered the new one a couple of inches away from the (old) plug.
 

FrankKW

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Hi Skylark, I think I may have the same problem with my CT100. Were your symptoms left and right relays click but no power at motor?

Was there a way you were able to test the heat sensor without cutting the wires? Mine terminate in the sealed box so cannot be unplugged.

Batteries and connections have been checked and are ok

Thanks for any help offered.
 

Skylark

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Hi Skylark, I think I may have the same problem with my CT100. Were your symptoms left and right relays click but no power at motor?

Was there a way you were able to test the heat sensor without cutting the wires? Mine terminate in the sealed box so cannot be unplugged.

Batteries and connections have been checked and are ok

Thanks for any help offered.
Hi FrankKW,

Mine was connected with a spade connector so was quite straightforward to disconnect and test. At the cockpit control switch, it gave 5 green led flashes and 5 beeps as soon as it was energised. Per my post #3, the guy at A R Peachment, Norfolk, was extremely helpful in diagnosing my issue. Suggest that you give him a call?

Good luck and welcome to the forum.
 

FrankKW

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Hi FrankKW,

Mine was connected with a spade connector so was quite straightforward to disconnect and test. At the cockpit control switch, it gave 5 green led flashes and 5 beeps as soon as it was energised. Per my post #3, the guy at A R Peachment, Norfolk, was extremely helpful in diagnosing my issue. Suggest that you give him a call?

Good luck and welcome to the forum.
Will do Skylark. Thanks for the welcome and coming back so quickly. First season of ownership and so far learning more about boat maintenance and repair than actual sailing!
 

FrankKW

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Hello Skylark

Just to thank you for fault finding advice regarding this problem. I’ve identified the faults and just thought I would update you and the forum members in case it assists anyone fault finding on this system in the future.

My CT100 system has the manufacturer's preferred wiring arrangement with the primary circuit feeding the control panel coming from the engine battery and the secondary circuit feeding the motor coming from 2x dedicated batteries next to the bowthruster itself. The control panel unit only activates once the engine is running.

The Problem: -

The primary circuit powers on and off as it is supposed to and activates the left / right solenoid but no voltage appears at the thruster motor. I had heard 5 beeps after the fault first occurred but didn’t know what it was at the time and this never happened again.

The Resolution: -

I tested the engine and bow thruster batteries and all showed the correct voltage with no load; under load and when being charged.

Once I disconnected the heat sensor, I started to see 14.4v at the motor but the motor still did not activate. Just to note, there was voltage at the motor regardless of whether the solenoids were activated or not. On this basis, I believe the existing heat sensor is faulty and have already ordered a replacement from AR Peachment after speaking to Steve (the electrician there) as you suggested who was excellent.

I checked the voltage at the bow thruster batteries and there was no voltage drop whatsoever when the solenoids were activated. I was beginning to think the problem may be the motor but first traced the wiring between the motor and the batteries and found the negative master battery switch that connects the load to the bowthruster from the dedicated batteries was open circuit in both positions (on and off). I bypassed this switch by connecting the negative battery lead and negative terminal of the motor together and the bow thruster started to worked correctly.

I now just need to fit the replacement sensor once it arrives and replace the master battery switch to complete the job. For anyone who has Beneteau battery switches that are the same as on my Oceanis 40, I have managed to find the identical Soderep ecans replacement switch from DC Woodhead.

Thanks again for the really helpful advice – it was our discussion on this forum that helped me to narrow down and identify these two problems.

All the best.
 

waterbuoy

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As above, many thanks for this thread. We commissioned our Elan 444 yesterday and had exactly the same issue - unplug the sensor (no tools required) and all is OK until the new sensor arrives.
 
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