Instrumentaion

[prv]

What about faulty alternator - not charging or is that going too far

No, that's perfectly sensible, and standard on yacht diesels. It often doesn't have a buzzer, just a light, but I'm not sure whether that's because it's not so urgent or just because it's hard to drive a buzzer as well from the simple circuit that's often used. Very small engines can also sometimes struggle to drive the alternator properly at low revs, so that might be another reason not to include an annoying buzzer. Not relevant on your much larger unit.

I guess you're marinising a truck engine or whatever, if it didn't come with a control panel with all these things already set up?

I was thinking of having a separate alarms for bilge water or is that illogical?

Again, very sensible. In my case I don't have an alarm because the pump is automatic and quite noisy, so I know if it goes off. But if the pump were harder to hear, I would definitely have an alarm.

I've been on a boat that sprung a leak (the log transducer fitting failed) and we only noticed because the rising water shorted out the gas alarm and that started beeping. At that point the water was about level with the bunks. We were all on deck with the hatch closed; if the gas alarm hadn't gone off then I think the water would have got a lot higher before we noticed. Needless to say, no bilge alarm on that boat.

Pete

 

[coopec]

Pete

No, the motor is a marinized Perkins 4-108 with heat exchangers, raw water pump and exhaust with a water injection point. There was no control panel when I got the motor (just a mechanical RPM) - nothing else

 

[coopec]

I've decided to install 7 small flashing red LEDs for the alarms (5 taken plus two spare) in the instrument binnacle. To do a neat job I am considering using "10 Ways COLORFUL Flat Ribbon Cable " as you wouldn't notice that behind the headlining material. Being a novice in regard to electron9ics I ask the experts out there if that is acceptable.