No power to Switch Panel - What to do next?

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truscott

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Hi,

Was wiring in a new line to my switch panel (Sun Odyssey 40) when I noticed that there is no power to the panel anymore. The main breakers are still set correctly and the Starter Battery is still showing on the Voltmeter. However when I switch the voltmeter to the House bank, there is zero and non of the switches/breakers will power up.

I'm at a loss as to what to look at next. Sun is shining, BM1 shows my Housebank at 13.8 Volts so the batteries are fine.

Appreciate any ideas.

Cheers, PT
 
Out with your multimeter. Work back from the panel, measure on 20v scale between testing point and earth. At panel, main switch, battery. Somewhere between the last zero reading and the 12v plus reading there is either a break or switch in wrong position or blown fuse/trip.
 
My guess is that somewhere between the battery and the switchpanel is a blown fuse, or else there is a loose connection dangling about somewhere. Be very careful, there is a lot of energy in a battery set, if you have a cable dangling about it could be very bad news. You need to start at one end or the other and trace the wiring through. Do you know where the battery monitor is connected ? You obviously have power that far.
 
Thanks for the responses. It was really quite puzzling. Going back to basics with a Multimeter was the key. Graham the expat engineer here in Parikia was a godsend. Turns out that Jeanneau's have a Master Fuse in the Battery Bay. 100 Amps! Seems I shorted out the switch I was wiring into just as the wife was running the tap. Oops.

Panic over. All up and running now.

Cheers, PT.
 
truscott said:
Thanks for the responses. It was really quite puzzling. Going back to basics with a Multimeter was the key. Graham the expat engineer here in Parikia was a godsend. Turns out that Jeanneau's have a Master Fuse in the Battery Bay. 100 Amps! Seems I shorted out the switch I was wiring into just as the wife was running the tap. Oops.

Panic over. All up and running now.

Cheers, PT.
Click to expand...

Lesson for the week, when doing wiring disconnect battery... Reconnect to test. Otherwise you will at some point "let the smoke out of the wires"...
 
truscott said:
Thanks for the responses. It was really quite puzzling. Going back to basics with a Multimeter was the key. Graham the expat engineer here in Parikia was a godsend. Turns out that Jeanneau's have a Master Fuse in the Battery Bay. 100 Amps! Seems I shorted out the switch I was wiring into just as the wife was running the tap. Oops.

Panic over. All up and running now.

Cheers, PT.
Click to expand...

Good grief. Water pumps are probably around 5A meaning that you must have shorted out around 95A. I'm surprised that it wasn't like a Guy Fawkes sparkler going off! :ambivalence:

Richard
 
That was the puzzling thing. No fireworks at all. All was well. She used the tap no issue. I picked up the panel to screw it back into place and noticed that the lights had all gone out. Hmmm.....

It was most def the fuse. We are back up and running now. It was interesting to discover that we even had one. In 6 years, we have never even noticed it. Perhaps that was the problem?

All our other boats have had much more basic wiring setups, so when this happened it was a case of "What do we do now?". All the water on the boat is fed by pressure, so no cups of tea, washing up, etc.... Then there's the fridge. Not to mention the lights, windlass, etc.... About the only thing unaffected was the starter!

The fuse in question is one of these; http://www.amazon.com/Littelfuse-MEG100XP-Slo-Blo-Automotive-Bolt-Down/dp/B000AOGM94 and sits in the battery bank case under the port quarter berth. It has/had a little black plastic cover over it. It might pay for me to buy a couple more just in case!

I'm mainly filling in this detail just in case other Jeanneau owners face the same issue.

Cheers, PT
 
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