Outboard charging

[Lens]

Can anyone tell me how I should connect the outboard charging wiring, it suggest connecting directly to the battery but I have concerns about this "always on" connection, I just feel that it is not safe. I was thinking of connecting to the battery master switch so that it is isolated when the battery is switched off. Other than always ensuring that the battery master is on when starting the outboard (its a manual start) does anybody see any problems with this ?

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[andyball]

your way sounds normal actually.....be sure to put a fuse in line, to protect wiring/outboard if a short circuit occurrs.

Naturally you also need to stop the o/b before turning battery switch off

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[jollyjacktar]

By the sounds of things you have a small motor with a magneto charging system. This means that the current produced is initially AC and it passes through a rectifier, diode system somewhere to give you DC and thus the useful current for charging batteries. It follows that if the motor is not running you get no power generated and the diodes in the system isolate any "always on" feature that you are worried about. The diodes in the circuit, somewhere in the outboard function as an automatic off switch when the motor is stopped.

Thus, adding a battery/motor isolator switch is possibly an unecessary extra which will give extra protection from the isolation switch to the motor connection. And what if you forget to turn it on again when you start the motor [If it is an electric start then I guess you will not do this]? You may however add an on/off main switch to govern the power deleivery from your battery to the boat lighting-etc circuit.

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[Georgio]

Have just re-wired my o/b charging system, I put the circuit through the back of the main batt switch as it had a seperate switch that went on when either batt was selected.

Having spoken with the guys servicing the O/b they said that the power produced is so low (3-4A) that is is not a problem to run disconnected and won't damage the charging system.

G

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[JimC]

I leave mine permanently connected to the battery, the rectifier diodes in the outboard prevent the battery leaking charge back through the alternator when the motor is stopped. Mine has been so connected through most of the winter. You want a fuse in the charging lead though, I use a 10 amp one.

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[extravert]

My previous outboard had a light on it that was lit when the engine was running and the altenator producing Amps. I presume that this light was also to give the altenator a small load at all times, because many outboards that have a charging capability are run not using this feature and will be never connected to a battery. It looks like they are designed to cope with this, so running the engine without a battery connection will do no harm.

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