pvb
Well-Known Member
But 2 batteries in a house bank work more efficiently and last longer when simply wired in parallel.
Sterling ABC AB1280 charger and 1,2,both,off type switch
- Thread starter Billows
- Start date
But 2 batteries in a house bank work more efficiently and last longer when simply wired in parallel.
prv
Well-Known Member
There are no doubt all sorts of odd configurations where such a switch could be used; my point is that if the OP wanted to do something odd then he would already know what he had in mind and wouldn't be asking the question.
Pete
Boo2
Well-Known Member
True, but you still need to isolate one if it fails and a 12BO switch does that perfectly for a 2-battery house bank.
Fair point, just trying to give the complete outook on battery switching with 12BO switches, having been down the same route recently myself (not with chargers yet though...)
Boo2
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
If you have a boat with a single circuit for engine and domestic, a 1-2-Both switch is a simple way of adding a second battery. If you have a 1-2-Both switch and a second battery, a diode splitter is a simple way of ensuring that you charge both batteries, no matter which one you started on.
It's not perhaps the best solution, and it's not what I chose to do, but it's not wholly illogical. Separating the engine and domestic circuits could be a bit of a pain ... it took me a couple of days of hard work.
JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
Wouldn't they prefer the old-but-good Vetus one I have spare, at a tenner plus postage?
I hope nobody noticed the stealth advert there.
prv
Well-Known Member
Got one tucked away in my shed too, removed from Kindred Spirit when I fitted a Smartgauge with a Smartbank relay. And also the diode splitter I took off Ariam when I fitted the same system there. Ariam's old batteries went to power a remote-controlled life-size Dalek though
Pete
pvb
Well-Known Member
So what if, like many owners, you have more than 2 batteries in the house bank?
prv
Well-Known Member
Spaghetti!
Seriously, though, how often does one battery in a bank suddenly fail, and need to be urgently disconnected so quickly that you don't have time to get a spanner out? This is needless complexity beyond the point where the costs outweigh the benefits.
Pete
lpdsn
Well-Known Member
The OP could leave the switch there, with a little label saying "Antiquated Switch". No need to remove it. Just make sure there aren't any wires connected to it.
pvb
Well-Known Member
.PS I had to put a full stop after the smiley because this forum's idiot software won't allow any message less than 3 characters!
prv
Well-Known Member
When we were kids my dad's mate's Dormobile had a switch on the dashboard labelled "Takeoff". It wasn't connected to anything, but he used to flick it and make jet engine noises as we drove out of the drive
A friend of mine who used to play the organ told me that medieval German organs used to include a fancy-looking knob labelled "Noli me tangere" - "don't touch me" in Latin. It was designed as a trap for any mischievious (non-Latin-speaking) kids who might sneak in and fiddle with the organ. The older ones just had a fox's tail on the end of the stop, which would come out in your hand and you couldn't poke the backward-facing bristles back into the hole to hide your fiddling. But the later ones carried the "fox tail" theme into a preserved fox's arse which would shoot out of a hidden trapdoor on a spring and biff you in the face
He and I had to build a simulated nuclear reactor control panel for an event at work, and in honour of the German fox's arses we added a small button labelled "Do not touch". Of course every team did, whereupon all the dials and LED-bars and digital readouts started whizzing round in pretty patterns like a fruit-machine, completely ruining your ability to control the reactor for the next thirty seconds
Pete
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JumbleDuck
Well-Known Member
It's the weird colour scheme that freaks me. Every time you try to operate one of these weird black controls, which are labelled in black on a black background, a small black light lights up black to let you know you've done it.
