BLUE SEA Mini ?Add-A-Battery? - Did I hook it up right?

[mschmidt33]

I did one of these a long time ago but used buss bar's. Installing this one for my buddy without any buss bars so I wanted to make sure I did it right. When I first hooked everything up it blinked 3 times (Lockout) for awhile then later switched to a single blink every once in awhile. What does that mean?

I hooked up a 2 amp charger and it never "combined" to make the light solid like mine. Perhaps I did not wait long enough but it was getting dark. See below for pictures with some notes. I followed the instructions, the only place I deviated was with the negative buss bar and hooked the outboard to the starting, both negatives direct together, and grounded the ACR to the house only but connecting them direct really means I don't need the buss bar correct?

 

[UncleWillie]

Re: BLUE SEA Mini ?Add-A-Battery? - Did I hook it up right?

It looks OK to me.

With Cables as short as you have, the Second Breaker in the ACR circuit is not necessary.

I do not see a wire going to the Start Isolation connection of the ACR.
If you restart soon after stopping and before the ACR goes into isolate mode;
The ACR will still be combining the batteries when you restart the motor.
The ACR is designed to handle Charging Currents , but not starting currents.
This will shorten its life if you do it often.

A 2 amp charger is going to take a while to get the battery above 13 volts.
When it does the ACR closes to combine the two batteries and the voltage drops below 13 and the ACR opens again.
That is why the LED flashes occasionally.
Charge,Combine, Sag, Isolate, Repeat.

2 amps is not a charger it is a maintainer.
If you let is run for 12 hours I'll bet the LED finally stays on.

LED Status Chart

 

[mschmidt33]

Re: BLUE SEA Mini ?Add-A-Battery? - Did I hook it up right?

Thanks for the info. Glad I have it right. I was going to add the isolation line but I started this at 8pm and it was getting dark. I will add it later. As for adding accessories (radio and lights), can I simply add them to the house battery or do I need to put the positives to the open port on the switch?

 

[bruceb58]

Re: BLUE SEA Mini ?Add-A-Battery? - Did I hook it up right?

I do not see a wire going to the Start Isolation connection of the ACR.
If you restart soon after stopping and before the ACR goes into isolate mode;
The ACR will still be combining the batteries when you restart the motor.
The ACR is designed to handle Charging Currents , but not starting currents.
This will shorten its life if you do it often.

My guess is that it will blow the fuse he has in there since it is only 50A.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: BLUE SEA Mini ?Add-A-Battery? - Did I hook it up right?

can I simply add them to the house battery or do I need to put the positives to the open port on the switch?

Depends on if you want the house loads to be turned off by the switch. I probably would want that.

 

[Don S]

Re: BLUE SEA Mini ?Add-A-Battery? - Did I hook it up right?

I do not see a wire going to the Start Isolation connection of the ACR.
If you restart soon after stopping and before the ACR goes into isolate mode;
The ACR will still be combining the batteries when you restart the motor.
The ACR is designed to handle Charging Currents , but not starting currents.
This will shorten its life if you do it often.

My guess is that it will blow the fuse he has in there since it is only 50A.

That 50A breaker has nothing to do with starting. As soon as he hits the starter, there will be a voltage drop that will shut off the ACR. Once the voltage comes back up, it will kick back in. Starting current is coming from the battery through the battery switch, not the charge relay.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: BLUE SEA Mini ?Add-A-Battery? - Did I hook it up right?

There is a hysteresis delay on these that doesn't disconnect them right away when the voltage drops.

http://assets.bluesea.com/files/resources/instructions/980014350.pdf

Open on a low voltage takes 10 seconds.


If the start battery is discharged for some reason or a cell is failing, it is very possible for the start current to flow through the ACR.

 

[Don S]

Re: BLUE SEA Mini ?Add-A-Battery? - Did I hook it up right?

Anything is possible I guess. But I would also bet if the starting battery was that bad, the voltage sensitive relay would have already disconnected the combined battery because of the voltage difference.

ACR's have been used for a lot of years and it's never been a problem, even with much larger engines with higher current draw than an outboard for starting. Not sure why it would be a problem now.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: BLUE SEA Mini ?Add-A-Battery? - Did I hook it up right?

Typically, you would never have an issue as the fact that the ACR was connected means the batteries were being charged. If the house is lower than the starting battery, you wouldn't have a problem.

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: BLUE SEA Mini ?Add-A-Battery? - Did I hook it up right?

im proberly wrong but isnt the negative to the acr meant to be on the cranking battery and not the house (proberly not as the jump cable should not realy add any resistance). Im also kinda fussy so having the white pointer point at the correct battery would be a must or i couldnt sleep at night.

 

[Don S]

Re: BLUE SEA Mini ?Add-A-Battery? - Did I hook it up right?

Typically, you would never have an issue as the fact that the ACR was connected means the batteries were being charged. If the house is lower than the starting battery, you wouldn't have a problem.

I would bet it's not a problem, but since no one on this forum knows what the internal component are in that ACR or how they are put together that you will never find out here. All you will get is bunch of guesses.
Send an email to Bluesea, they engineered and designed it, so I would bet they could answer your question.

 

[Don S]

Re: BLUE SEA Mini ?Add-A-Battery? - Did I hook it up right?

im proberly wrong but isnt the negative to the acr meant to be on the cranking battery and not the house (proberly not as the jump cable should not realy add any resistance). Im also kinda fussy so having the white pointer point at the correct battery would be a must or i couldnt sleep at night.

All negatives on a boat should be hooked together.

 

[UncleWillie]

Re: BLUE SEA Mini ?Add-A-Battery? - Did I hook it up right?

Typically, you would never have an issue as the fact that the ACR was connected means the batteries were being charged. If the house is lower than the starting battery, you wouldn't have a problem.

+1 Agree! Except....

If the ACR is closed due to the battery being charged; The engine is already running and the starter will not be engaged.
If one battery is significantly below the other, the ACR is not combining, so starting is not an issue.

The unique situation is when the engine was recently shut off and Both batteries are still above 13 volts.
The ACR is Still Combining.
If the Stereo, VHF, Sonar, GPS, etc. are on;
You have a minute or two before the batteries deplete their surface charge, and drop below 13 volts and ACR goes back into isolate mode.

If you restart the engine in this small 2 minute window, you may get the a Dual Battery Restart with a portion of the current passing through the ACR.

Blue-Seas has enough of a concern about this isolated situation that the have seen fit to add the Start Isolation wire for you to attach.

Attach it, or not, at your peril.