another battery charger problem

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In the past, both the tugs and the cruise liners where installed with diesel engine. and had never had alternators. The ferry in question also has a diesel engine but with a alternator.
 
ches2443 said:
The chargers that we buy are two brands and are both used in marine applications. Charles & Newmar and both are constant/volt three stage battery chargers that can handle three bank at the same time. The Charles chargers are being instilled in 96' tugs And the Newmars are mainly for the 260' cruise liner. The charger in question was a Newmar installed on a small 6 car ferry
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Fair points.
I would have expected the Newmar unit to have electronic overload protection as a minimum.
If the charger uses SCRs (their website indicates that) then it would simply shut off if the alternator produced more volts than the charger. But then the battery would act as a buffer. It is low impedance so neither the alternator nor the charger can do a great deal to produce voltages that would damage either.
So, I don't think that it is a voltage related problem.
If the 80A fuse is in the output of the charger then there are a few possible explanations.
  1. The charger has neither current limit nor electronic overlaod protection and simply tried to feed a load greatly in excess of its rating.
  2. The charger electronic protection, if it has such, failed.
  3. A component failure in the charger output circuit failed and provided a path for fault current from the battery.

Just idle thoughts on a Saturday afternoon...
 
Besoeker said:
Fair points.
I would have expected the Newmar unit to have electronic overload protection as a minimum.
If the charger uses SCRs (their website indicates that) then it would simply shut off if the alternator produced more volts than the charger. But then the battery would act as a buffer. It is low impedance so neither the alternator nor the charger can do a great deal to produce voltages that would damage either.
So, I don't think that it is a voltage related problem.
If the 80A fuse is in the output of the charger then there are a few possible explanations.
  1. The charger has neither current limit nor electronic overlaod protection and simply tried to feed a load greatly in excess of its rating.
  2. The charger electronic protection, if it has such, failed.
  3. A component failure in the charger output circuit failed and provided a path for fault current from the battery.

Just idle thoughts on a Saturday afternoon...
Click to expand...


Our first thought was to go with the obvious and say it happen during first engine start-up. But what about if someone was welding on the ferry, right before or right after. (even thou welding had never caused this problem in the past) Could that had done it?
 
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