Inverter

Some may remember how, en route down Chesapeake Bay, we lost our 120V feed to ships systems.  We run our generator whenever we are in transit for any length of time to run our fridge and freezer which, unlike most boats, will only run on 120V instead of both 12v and 120V.  I installed an inverter and large battery bank so that we can have 120V without being on shore power or running the generator (loud when at anchor).  The inverter sits between shore-power or generator and the boats systems and kicks in automatically whenever either are not running.  In Chesapeake Bay the inverter failed and the laptop, which was providing our primary navigation, ran out of juice and stopped.  We have back-ups.  First, I have a 12V power supply for the laptop, second, I have a chart plotter on my Nexus 10 and, third, I have paper charts.  However, since we had a fair way to run and we really didn't want the food to spoil I had to by-pass the inverter to get power back to ships systems.  Not an easy task at the time.

So, now I have had the inverter fixed I wanted to have a quick way to by-pass it in the event of a failure.  I bought protected terminal blocks, some more 8 gauge wire and lugs.  Here you can see the inverter back in place with the inverter input and output wires all in place.  The feeds to and from the boat 120V breaker panel will be re-installed next on the left side of the terminal blocks.

Now, if the inverter should fail again I can by-pass it quickly by disconnecting those right side cables and installing these jumpers:

The tool on the left is one of the better investments I made.  It is a hydraulic crimper and allows me to make those battery terminal connections at each end of the 8 Gauge wire.

In another cruel twist, we had a problem with the charging on the port engine after we left St Augustine.  Remember, I spent a small fortune getting the charging systems working on both engines and had new alternators installed on both,  After noodling the issue for a few weeks I came to the conclusion that the mechanic who worked on the boat in St Augustine must have done something to cause the problem.  It was just too coincidental.  Since we had added new exciter wires to the alternators back in Portsmouth I figured the port exciter wire had to have been cut or dislodged which would have resulted in no charge.  I dived down on the port engine yesterday to trace the wire,  Bingo!  He had pulled it straight out of the crimp connector.  Another nagging problem solved.

Sorry for the tech nature of today's post.  Not really, it's my favourite bit.