Re: Inverter placement/schematic, autopilot

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: Last question first: The boat (when purchased)came with a 10-year old Autohelm 4000, the biggest at the time. It is rated to steer 18000 pounds of boat, a bit under a C42 dry weight of 20500 pounds. Worked well on the SF Bay, but on one trip out into the Pacific it had problems with 6-8 foot seas and 35 consistent knots of wind. I had to hand steer all the way back with the belt jammed. I'm in the process of installing a new Raymarine 6000 with below decks linear drive rated to steer a boat of 33000 pounds. All the advice I could find led to that decision if you're into Raymarine and it is the one installed by the local dealer on new C42s. I don't have first-hand experience with other brands. : First question last: Over a year ago our 10-year old Heart inverter/charger 1800 decided to sacrifice itself to save its fuse. I installed a Freedom 30 and changed the battery bank from the three 4Ds to six 6-volt golf carts. I have a 2 cabin model and the original inverter/charger was on the shelf in the port aft quarter lazarette (access through the galley door). I reinforced the shelf to handle the extra weight, bolted the new sucka in & it hasn't moved (even on that day in the Pacific). : I found that the Freedom schematics and directions were very good on most points. Unfortunately, a few points escaped the technical writers and the engineers assumed that EVERYBODY would know certain other electrical principals. So the following are things that I learned: : -the battery banks can have absolutely no other connections to them between the Link negative shunt and the charger positive input... I have a buss on each side of the bank where all necessary connections are made. : -if the alternator connects to that positive buss (along with solar, wind generator, etc), then the Link will track those charging inputs to the battery bank (it doesn't regulate those devices). : -the charger negative and charger positive absolutely have to be at opposite ends of the bank ... they cannot come off the same battery in a bank. Otherwise that one battery gets REALLY well charged and the others starved. Same is true about the power takes offs. If both come from one battery then it gets drained before the others in the bank. (Again, the buss on each end takes care of both of these things if wired off the batteries correctly.) : -the very first time you turn on the Freedom (following the Link start-up directions) you have to hold its button down for almost 10 seconds. After that, a simple push will do anytime. That fact was buried somewhere on the Xantrex web site, not in any documentation. (That site also proved helpful.) That missing tidbit delayed my start-up for 2 days. : -believe the required cabling sizes. I had one run of 7' so 0000 cable was required. The Freedom routinely pumps 125 Amps during bulk charging, sometimes more. Also, use battery cable shrink wrapping, not large wire shrink wrap. Keep heating the wrap until the glue forms a seal around the entire wire on both ends. To make up the wire, I was able to borrow the lever-activated crimps (about 3'-long handles) and work in the boat. Using the hammer-driven crimper would have required a lot of walking to the dock & back. : -on the AC side, I kept the existing wiring. That means I have to remember to manually turn off the water heater and space heater while doing the bulk and acceptance phases of charging. Near the float phase, I can run everything because the charger is pulling only a couple of amps or less out of the AC. It would be nice to rewire the AC per one of the alternative schematics in the Freedom documentation. But I'm going cruising and will be focusing on a 'green' 12 V boat and not heating water off the AC in a marina. Choices and priorities ... : -belive the Freedom documentation when they say you must have a galvanic isolator where the shore power first enters your boat. The inverter/charger mixes the DC and AC grounds to do its job. This will make for potentially catastrophic galvanic corrosion problems in many marinas. You might be lucky for awhile, but ... : I have some photos and a simple schematic on the way and I'll make a follow-up posting when I get them ready. : Good luck : Rich Logie : s/v ceilidh : C42 #378, 2 cabin, pullman, fin

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