Systems Monitor Photo

[fissioneng]

Anyone have a photo of the INSIDE of a Systems Monitor? Mine needs repair and I am trying to figure out whether to do it myself or send it to Flight Systems. Is it just a circuit board with a bunch of diodes soldered to it?

[SKYCHENEY]

If it's like mine, you should see a big square aluminum box behind the helm with a bunch of wires going into it. Remove the cover and you will see the board.

[fissioneng]

I found this at Henderson Marine Electronics

http://hatterassystemsmonitor.com/Systems_Monitor.html

I expect mine is different, since it is called a 5 point monitor. I will post pics once I take it apart.

[SKYCHENEY]

Jeff,
I sent you an email, but I thought I would post it here as well. That board is in a big aluminum box behind the helm. It is not part of the panel that you see with the lights on it. Do not try to take the panel out of the helm or to open the one with the lights on it.

Mine is the 12pt, so yours may be different, but you should follow the wires from the panel to see if you have a box like that which has a control board in it.

[fissioneng]

Roger has since told me that the 5 point monitor is different from the 6 point and 12 point monitors. The circuit board is located inside the same box that also contains the lights, fuses, push button and horn.

[lefteris_gr]

I have a couple of photos of the inside of my boat's 6 point monitor. I can post them in a couple of days if it helps.

It's a PCB with maybe a dozen soldered diodes, 4-5 fuses, 4-5 Omron relays and lots of wiring. You can easily check the diodes in place with an ohm-meter.

What's wrong with your system?

L.

[fissioneng]

Thanks for the offer, but I have found photos of the 6 pt and 12 pt monitors. SAM's has them, but not the 5 pt monitor. The 5 pt monitor does not have any fuses on the board, they are on the display panel. (see below)

I have several issues:

1) Alarm horn operation is intermittent before starting the engines
2) Port engine Temp/Oil blows fuses
3) The AC Power alarm goes off intermittently for no reason (even with it switched off!)
4) Fuse holders are showing signs of failure
5) Test button doesn't work

So, I will rebuild the board first and see what problems that takes care of. Then I may need to replace some of the other front panel components.

[lefteris_gr]

I had similar, intermittent and seemingly unrelated problems hence the reason I opened up the panel.

It turned out there was nothing wrong with the board, but instead, the fuse in the main battery panel (i.e. the one providing power to the systems monitor) was a bit loose.

If you haven't done so already, check that fuse. It might solve some of your problems.

L.

[fissioneng]

Here's a shot of the inside of my 5 pt system. Lots to cram into the box! Looks like I have a bad push button so far. Not sure what else yet. The only board in there just has 10 diodes on it. Lots of places to short things.

[fissioneng]

As an update, I replaced the push button and then cleaned all the solder terminals inside the box. They only had a liquid electrical tape coating on them that was flaking off. I recoated all the connections and reassembled the box. It was very hard to get all the wiring back in the box. No wonder there were shorts inside which were the cause of most of the problems. I tested it and then reinstalled it yesterday. Works like new!