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I have a 14” X 18” closed electrical box wall mounted next to my battery charger in my ER on my other boat (56 Ocean). It has three switches on the outside labeled hi/low, on/off and hi/low respectively. I opened the box and found two transformers and a few relays. It has one 110v lead going in and two 12v leads coming out. Any idea what this box is for?
low voltage lighting ???
Hello John, how about a photo?
Photo is not easy to come by, at least in the near term. The on/off switch has been on since I bought the boat and there is definitely AC coming in and DC going out. Could it be some sort of battery conditioner? Really weird to have those hi/low togles(2) on the side.
Take a look at your full compliment of wiring schematics that Ocean provides to all Owners. Oh wait, its Hatteras that does that. Nevermind.
Any other ideas? The hi/low switches are what throws me.
Could it be for lights?
A 50 ocean in worked on had 110 volt to 24 volt transformers.
Sounds like lighting. Do you have 24v spare bulbs anywhere?
Just follow the wires.
You could use a Fox & Hound to trace the wiring...
https://www.tequipment.net/Triplett/...0Campaign(BSC) utm_source=Bing_Yahoo&utm_medium=cpc&msclkid=4343a 8bd67511c3dceb0f57925ed20ea
Lighting makes sense since I do have a lot of 12V lighting. But what are the hi/low switches for on the side of each transformer and why would there be an on/off button on the side as well? Tracing the wires is not in the cards right now.
Here is a picture (I hope) inside the box showing the AC input from the bottom and the two DC outputs from the top. The switches (not pictured) are on the left side of the box. Hope this helps figure out what it is. All ideas welcomed.Attachment 35797Attachment 35797
Obviously, there is only one box. Sorry for the double picture post.
they're voltage transformers. They are probably tapping 12 and 24 volts off of them.
Disconnect the power to each one in turn and make a list of what doesn't turn on anymore.
Some Hatts have isolation transformers with a second secondary winding which automatically (via relay) gives a 10% voltage boost if your marina had too much drop.
Might be a manual version of that. The clue would be a tap at 90% and another tap at 100%.
DAN
I wonder if it's robust enough for that. They don't look all that large.
Not likely. The output is 12V not 120V. Some have suggested that this is somehow related to the low voltage lighting on the boat. If so, I am not sure what the hi/lo switches are for.
12 and 24 volt?
Also many oceans had incandescent lights that were run from 24 volt AC.
You cant use that power with most led lamps.
Its hard to see in this picture but it looks like the switches route different secondary taps on the transformers. Can you measure the voltage on the taps or the switch outputs? Also, a transformer can only step up/down voltage or provide isolation. The conversion from AC to DC requires a rectifier bridge or discrete diodes and filter capacitors or an AC/DC converter board.
George
Right, and the transformer only works on AC, right?
It’s definitely a Flux Capacitor.
No manuals or diagrams on board?
Lazzara also used 120V AC to 24V AC transformers for lights (at least around 2009) with automatic relays to switch some of them to 24V DC from the batteries when AC power would be disconnected.
Could this be something similar with a manual override
When I buy LED bulbs I have to make sure they are 24V AC/DC but many are nowadays
That's right Jim. The operation of the transformer depends on the constantly building and collapsing fields created by AC in the primary windings to induce a voltage in the secondary (output) windings. Since I'm getting all nerdy this morning: the voltage is induced in the secondary windings during this constantly building and collapsing of the magnetic field around the primary windings by a process called mutual inductance and the resulting output voltage is in direct proportion to the ratio of the primary and secondary windings. 10:1 ratio and the output is 12VAC.Quote:
Originally Posted by jim rosenthal
Opps sorry, short answer: yes.
Hmmm, not sure if a flux capacitor works with DC or not? :-/
George
Looks like it was used to feed outlets under the cover boards for electric reels.
That's a crazy way to power a deep drop or dredge reel.
Probably not a bad idea if it can handle the load. I’ve pulled my 12v 8d generator starting batteries down after multiple 800’ drops with the big Kristals pulling grouper.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cricket
John's little boxes didn't look very hearty to produce a ton of amps, and being sealed how was the heat going to escape from all of the hard work the transformers were doing.
Wonder if those were an Ocean Yacht add on or previous owner invention? Kind of reminds me of an outdoor lighting setup.
Scott, what's your opinion of the LP1200 reels compared to the Krystal's?
We're using 24volt Krystal's for deep drop and 24volt Miya's 15's for our dredges.
Just unwilling to buck up for what the LP's cost, and also since all the boats now have the LP's I'm a little anti.
Lindgren-Pitman Has always been the commercial duty stuff. I like the digital counter and auto feature on the new reels. Looks like they kind of copied Miya epoc. Big bucks though 5-8k per reel. We’ve had no problems with the Kristals much better than the electra mate 12/0’s they replaced. Would be nice though to drop back to the exact same depth that your marking fish though. Most cases we drop to the bottom and come up best we can estimate where the fish are.
Ran into what the high low switches are for, 24 volts low or 32 volts high.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/STAHLIN-120...cAAOSwB05d0d-h
In this case there a couple of bridge rectifiers converting the AC to DC.Quote:
Originally Posted by Reefgeorge
Yes, you need rectifiers to get from AC to DC after the transformer steps down (in this case) the AC to a lower voltage. Depending on if the transformer has a center tap or not and if you want full wave or half wave rectification then you either need a bridge (4 diodes) or two discrete diodes. At that point you have (depending on what source you read) either rectified AC or unfiltered DC which is very noisy and does not develop full DC voltage potential. You add large filter capacitors after the bridge and then you have higher DC voltage with minimal ripple. Some electronics can operate with unfilterd DC/rectified AC but many circuits, especially in the modern era may not function correctly.
George