12 Point Monitor-False Alarm

[JLR]

I had an interesting false alarm on my 12 point monitor. After having a new blower put on my port engine, I went down the next morning (5:30 a.m.) to do a sea trial before getting my family onboard for the Holiday weekend. When I started the engine, I immediately got a low oil pressure warning that would not stop. So, I took the wires off the switch on the block and the light stayed lit whether I held the wires together or separated them. Thus, it was clear the switch was no the issue but more likely a short bewteen the switch and the monitor. Since my mechanicals were reading fine, and the mechanic was reachable by 6:00 a.m. and said it was ok to go, I did and the boat ran fine. Althogh I silenced the alarm on the panel, the light (ie. false alarm) actually went out after about 40 minutes. When I asked my local wrench whether we should just run new wires from the switch to the monitor, he said to wait and see if it happens again. He said sometimes the relays get stuck and there is no real problem. Since I like to have everything in perfect working order, I may just run the new wires for the heck of it but any thoughts on a sticky relay for a false alarm that went away?Also, I assume since the light stayed lit even when I separated the wires, they must have been shorted together somewhere else (temporarilly) since I believe the light stays lit when the circuit is closed and not open? Any help would be appreciated. By the way, the motherboard is 12 months old on the monitor.

[SKYCHENEY]

Age of the board makes no difference. Relays and other parts on the board can give intermittent problems. Usually the only other problem with those boards is cracked solder runs. If you cannot fix the problem with new wiring, then I would suggest sending it in to Flight Systems. It will take about a week from the time you send it in until you get it back and it will probably cost less than $200 to test and fix whatever is wrong with it.

You could also swap the port and stbd wires on the board and see if the same alarm goes off or the opposite side. That will tell you if it is the board or not.

[JLR]

I doubt it is the board. Too coincidental that it happened just after they put a new blower in, cleaned the intercooler and gear cooler and looked at the snails on both turbos. I bet the broke/piched the wire somewhere. Am I correct that the light on the monitor should go on when the circuit is closed so that if it stayed on (and the switch was removed from the circuit) it meant the wires were shorted together somehwere or do I have it backward?

[SKYCHENEY]

An open circuit should turn on the light. So, if you broke a wire, you would default to alarm instead of not knowing that it was broken until it was too late. If you remove the switch and touch the wires together, there should be no light. If there is, then it is either in the wiring or the board, but not the switch/sensor.

[JLR]

Thanks. The light was back on today. I am having my mechanic run two new wires from the switch to the mother board in the engine room. I sure hope it is a wire. I wired the motherboard myself and although mentally easy, it took a long time to do given the number of wires involved. I really do not want to have to pull it off again. However, I seem to recall that one advantage of upgrading the motherboard was that it was field serviceable. So, if it is the board, I hope I can yank a chip and simply replace that.

[JLR]

One of the chips on my new board was bad. I will speak to Steve at Sam's and see what kind of warranty there is on the board and make sure to carry a spare chip.

[JLR]

The alarms are acting up again. It looks like I may have to pull the board and send it to flight systems. In my preliminary call with Steve, he said there was no warranty on the board which is now less than a year old an cost about 1K. I am surprised I may be left with no other recourse but I will call him again tomorrow and check into it further.

[Genesis]

I would consider replacing it with the Aqualarm panel and being rid of it.... "no warranty" means you only get one crack at attacking my wallet....

[JLR]

Karl - what is that system. I am not familiar with it. Also, have you seen my post on the other forum about Reliabilt?

[Genesis]

Yeah - I don't know what's going on with you and Reliabilt, but I've NEVER seen that sort of failure record nor have I had parts come from them with bead-blasting material still in them!

On the injectors - what's your fuel system look like? Were I getting that kind of failure rate I'd have long ago trashed whatever I had in the boat now and gone to the system that I put in Gigabite, plus replaced ALL the line from the inlet of that filter block to the fuel pump and both feed hoses to the rails in the head. Something's not right there - I've had a bad injector here and there, but 8 out of 16?!

On the Aqualarm panel, that's what someone put in my boat before I bought it. The wiring was all cocked to hell from the panel to the sensors in the ER, but that wasn't a big deal to fix - the panel itself was outstanding and "just worked."

The system I had was basically this one http://www.aqualarm.net/images/2003.jpg but with a slightly different panel. I used the "water flow" alarms for exhaust stack temp (and didn't use their water flow sensors, although they were on the boat but not plumbed in), and all my bilge high waters were paralleled so I relabelled one of those for AC fail (the relay was in my AC panel already so it was simple.)

Not much to say about it except that it worked flawlessly for the entire time I owned the boat; the wiring was all put in by me though when I bought Gig as when I got her ALL the alarms rang on the fire light! THAT will get your attention!

The whole kit - panel, sensors, bell and boards is something like $500. Hard to argue with it..... keep the sensors for use if your existing ones crap out, and graft in the panel, bell and board. End of problem.