Originally Posted by
BobJ
Thanks for the great input - I admit some of these are "leading questions" for the group.
Brian yes, the stock Hitachi 35A alternator had an internal regulator. Since the little one-lung Yanmar can't spin a larger alternator, I bought a second 35A Hitachi and had it rebuilt with the field wire outside the case, then installed an ARS-5 regulator. Maybe it's ramping down too quickly. It drops from 30A to around 12-15A after a few minutes and down to 7-8A after a few more minutes. (@Skip - yes, I carry the stock alternator as a backup both for the alternator and the external regulator.)
Slack, I've been looking at that Victron monitor - Fisher Panda (I think) is selling a bunch of them off via E-Bay at $148. Like most of the other "two bank" monitors, Victron's two-bank version just measures voltage on the second battery. Do I need two of them for full data on each battery? I still have the shunt from the Link 20 - fancy thing and heavy, but maybe I could use that the way Brian suggests. I get system voltage through my ST-60's so I really just want to measure amps in (to verify the solar panels are working) and amps out (to monitor usage). An installed in-line ammeter would do it. I suppose those come with their own shunt? Where would you install it?
Here's another issue. For better weight distribution I moved my batteries forward. This required about 10' longer battery cables. Now I'm seeing about a .3 -.4 voltage drop at the instruments and autopilot. Do I need to worry about this? If so, it means a second switch/fuse panel up near the batteries, and I don't really want to do that.