ProNautic Charger Help

[JPringle]

2006 340 - I replaced the original battery charger with the ProNautic 1230. It was pretty straight forward overall, but I do have a question. There is a temperature sensor that has to be connected to the house negative terminal battery as well as a chassis ground wire that needs connected. For those of you that have done the same thing, my question is how did you route these wires and to where? I’m afraid to plug the charger in without connecting these two wires.

 

[Skybolt]

I have the 1250 and the temp probe is not connected. It didn't make any sense to do so as I have multiple batteries and it would only monitor one battery.

As for the chassis ground (bonding), if your AC supply has the green ground wire then you don't need the bonding wire as they are connected internally.

 

[Creekwood]

I agree 100% with what @SKybolt says above. I actually did connect my temperature probe to one of my 6v golf cart batteries though. That's because its my house bank, so it gets depleted and then full charged and if, god forbid, there is a fault or low water in those golf cart batteries, I want the charger to know there is a problem. But there is only one probe so the other bank of normal maintenance free lead batteries is not monitored. If I ever break that wire I won't worry about it.

 

[JPringle]

Thank you both for your advice.

 

[BlueYonder]

The temperature sensor is important because the charger will change its profile voltages based on battery temp. A higher temperature will result in lower voltage to reduce the chance of overheating/boiling the electrolyte. This comes in handy when running the charger on a hot day or after running with the engine room sitting at over 100 degrees. Your batteries may last longer with a sensor hooked up, even if it is only connected to one battery. Chances are that the other batteries are at a comparable temp.

 

[The Bill Collector]

I still have my original Pro-Mariner battery charger, it doesn't have a temp. sensor, but my Xantrex inverter/charger does and it's connected to the #1 battery of the 4 I have for it...

 

[Skybolt]

The temperature sensor is important because the charger will change its profile voltages based on battery temp. A higher temperature will result in lower voltage to reduce the chance of overheating/boiling the electrolyte. This comes in handy when running the charger on a hot day or after running with the engine room sitting at over 100 degrees. Your batteries may last longer with a sensor hooked up, even if it is only connected to one battery. Chances are that the other batteries are at a comparable temp.

Yes but in this case the charger would react to all batteries based on the state of one battery. If all batteries are the same then it serves no purpose to monitor only one. The exception is how @Creekwood is running his for the house batteries. He has a special setup and there is merritt for using the temp probe for that.

 

[b_arrington]

Read the manual. You need to connect the chassis ground. The AC ground wire cannot handle DC amps. Side 4 cable vs 12 or 14 for AC.

Connect to it to your ground buss bar. Here’s how I did mine.

For the temp probe, pick a battery. I put mine on a start battery because it was the one the cable would reach. If its not connected the charger will default to “warm” charging profiles.

 

[Stee6043]

Add me to the camp that did not install the temp probe...

 

[ttmott]

If you have multiple battery banks with different quantity of batteries in each then connect the temperature probe to the bank with the fewest batteries.

 

[Skybolt]

With regard to the temp probe, I guess the battery profile matters as to what the default charging profile will be if the probe is not connected. I have the remote display and have never seen warm as a mode. In fact this charger works as expected, except that it does not show independent battery voltage/amps and only the charger as a whole.

 

[b_arrington]

With regard to the temp probe, I guess the battery profile matters as to what the default charging profile will be if the probe is not connected. I have the remote display and have never seen warm as a mode. In fact this charger works as expected, except that it does not show independent battery voltage/amps and only the charger as a whole.

I don't think the remote shows the charge profile based on the temperature. It seems like it's automatic. Here's what the manual says:

Note: Once the temperature sensor is connected the charger will adjust its charge based on the batteries temperature. This is known as thermal compensation, where the charger will cut backif necessary to increase battery life. This is especially useful for AGM and GEL batteries which are inherently temperature sensitive.

The remote will show the detected battery temperature though.

They also suggest to connect the temp probe to the house bank. I couldn't do this because the cable wasn't long enough. However, both of my banks are AGM so I think it's "good enough" to get a better charge profile.

 

[Skybolt]

... They also suggest to connect the temp probe to the house bank. I couldn't do this because the cable wasn't long enough. However, both of my banks are AGM so I think it's "good enough" to get a better charge profile.

I find the whole remote to be a bit lack luster and doesn't provide much useful info, other then it's working.

I'll take a look when I go tot he boat next. In general this a good charger, but I think they didn't think a lot through.

I couldn't reach my batteries if I tried with the cable they provide. Charger is on the firewall and the batteries are in back of the engines and shaft logs. ~20' of wire to run it correctly. And they don't sell a longer one.

 

[b_arrington]

I find the whole remote to be a bit lack luster and doesn't provide much useful info, other then it's working.

I'll take a look when I go tot he boat next. In general this a good charger, but I think they didn't think a lot through.

I couldn't reach my batteries if I tried with the cable they provide. Charger is on the firewall and the batteries are in back of the engines and shaft logs. ~20' of wire to run it correctly. And they don't sell a longer one.

Yeah, that's the issue I had with my setup. The battery charger is in a different mechanical space than than batteries. I was able to route it through a bulkhead with other wires, but just made it to one battery. Another 3 feet would have done the trick to get to the house bank.

I 100% agree they really should make the cable longer. Since the charger is capable of charging 3 banks, it seems like they would provision 3 temp sensors as well and adjust the charge rate for each bank.

The cable looks like standard RJ-45 phone wire with a temp probe on the end, so you could probably splice in a longer section. It would take a little work but it's not difficult, just annoying. I didn't feel like doing it on my boat.

 

[Skybolt]

Yeah, that's the issue I had with my setup. The battery charger is in a different mechanical space than than batteries. I was able to route it through a bulkhead with other wires, but just made it to one battery. Another 3 feet would have done the trick to get to the house bank.

I 100% agree they really should make the cable longer. Since the charger is capable of charging 3 banks, it seems like they would provision 3 temp sensors as well and adjust the charge rate for each bank.

The cable looks like standard RJ-45 phone wire with a temp probe on the end, so you could probably splice in a longer section. It would take a little work but it's not difficult, just annoying. I didn't feel like doing it on my boat.

The other issue is the charger itself isn't an independent power supply for each bank, it is a single power supply that is electronically isolated according to their tech support when I questioned why there is only the total charge rate. They basically said this design doesn't allow for independent charge rate monitoring because of the single supply and why the total amps are displayed. Also the 50A rating is total and not for each individual bank. A little strange for a digital charger not to be able to do that.

Anyway I have had this charger since 2015 and it has kept my 8D''s in good working order. I actually got 8yrs out of my last set. I am hoping for the same with these new ones.

 

[Strecker25]

the temp probe threw me for a loop because I installed the 1240 in winter, fired it up, and it shot up to 15v+. I thought it was defective, but it was detecting sub 30 degree temps and charging accordingly...

 

[JPringle]

Read the manual. You need to connect the chassis ground. The AC ground wire cannot handle DC amps. Side 4 cable vs 12 or 14 for AC.

View attachment 151416

Connect to it to your ground buss bar. Here’s how I did mine.

View attachment 151417

For the temp probe, pick a battery. I put mine on a start battery because it was the one the cable would reach. If its not connected the charger will default to “warm” charging profiles.

From where the charger mounts in my boat, there’s no way I can feed the chassis ground wire to a bus terminal. That’s what prompted the original question, is it really necessary?

 

[Skybolt]

From where the charger mounts in my boat, there’s no way I can feed the chassis ground wire to a bus terminal. That’s what prompted the original question, is it really necessary?

The user manual states it is needed, so no one is going to disagree with it. So the answer is yes. That said mine is staying wired as it is.

 

[b_arrington]

From where the charger mounts in my boat, there’s no way I can feed the chassis ground wire to a bus terminal. That’s what prompted the original question, is it really necessary?

I tend to follow the vendor’s installation requirements when it comes to high amp electrical stuff. Especially the bits the put in italics for emphasis.

That goes double for battery chargers because my last one failed and nearly caught fire.