Hi
I have 2 Cyrix-CTs in our boat, wired by someone else.
We have an alternator, 220v charger, and 3 battery banks (a starter/engine battery, 2 leisure batteries and two bow thruster batteries).
The alternator is working but not charging either of the two battery banks. The 220v charger is charging the two battery banks.
I suspect the Cyrix CTs are incorrectly wired to the charging devices and battery banks.
Here is a sketch of the current wiring to both cyrix-cts.
Does anyone have a basic diagram to support an alternator, 220v charger, and 3 battery banks (a starter/engine battery, 2 leisure batteries and two bow thruster batteries). I have two cyrix-cts.
Are you sure that sketch is correct? Since Leisure Battery and Starter/Engine Battery are permanently connected together as it is drawn. Also theres no bow thruster battery in the sketch.
Personally i would do something like this if the two cyrix are given to be reused:
For me personally, i would give the starter battery the priority in being charged, then the other two are secondary. You could cascade the bow thruster after the leisure battery, or vice versa, but theres hundreds of ways to do this
Hi there,
First of all, thank you so much for your time to read my post and the great diagram.
My basic initial issue was “why aren’t the batteries charging from the alternator”.
I therefore took some time to trace the cables from the cyrix-cts to their various sources last week, and diagram is the output of that. (I didn’t wire the cyrix-cts myself). When i realised then that both battery sets were on one CT terminal, i became suspicious of the whole set-up.
I didn’t get to trace the charging circuit for thruster batteries, so you’re also correct for not seeing that battery set in the diagram, but from what i saw they are not directly connected to the CTs.
Do you think that the current wiring situation could explain why the alternator isnt charging the leisure batteries and the 220v/12v charger is?
Cyrix-CTs do sense and monitor the voltages on both sides, so it does not matter on which side the charger/source is, once the voltage rises above the threshold, the cyrix will connect the two sides.
Hard to say why it doesnt work from afar, there might be a grounding issue on the engine/alternator or at some other place, loose connections, broken wires, corrosion on connection points.
Just from the sketch alone, both the 220/12V charger and the alternator should be about equally capable of charging the leisure and starter batteries. For the 220V charger both cyrix need to switch on, while for the alternator only the second cyrix needs to switch on.
So for the second cyrix, the voltage in both cases rises at the same terminal, means it should switch on in both cases. Since it doesnt when only the alternator (trying to be) charging, my guess would be that theres something wrong with the alternator itself or its cabling. It does switch on if the 220V charger is doing its job, so that leads me to rule out the cyrix as the culprit
Its also possible that the cyrix does indeed switch on if the alternator is running, but there might again be some cabling issue that prevents actual current to flow
Thank you so much, that’s excellent.
The tips, diagram and recommendations have really helped me to take things forward to make proper use of the CTs, and to try and resolve the alternator charging issue.
