Auto-pilot runs of house batteries?

[Mikefuller2]

I am getting an alarm on my Auto Pilot of a 10.9 volt. I have run battery charger for 1 week and it appears to not change up any more. I have made sure that shore power and battery charger is on. I have only had boat for 3 months so I am still learning but the house batteries look really old. My question is the Auto pilot run off house batteries?

 

[boatymcboatface]

Hi,
I believe they run on the house. But your battery charging issue might be that the voltage is to low and the ACR will not allow the battery charger to charge batteries at that level. Try using a regular car type battery charger our run the boat in put battery switch in parallel that will bypass the ACR.

 

[Mikefuller2]

I did wonder if that was the case.
Thanks
Mike

 

[croakz]

I just tested this today on my R25 SC. Ran my lifepo4 house batteries to nearly zero and my autopilot alarm unexpectedly started blaring. So yes, it runs off the house batteries.

 

[CruisingElvinRay]

The autopilot on our 2021 R-23 runs off of the house bank on the 24x7 fuse block. I assume that is so that we can run autopilot with the house battery switch off.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BB marine]

There are a few questions to be asked. When the battery charger is charging the house bank what is the voltage reading? Once the batteries are fully charged the batteries should be at 13.5v with battery charger on and in float mode. If the batteries do not fully charge the voltage should be higher. If not you probably have a bad battery in the house bank or batteries. If the battery voltage is below 12.5v with the charger on I would maybe suspect a bad charger.

Next question is when operating the auto pilot I would assume that you are cruising and the engine is running. With the engine running the alternator should be charging the engine battery. Once the engine battery is at 13.0 v for a few minutes or 13.6 for 30 seconds or more the ACR will close and start to charge house bank. If the house bank is below 11volts the ACR will not close. To get it to close and reset you must turn the cross over battery switch to on. This will parallel the engine to house bank and bring the house battery voltage above 11V and the ACR will close. This will now let the engine alternator charge the house bank. Turn the cross over switch to off position once the ACR closes. If you do have a bad house battery and you leave the cross over switch on this will cause the engine battery to also discharge.

First confirm you have a known good 120V charger
2nd charge then load test house battery bank to confirm that all batteries are in good usable condition
3rd confirm that Engine alternator is charging properly
4 confirm that ACR are functioning.

The auto pilot is powered off house bank along with all the other electronics on board.

 

[Mikefuller2]

I did reset the ACR and both lights are on. I let battery charger run for 3 days and we had a 12.1 volt on house battery. I turned on a house batteries and all electronics after about 30 mins they where down to 11.1 volts and started to get alarm. I think the house batteries are done.