[Public-List] Public-List Digest, Vol 1545, Issue 1

[Don Lang]

John,

On the true charger's the A/C wires come out of the top of the unit and the D/C wires come out of the bottom. The Case is ground via the Green A/C wire coming out of the top of the unit which you connect to the A/C ground in your vessel. (if you remove the case cover you will see the green wire is soldered to a foil that is connected to the case and the board).
If you are referring to the negative D/C wire that comes out of the bottom of the unit next to the three positive D/C wires; that gets connected to the vessels D/C battery ground, either a common ground (often found on the engine), or Negative bus bar, or directly to the battery ground. An important note: if you are charging more than one battery bank you must ensure that all the banks battery grounds are connected and that none are isolated. 
PS if you find the charger quits working down the road check the fuses inside the case before tossing it; there are six 30 amp ATC fuses near the bottom and one 15 slow blow fuse near the top, the slow blow is easy to miss and is the one we find goes out the most.

Cheers, Don


Message: 7

Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:09:01 -0400
From: "John Birch" <Sunstone at cogeco.ca>
Subject: [Public-List] Truecharge 40 (TC40) multi step charger - DC
    Case    Ground question
To: "Alberg 30 Public List -- open to all"
    <public-list at lists.alberg30.org>
Message-ID: <6E08AFF9546446199B23CE5B9E0737BE at JohnPC>
Content-Type: text/plain;    charset="iso-8859-1"

I've installed a Truecharge 40 (TC40) multi step charger on Sunstone (A37). I have one question, the DC Case Ground for the TC40, where should I ground it to?

I am assuming one would not connect the DC Case Ground to the AC ground. So where do I connect it ?:

* To a bronze through hull ?

* To the engine (the prop shaft and prop are not isolated from the water or engine) ?

* To the negative post on the battery ?

* To the negative Bus Bar ( the same really as connecting to the negative post ?

I don't have my through hulls connected to a bonding system or a galvanic isolator.

I do have a prop nut zinc, which does deteriorate, but not rapidly.

I do not want to end up having AC current stray currents leaking into the water at our marina. Nor do I want to create corrosion issues on my Through hulls or prop or rudder post. Our marina has an updated AC electrical system.

I am also installing a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI), on the AC outlet.

Does this change where I would run the DC Case Ground on the TC40 ?

All the wiring is well secured and the TC40 DC+'s are all 50AMP Fused as per the manual. But the manual is not clear on the case ground.

Any knowledgeable input would be appreciated.

Many thanks,

John Birch
Hamilton, Ontario
Canada