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pypilot
Motor controller blowing it's fuse...
It was a cold winter this year and I left my boat laid up in the water with the PyPilot breaker off...System was working normally before layup. When I turned on the PyPilot breaker the fuse on the motor controller blew violently, could hear the pop from the breaker panel 15 - 20 feet from the controller. What would cause the controller to blow it's fuse on power on? A visual inspection looked like the day I received the controller (2 or 3 years ago). I removed the controller from the boat and brought it home for testing.
Thank you for your help and this VERY awesome auto-helm!
It's under my bunk in the aft cabin which the mattress was completely dry. There is no water damage apparent on the board.
How cold? Was it below -40C?
I am assuming replacing the fuse and it blows again?
The most likely reason it will do this, is the TVS diode has failed shorted. This diode would protect from surges, so maybe some static discharge occurred?? Lightning? Any possible way it could have seen a higher voltage?
You could try removing this component it is located very near to the fuse. The motor controller may work again, but without replacing this part it will not have protection and in the future may be destroyed instead of becoming like this.
It was in the 20's.
Yes, blown several trying to diagnose this issue.
No evidence of lightning.
I can't think of away it could come in contact with higher voltage. It did run the first few hundred hours under voltaged...Remember I was having issues with slow motor response? I found out the old install of the auto pilot that I wired in to the Motor Controller had 50 extra feet of wire because of how the old auto helm worked. It functioned after this change. I had just updated the SD card image on the PyPilot so in diagnosing I unplugged the data cable from the computer to the controller to make sure.
I will try removing the TVS Diode.
Confirmed, Removing TVS Diode resolved the problem.
Could the process of turning on and off the breaker on the main panel caused enough of a surge to blow this thing? It shouldn't.......And I leave the breakers OFF to all nonessential devices as a habit. Could have something back fed this past winter, Quadrant -> Ram -> Motor Controller? We had some bad storms. But since the component is first in the circuit is sounds unlikely. This Motor Controller worked AWESOME for 2 - 3 years.
Also, I see your store is down. I was going to purchases another Motor Controller and put this one in the spares bag since it will work till it gets another surge. I will replace the component when I have the time but I figure supporting you again in purchasing another one or two is good for the project and I like spares.
Thank you for your help! At least my PyPilot will be up and going till I get the new parts.
Does the motor controller still work? Maybe the battery bms disconnected and solar voltage exceeded? Somehow the there must have been a voltage surge.
I will open my store when I can, still working on my boat.