Thinking out of the box here. The way the alternator is wired in and the state of charge of your battery may be adding to the randomness of the problem. If the output of the alternator is a heavy gauge short run directly to the battery or the positive stud on the starter then the battery will damping out a lot of the alternator's noise - voltage spikes - variable output.
That may not be the way your boat is wired. Another common wiring was to use a smaller gauge wire ( 14 ? ) that runs back to an instrument panel, through an ammeter, then forward again to a terminal block ( or starter stud ). That is fine for the intended purpose of charging the battery but not as good for damping out alternator noise. The ammeter may have a wire wound shunt that could act as a wonderful noise antenna. If the battery is discharged then you will get a good current running which might increase the energy in the wiring. If the battery is fully charged from being on a shore power charger than it may not be accepting much current and not dampening much. I have no idea how difficult this is but you could test by loosening the alternator belt and starting the engine. Try it a couple of times, then a couple of times with the belt tight. Michael Brown Windburn C&C 30-1 Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2016 08:21:34 -0400 From: David Knecht <davidakne...@gmail.com> I have posted about this problem before, but still have not solved it. I have been struggling with a electrical system problem since I upgraded my electronics two years ago. I installed a Seatalk network, Raymarine EV-100 autopilot and B&G Zeus T8 chart plotter. The problem is that periodically, the Zeus behaves like it has a mind of its own. The unit will begin beeping while the touchscreen acts like someone is activating menus and commands randomly. All kinds of problem ensue from that let alone that you can?t use the controls while it is happening. It happens intermittently, sometimes with engine on and sometimes off and I have not been able to identify the source. One of the things I have noticed is that it happens more often (but not exclusively) when the engine is running. Last weekend, I had an incident of this that might help someone understand it. I unplugged the Seatalk cable to the chart plotter to see if it had anything to do with the network (it doesn?t). I had the chart plotter on for about 45 minutes while I did other things and all was fine. Then I started the engine and the Zeus immediately began beeping and randomly activating menus. This continued for the time I had the engine running (about 15 minutes). So that would seem to point toward something people have suggested before- noise in the electrical system from the alternator. Here is what I don?t understand- I shut the engine off and the problem persisted with decreasing frequency for another 10 minutes or so and eventually stopped and it worked fine thereafter. If this were an alternator problem, is there some way it could persist for so long after the engine was shut down. Dave Aries 1990 C&C 34+ New London, CT
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