Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

John, You should be getting about

6.5 amps from around 10 to 2 or 3 PM. It sounds to me that the blocking diode in the wind generator might have failed. Call John at "Hot Wire" and he will help you out. Over the years he has helped me solve several problems and is easy to work with. Even if you didn't buy the Kiss from him he will help you out. I would also suggest that you pick up a clamp on DC amp meter to isolate out the various circuits. The Kiss should have a a box with the on/off switch, diode block and heat sink. You didn't mention it but it should be in the circuit. If it's not then you don't have the blocking diode at all. You have three wires coming out of the Kiss and all three go into that box and if my memory serves me right, the red and black coming out to the battery. Current will follow the path of least resistance. If you were to move the wire from the wind generator directly to the battery post, the battery will act as a large bucket from which the current will flow to all of the verious circuits depending on how good each of the connections at the battery are. By having the wind generator attached to the Solar Panel wire the current from the panels might be following the path of least resistance right back into the Wind Generator and not to the battery. Voltage is positive or negative only in relation to something else. You can have a positive voltage and another, more positive voltage, up the circuit towards the battery. The same goes for negative voltage. There is negative and more negative places in a circuit. The current will flow from positive to negative. Or from negative to positive depending on which side of the theory fence you're on. The bottom line is that you should be getting those 5 or 6 amps plus what ever the wind generator is putting out. The panels seem to be working so the culprit, IMHO, is the wind generator. I hope this helps a bit.

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