17th Sept: 12V supply at Stone Point

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Battery being optimised by new charger

When NCI Stone Point opened in May 2019 in what we came to call the “Burger Van” I donated one of my 12V batteries and chargers to power the radios.  When I was first trying to use a Torqeedo electric outboard on Seatern I had two 12V batteries and CTEK chargers to help keep the power supplied. After converting to a petrol outboard, one of these batteries was mounted in a battery box with monitor for use in the Seafly with the Minn-Kota outboard.  However it was now redundant so I passed it on.

The 12V system was transferred to the new NCI Stone Point station in May 2022.  It worked well until about the third week in August 2024 when there started to be trouble with the radios at Stone Point.  Here is an approximate series of events.

Day/Date What Happened
Sat 17th Aug First comment in the Faults Book about trouble with the radios
Wed 21st Aug Problems reported when transmitting on the radios
Thurs 22nd  Aug Radios not working.   Watchkeeper on 12-15 watch reported only 8V on battery monitor and charger showing red light.  Tried restarting charger but not capable of powering radios. Left my 2 handheld radios at station so there were 4 handhelds to cover all the channels. Restarted the Ctek charger with no load connection on the battery and it was charging at 0.5/1A
Fri 23rd Aug I was booked on watch from 12-18.  Got to station at 0930 and met the Station Manager – he took battery and charger to Cobra Motor Components in Holbury for testing and came back with new battery, they had said charger was OK.  However by the end of my watches I was not happy that the charger was working properly.
Sat 24th Aug Drove out to SP for 0730 and found charger not working (red error light on).  I assume the charger, which is 10 years old, had failed.  At home bought new charger from Halfords in Soton; a “NoCO Genius5” seemed to be the only one I could get quickly.   I fitted it during 9-12 watch.  Had to get back home in time for moving blue barrels!
Fri 30th Aug Radios reported not working and voltage on new battery low.  Charger was restarted and volts back up to 12.7V in the evening.
Sat 31st Aug Worried that we have not isolated the 12V problem 1 went to Stone Point in morning. The battery was up at 13.7 volts even when discharging and all the LEDs were lit on the battery charger.  That state was not in the manual so I switched the 12V supply to a mains power unit from Calshot.  Later discovered that the LEDs indicated the charger was in optimisation mode.
Sun 1st Sept Now happy that the new charger is working I connected the 12V supply back onto it.
Sun  8th Sept Discovered the battery charger was in Lithium mode. Someone had been in the cupboard and the mode switch must have been pressed.  One more press would have switched off the charger.  Now think that the low voltage around 30th Aug might well have been due to someone accidentally switching the charger off! When I left charger was still in optimisation mode.
Mon  9th Sept Went to Stone Point early morning and confirmed that the charger had switched from optimisation mode to maintenance mode – needs to be left long enough! Something which previously had been worrying me. Called at Calshot Tower to check Davis Met system which had been reported not working. Turns out it had been asking for a new battery in the ISS but that info had not been passed through.
Wed 11th Sept It appeared we still have problems. Received phone call at around 1545 to say that the radios were failing and the 12V supply was down to 9V. The radios moved to running off the mains using the 12V power supply originally from Calshot. The charger was indicating “possible battery short/battery will not hold charge” on the LED.
Thurs 12th Sept Last night the battery was left on charge but with no load attached.  This morning it was showing 13.6V and being charged at 0.2A but was only being rated at 65% charged.  The Noco charger was in maintenance mode.
Fri 13th Sept After less than 12 hours the Noco charger was not maintaining the charge level for the battery in my boat,  so will try to return the charger and get a refund.
Sat 14th Sept Halfords refused to refund for the Noco charger.  Bought Ring Automotive RSC906-6A charger from Amazon.
Sun 15th Sept The Ring  charger sems to be working OK with the new 12V battery bought on 23rd August.
Tues 17th Sept The new 12V battery bought on 23rd August powered the radios during the power cut with the monitor showing 90% at the end of the period.  It was then brought back to full capacity by the Ring charger.