Does anyone know how this works?

ScottC · **Joined:** 02 Jan 2011 15:51 **Posts:** 53

I've been correcting a lot of "What the heck where they thinking" jobs some of those who worked before me did this weekend. One of them included removing a length of speaker wire that spliced the hot wire from the battery switch to the three way bilge pump switch (I disconnected it at the source, so don't worry about the proximity of the wedding band). Anyway, I have been meaning to ask this question for a long time. Can anyone tell me the purpose of this switch? There is a rheostat behind the panel. There was an odd splice behind where one wire connected to the switch ran to a secondary DC circuit panel. Because that connection was suspect, I rerouted power from a more reliable source to supply the power to the secondary panel (sorry if that was confusing). So, does anyone know the purpose of the switch and rheostat? Thanks in advance.

Scott

Sam · **Joined:** 31 Oct 2006 19:43 **Posts:** 37

The picture shows a knob that I guess controls the resistance to the alternator field current when the switch is in manual control. The operator would be able to send more current to the alternator field than the automatic regulator. More field current means more charging output, up to the limit of the alternator. Multi step regulators with algorithms do that for us now.

Sam

Tartan37.com

Does anyone know how this works?

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