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Has Anyone Put an Hour Meter in the Electric Propulsion system?

 

Has anyone out there seen fit to put an hour meter in their electric propulsion system?? If so, where amonng the functional circuits did you put it?
Just curious to hear any thinking on the usefulness of an hour meter.
Thanks!
[-tv]
Thomas VanderMeulen
Plainwell, MI
 

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On Jul 7, 2024, at 10:39 PM, THOMAS VANDERMEULEN <tvinypsi@...> wrote:

Has anyone out there seen fit to put an hour meter in their electric propulsion system?? If so, where amonng the functional circuits did you put it?
Just curious to hear any thinking on the usefulness of an hour meter.
Thanks!
[-tv]
Thomas VanderMeulen
Plainwell, MI

Canadian Electric Boat Association
Association Canadienne des Bateaux Electriques
12557258 Canada Association
102 Lakeshore Ave,
Toronto Islands Toronto, ON
Canada M5J 1X9
 

Hello Thomas,

Most motor controllers have an hour counter built-in. I am using DMC SuperSigma 2? controllers, and they do this tracking, with the information accessible with their handheld controller.

What is the use of it? Not much really, as unlike gas powered motors where there is a regular maintenance schedule to adhere to, we do not have this issue on an electric propulsion.

Jerome


On Sun, Jul 7, 2024 at 11:23?PM THOMAS VANDERMEULEN via <tvinypsi=[email protected]> wrote:
Has anyone out there seen fit to put an hour meter in their electric propulsion system?? If so, where amonng the functional circuits did you put it?
Just curious to hear any thinking on the usefulness of an hour meter.
Thanks!
[-tv]
Thomas VanderMeulen
Plainwell, MI

 

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I converted my boat to electric in 2003 and have been active in this forum, its predecessor on Yahoo Groups (which I owned/moderated for a very long time) and on the ElectricBoating forum (which I started) before that.? I haven’t used any hour meter on my system.

It took 20 years before I had a controller die---think it was a year ago---and that was likely due to ignoring weed pileup on my prop versus having hundreds or thousands of hours on the controller.

?

For those few of us who still run their boat with brush motors, there’s a case to be made for having an hour meter in order to estimate time for replacing brushes (I’ve gone thru 3 or 4 brush sets over the past 21 years).? Having said that, perhaps a better estimator of brush wear though would be to track AH or KWH since run time alone doesn’t reflect the stressors (current, speed and temperature) that work together to cause the brushes to wear.

?

-MT

?

?

On Sun, Jul 7, 2024 at 11:23?PM THOMAS VANDERMEULEN via <tvinypsi=[email protected]> wrote:

Has anyone out there seen fit to put an hour meter in their electric propulsion system?? If so, where amonng the functional circuits did you put it?
Just curious to hear any thinking on the usefulness of an hour meter.
Thanks!
[-tv]
Thomas VanderMeulen
Plainwell, MI

 

I agree with Myles that there may not be a practical reason for needing an hour meter.
But I do think it would be a very nice to have feature.

On my diesel boat, I track the hours and fuel levels in my log.? It's nice to be able to reference for other (not necessarily engine related) reasons.

And it's awesome bragging rights.? ?It's hard to say how many miles you've cruised.? But you can at least say how many hours you've put on your system.

It might also be nice for battery life.? ?At 0 hours, you installed new batters.? At XXX hours, you observed the battery capacity was at ZZ percent, compared to new.? ?At YYY hours, controller / battery / cable / motor failed for whatever reason and was replaced.

Necessary - no.
Nice to have - I think so.

John

On Wednesday, July 17, 2024 at 11:22:06 AM CDT, Myles Twete via groups.io <matwete@...> wrote:


I converted my boat to electric in 2003 and have been active in this forum, its predecessor on Yahoo Groups (which I owned/moderated for a very long time) and on the ElectricBoating forum (which I started) before that.? I haven’t used any hour meter on my system.

It took 20 years before I had a controller die---think it was a year ago---and that was likely due to ignoring weed pileup on my prop versus having hundreds or thousands of hours on the controller.

?

For those few of us who still run their boat with brush motors, there’s a case to be made for having an hour meter in order to estimate time for replacing brushes (I’ve gone thru 3 or 4 brush sets over the past 21 years).? Having said that, perhaps a better estimator of brush wear though would be to track AH or KWH since run time alone doesn’t reflect the stressors (current, speed and temperature) that work together to cause the brushes to wear.

?

-MT

?

?

On Sun, Jul 7, 2024 at 11:23?PM THOMAS VANDERMEULEN via <tvinypsi=[email protected]> wrote:

Has anyone out there seen fit to put an hour meter in their electric propulsion system?? If so, where amonng the functional circuits did you put it?
Just curious to hear any thinking on the usefulness of an hour meter.
Thanks!
[-tv]
Thomas VanderMeulen
Plainwell, MI

 

I added a cheap meter from eBay or Amazon, mostly to fill the hole where the old meter was. It accepts 12-80V I believe so I just added a small lead from the contactor so it ticks away anytime the key is turned on. Not perfect as it shows time regenerating as well but I guess that's wear and tear also.
?
It's something like this.
?
?
?

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