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Circuit Breaker labeled APS?

Discussion in 'Electronics' started by Bayhouse, Nov 22, 2023.

  1. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    PCP ? I would be guessing rite now.
    You found the Cat version of a Mathers box.
  2. mapism

    mapism Senior Member

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    Powertrain Control Processor is what PCP stands for.

    Not that I ever heard about that before, mind.
    But your photos made me curious, and since I'm right now coming back from Alaska on a 145k GT vessel, and I have no duties whatsoever apart from eating and drinking like there's no tomorrow, I googled a bit for those bits of kit in your photo.
    And what I found confirmed, yet again, that every day is a school day.
    In fact, essentially the setup you've got is exactly what I defined "mental" in my post #52, i.e. mechanical levers directly connected to mechanical gearboxes (though this isn't actually clear from your photos, but it's a reasonably safe bet), and connected also to a rotary sensor which converts the levers position into an electronic signal that in turn controls the electronic governor on the Cats.

    Don't be concerned about my rather harsh definition, anyway.
    That was only triggered by the fact that I've seen quite a few C12 powered boats, with several different control levers (ZF, Kobelt, Glendinning), and all of them, bar none, had electronic levers connected by wire to the engines, with a mechanical actuator for the gearbox if and when it didn't have an electronic solenoid actuator.
    And it seems to me that this solution I'm much more familiar with is a more elegant way to skin this particular cat, compared to the other way round.
    But what do I know? If Egg Harbor decided to go for that installation, they must have had their reasons.

    Anyway, I'm attaching the documentation I found, which brought me to the above conclusion.
    I'm afraid I can't help you further though, because as I said it's a setup I never came across before, about which I know nothing at all.
    And frankly, I'd rather go back to my eating and drinking duties now, than studying Cat manuals in detail... :D
    Good luck with the reading!

    PS: sorry, I just noticed that the Cat manual exceeds the forum size limit for attachments, so I just extracted a couple of pages to give an idea.
    If you (or anyone else interested) PM me your email, I'll sent you the full document.

    Attached Files:

  3. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    Brother, What the Frak are you doing partying on an Alaska barge and did not call me,, Frak Me.
    (Reduced acronyms by request).
    Please open another thread or at least a note, why your up there in the upper left coast, on such a well stocked little 145GT bote and not home in the warm Med..
  4. mapism

    mapism Senior Member

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    Sorry for not having thought to give you a shout, but it's my boss who arranged everything.
    And it was a bit of an afterthought also for her, who managed to squeeze the cruise within several weeks spent in CA/OR/WA.
    I'll try in the next days to write a bit more about the trip up to AK, which I must admit was rather interesting, in spite of my strong preference for boating that doesn't involve thousands of other people around you...!

    In the meantime, how's this for an appetizer?
    Taken just half an hour ago while approaching Puget Sound, for disembarking tomorrow morning in Seattle... NL.jpeg
  5. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    Funny you bring this up this morning. North Florida got a treat last night.
    pic 1.jpg
  6. mapism

    mapism Senior Member

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    Wow, that must be pretty rare in FL.
    Even up in the northernmost point of your State, you are still at the latitude of the southernmost point of the Med, which is in Africa! :D
  7. K1W1

    K1W1 Senior Member

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    T
    There were reports on the TV this morning that the lightshow was visible in Northern Italy. There were also reports of a spectacular display in NZ which is at the other side of the world and is only days from the official start of winter.
    Capt Ralph likes this.
  8. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    Yep, very rare.
    Were around 29.34 N .
  9. mapism

    mapism Senior Member

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    BTW, just in case you misunderstood, 'twas a 145 thousands GT cruise ship.
    Not my favourite type of boating, but while going around Glacier Bay I must admit that I didn't regret not being there with my small tub! :)
  10. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    Yep, A lil cruise ship, Probably the Sky.
    Still way to many people (more than 2) around.
  11. Cpt Sous-Leau

    Cpt Sous-Leau Member

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    We are in a very high corona mass ejection cycle right now. Should continue through Mon. I've been hoping for a show in The Republic, but so far, nada.
  12. Bayhouse

    Bayhouse New Member

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    Back to the original subject;)

    I'd been thinking through ways to figure out the wiring and decided to search/buy an electronic signal circuit tester from AMZ, arrived on Tuesday. I missed the delivery because I was focused on our first off-shore fishing trip of the season...can you guess where this is going?

    July 4th at 3:30am, we're 50nm off the coast heading the the canyon that's another 22nm to go. All systems were operating in peak condition, until they weren't. Both main engines shut down simultaneously, completely dead - no power at all to the MPDs. Genset and all other systems are fully operational. We knew it was electrical and tested every circuit breaker we could find, also inspected the fire control system.

    Completely clueless, spent an hour trying and retrying different ideas. Needed help from another boat (thank you SOLMATE) to relay calls to USCG and begin to arrange for a tow. Those APS breakers kept nagging at me and so I tried resetting them while a crew member manned the helm and noticed that the MPD's would flash briefly.

    I figured what do I have to lose, I removed the load side wire from the APS (and of course broke the rusted stud in the process) and jumped it to the port side line wire. Engine's came to life instantly and we were back in business (I think SeaTow was more happy than we were).

    As someone suggested earlier, the APS must be wired into the CAT PCP - and I will confirm that with the circuit tester. I kind of get the logic, if one engine dies or has low power for whatever reason, the APS would switch to the other. But why not a simple A/B/Both switch instead of this Frankenstein? What other options are there since I need to do something with the broken APS?
  13. chesapeake46

    chesapeake46 Senior Member

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    That is good news.
    Did you catch anything ?
  14. Bayhouse

    Bayhouse New Member

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    Unfortunately not, 3 run off's, but nothing came tight.