Trying to help a friend- he has a Fairline squadron 55 - none of his ceiling lights work- pulled the panel and there are two large DIN connectors on the top rail- one derives power from the 24volt switch on the panel which is working fine- this then goes on to various 24V circuits that all work fine-- the second of these DIN connectors supply seems to come up thru the deck at the back of the panel- we are getting no voltage on this cable. If i jumper from the switched cable over to the second, his lights work- Is there a disconnect, a fuse, a breaker somewhere that controls this second cable-? Both supply cables appear to be pretty large- about 4gauge wire. I have looked in the engine room, the battery compartment, behind the panel, under the dash etc but have not found anything-- got to be something simple i am missing. My friewnd is a disabled
First, has anybody consulted the prints for the boat? Has anybody contacted Fairline for further support?
have not contacted Fairline- if you have a contact number it would be appreciated-- i have looked through the wiring diagrams that came with the boat- they are quite extensive but do not address where this cable goes or is routed-- they show a 24 volt power source cable running to the batteries which i believe is the cable that has power. The 24 volt light duty circuits have a diagram but unfortunately it ends at the panel. right now i am leaning toward the possibility that this cable i am questioning runs back to the batteries on the same run that the other 24 volt cable runs, going to a circuit breaker labeled domestic which is on the forward bulkhead of the battery compartment-- to get at the back of it requires going over the top of the generator in the engine room and removing a cover with about a dozen screws that is over the connections- that is probably what i will attempt tomorrow.
Before hunting fuses, put a meter on it and work backwards from the dead DIN plug. With the 24V switch on, measure from the second connector's + pin to a known good ground - the battery negative or a bonding stud, not the panel frame. 0V means the break is upstream. Something odd like 8-11V means you have a high-resistance joint: the circuit is live but cannot carry load. On the Squadron 55 the cabin lighting is normally fed from the auxiliary board behind the lower helm, through a latching thermal breaker that is not on the main panel face. Those trip and reset silently, and a corroded one will read fine on a meter then drop out the moment lamp load is applied. Put your jumper through an ammeter and see what the lights actually pull - if it climbs past the breaker rating, the breaker is doing its job and you are looking at a short or a lamp that has gone low-resistance. Two more things worth a look. The deck plug where that cable comes up: the pins oxidise and the crimp inside the boot fails long before the copper does, and a jumper bypasses exactly that joint. And the return path - if those ceiling lamps are earthed to a local bracket rather than the common negative bus, a bad bond gives the exact symptom you describe, works on a jumper, dead on its own feed. A 12V test lamp across the connector will tell you more in 30 seconds than an hour of pulling fuses.