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Kobelt Controlls — ran away yesterday! Any ideas?

Discussion in 'Electronics' started by luvtocruise, Jun 3, 2022.

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  1. luvtocruise

    luvtocruise Member

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    I am currently at Compass Cay. Yesterday when we came in here, there was a pretty good current running, and when we got into the basin, i did as I have been doing, I spun the boat around, then stopped it, turned on the yacht controller and stepped up into the dingy so I could see the entire boat. I then started backing down to the slip and bow and stern thrusting etc. I wasnt pretty, but finally I managed to get it into the slip, we were literally right where they wanted me, when the Dockhand said stop, i went to bump both motors in forward to stop my backwards momentum and the throttles stuck in forward. The boat ran away— I yelled to throw the lines — jumped out of the dingy and was able to drive the boat away without any damage save, one board on the dock.
    I did not hurt anyone, any boats or my boat —(very lucky) .
    I drove out of the channel and thought to myself I should shut this down and it will reset, so thats what I tried. I shout down in the channel and could not get the motors fired up again as they were stuck in gear.
    In the end we figured it out — there is a tiny fuse in the kobelt ecu (10 amp) that blew and this caused this issues.
    A few questions:
    Has anyone ever heard of this with Koblet controls?
    Any ideas why the fuse may have blown?
    Why would the controls not fail to neutral?
    Do you think the yacht controller had anything to do with this fuse blowing?
  2. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    This is a joke, right? Docking the boat while standing in the dinghy, I assume on the swim platform? What sane person would even think of doing this?

    i would never dock any boat without having quick access to stop switches for the engines. Never. I even worry during the 10 or 15 seconds it takes me to move from the PH to the aft deck when docking

    fuses usually don’t pop without a reason. Something is wrong with your system… when was the yacht controller installed, recently? I would recommend not using it for the rest of your trip and see what happened.
  3. luvtocruise

    luvtocruise Member

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    Yacht controller is 4 years old, dingy was on the fly bridge so, i was literally 20’ from the shut downs, it would essentially be the same as if I had walked to the aft part of the fly bridge, sorry I didnt explain that better.
    We took the yacht controller out off the equation by unplugging the leads, and it might have played a role in the failure, but I think the issue was in the ECU for the kobelt controlls as thats where the fuse blew
  4. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    My point is that one should always be close to engine shutdowns when maneuvering in close quarters. That’s is why every boat that has engine controls on an aft deck or cockpit also has engine shutdowns there. A 20 ft obstacle course is unsafe. You were very lucky especially considering how tight it can be at Compass.
  5. mapism

    mapism Senior Member

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    My personal answer to the first and the latter of your questions is never and yes respectively.
    Actually, for the latter it's a bit of a long shot, and only someone who knows BOTH Kobelt and YC systems can tell for sure, after a very careful inspection. And this very same person is the only one who can answer your other 2 questions in between.

    Anyway, imho Kobelt (electronic, I suppose?) engine controls are among the very best and more reliable in the industry, and this alone is the reason why I would think that the fault has something to see with the YC installation instead, one way or another.

    One question: is the gear selector on your gearboxes controlled by a lever connected to the Kobelt actuator via mechanical cable, or is it only wired up?
    I am asking because one of the reasons why I prefer Kobelt controls to most others is that their gearbox actuators (and also the engine governor ones, when mated to mechanically controlled engines) still allow to operate the g/box selector by hand with the actuator levers, even in the event of a catastrophic problem disabling all onboard electronics.
    But this only applies to gearboxes with mechanical selector.
    Last edited: Jun 3, 2022
  6. luvtocruise

    luvtocruise Member

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    Mine have a gear selector box on the port engine and that goes to each transmission they are actually shifted mechanically by this gear box — the box gets an electronic signal from the kobelt or the yacht controller and moves the levers via some type of actuator . There is a wire that goes to the ECU and it has a breaker in the engine room panel — i have a power breaker to each engine P & S and one for the Kobelt ECU so three breakers.
  7. mapism

    mapism Senior Member

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    I'm struggling a bit with your description, but I think you've got mechanically controlled gearboxes, driven by a Kobelt actuator (the component that you are calling "gear selector box") which is connected via push/pull cables to the actual gear selector levers, which are necessarily on the gearboxes.
    The fact that it's placed on port engine is irrelevant, because this actuator handles two push/pull cables, so regardless of where the actuator is placed, one cable goes to port g/box and the other to stbd.
    If this photo reminds you of what you described as "gear selector box", that's the Kobelt actuator which works as I'm saying.
    And which allows you to select the gears also manually with the two black knob levers, after disengaging the electrical motor.
    So, in an emergency, you can still operate the gearboxes manually - though of course that's challenging, if this actuator is inside the e/r...
    Apropos, which boat/engines/gearboxes are we talking about?

    Anyway, in your boots I'd chunk the YC overboard and replace it with an original Kobelt wired remote.
    I appreciate that toys like the YC and similar are convenient, but toys they still are for good.
    There are good reasons why the remotes made by serious producers like Kobelt and Glendinning are wired, chunky and heavy.
    As well as all the wireless remotes of cranes and other critical equipments are more similar to sturdy bricks, rather than cheap TV remotes...

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  8. luvtocruise

    luvtocruise Member

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    Thats exactly what i have — gotcha on the remote
  9. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    If you have servos with cable actually doing the shifting, make sure one of the cables didn’t get linked or moved around increasing friction

    years ago I was getting intermittent errors with Morse controls because a mechanic had moved the cable out of his way while serving the 3412Es. The increased friction was sensed by the servo of high would shut down. Took me a while to figure it out.

    that said in your case I bet on the YC
  10. luvtocruise

    luvtocruise Member

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    Yes an for other than pulling the anchor and letting out chain the YC is on the shelf for the remainder of the trip.
    Kobelt said “When the fuse is blowing that’s the indication of high current drawn, caused probably by a jammed actuator.”
    So there is that—
  11. DOCKMASTER

    DOCKMASTER Senior Member

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    You could also just have a cable that is going bad and increasing friction to your actuator. These cables do go bad.
  12. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

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    I recall an issue with Mather controls to Cat 3412s & ZF clutches. I can not remember the remote controller brand. The hand held looked like a lil boat.
    In/out/in/out/in/out of gear would drive the (#%^) darn things crazy and loose its mind. Cycle the breakers and all was well.
    I discovered the issue trying to catch a mooring ball (wind & current of St Augustine) when the boat was still new to the owners. I was on the bow with the owner trying to hook the moor balls painter.
    It was so slow of an operation, I think it was applying engage & dis-engage current at the same time and crow bared the power supply.

    The owner learned to slow down the button pushing or use the helm levers.

    How fast were you activating your clutches?
  13. Danvilletim

    Danvilletim Senior Member

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    I had very bad Luck with similar Kobelt system on a 105’. Support is not good. There is one guy in Miami. He’s kinda of a grouch. We rebuilt the whole ecu / computer for like $7k. That didn’t work. Then we figured out it was a short.
    BrianR5525 likes this.
  14. rtrafford

    rtrafford Senior Member

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    I vaguely recall a grouch in the Ft Lauderdale shop several years ago.
  15. rtrafford

    rtrafford Senior Member

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    Agreed, Pascal. When I installed my system on the 53c, my instinct said to install large emergency kill buttons on the helm right next to the controls. Thought was to stay close, and in the event, swing away til I hit something.
  16. luvtocruise

    luvtocruise Member

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    Ok after speaking with the kobelt guys — here is what I found :
    1. The Kobelt CPU likes to operate in an environment that is no warmer than 132- 140F and in future iterations (after 2000) of this boat they actually changed the location of the ECU from the engine room wall to under the master bed in the A/c — when this occurred I was hard on the controls docking in a lot of current (first time with this much current) and my engine room fan had failed — i didnt worry about it since were were not going that far — I can tell you it was hot— I do not know how hot but it was really hot —I think this was a real contributing factor — when the board gets hot it can draw more current, it and cause a fuse to blow
    2. Kobelt makes a number of controls and some fail back to neutral some do not— this model when it fails, it fails wherever it fails — I failed forward — and to be honest — stuff went sideways so fast i would not have reacted to shut down the engines that quickly had I been right there to hit them — maybe others would have, but I would not have —with the experience I currently had at the time, I would have manned the boat as I did and tried to drive back out of the marina avoiding a collision with another boat
    3. We have addressed the issue with the cooling fan, replaced the 10am fuse and are not going to used the Yacht controller to dock the remainder of the trip
    Further tomm. I am going to leave this berth and once in an open area with no boats around, I am going to try and make it fail again, if I cannot then some confidence may have been restored — We are however cutting this years cruise short and will be heading back to the real world
    4. I have already been in contact with my local guys to move said CPU and associated wiring to the location suggested and will be installing a re-setable (sp) fuse at the helm
    Thanks for the info and good day
  17. mapism

    mapism Senior Member

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    I never came across one single boat with Kobelt controls where the CPU was installed anywhere else than in an e/r bulkhead.
    If in your boat it's normal to have e/r temperatures in excess of 140F, I'd rather address this problem before relocating anything.
    I mean, oversized fans, thermostatic control, whatever it takes.
    Not only the Kobelt CPU, but also any other equipment inside the e/r will be grateful for a cooler environment!
  18. luvtocruise

    luvtocruise Member

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    Did you not read where I said the ER fan wasn’t working that day but has since been addressed?
    My best guess is West Bay and Kobelt got together and said “Hey if this ER fan fails or the ER gets super hot for some reason this CPU could go out, or perhaps it happened and they said “we could easily move this into the A/C and it would simply never be an issue again.” — its literally less than 5’ away from where it resides now