2017 242X Solar panels not working

[Julian]

I wonder if when you sit and crank the stereo if shutting off the starter battery would work? With the starter battery on....I'll bet there is some draw from the engines and throttle body (they actually buzz in my boat)...

 

[props2you]

My batteries are connected correctly according to the diagram. I do notice that every time the AUX volts drop, the SYS follows right behind it, with or without the start engaged, but maintained a consistent 12.4v. While running the stereo I did notice the VSR engaging and kicking the volts up to 12.8/12,9, while disengaged it would creep back down to 12.4.

However, I did notice my digital gauges flashing in the analog tachs while just under house power, not sure this should be occurring, unless there is a small amount of power surging them to cycle on and off?!?!

 

[Coheeba]

@Julian Found one...

What manual is that? I bought the online service manual and it doesn't look anything like that.

 

[Mainah]

@Julian My thoughts as well, which is why I'm researching this issue. House stays house and SHOULD be completely separate of the starter. Is there a wiring diagram for hooking up the batteries? I would like to double check the dealers connections.

House is combined to start when dvsr is receiving charge from solar panels. That said it should cut off when the start battery gets below a certain volatge.

 

[Vlad]

I’m pretty sure I have the same problem on my 2017 242x. The problem can actually be pretty dangerous if you discover it while in the water. Also, I believe that it kills the starter battery.


I got my boat in August and used it multiple time for about a week. Everything was great. I keep my boat in a slip on a lake. Then about a week later, I could not start my boat and received a ton of engine communication failure messages, etc. on Connext. I put both batteries in parallel and was able to start the boat. I used it this way a couple of times hoping it’s just a battery issue. Then when I was getting from a lake gas station, I realized that the throttle didn’t work. No forward or backwards. The boat was idling with reverse buckets fully raised meaning that it was slowly going forward.


This was a rather stressful experience because when I discovered this, I was on a boat with friends and a few small kids while about 30’ away from going under a narrow bridge and trying to stop because another boat was heading at me already under the bridge. I barely made the u-turn and avoided hitting the bridge or the other boat.


I eventually got the boat back into my slip using this “idling” speed. Not much fun to drive this way especially under narrow bridges. I checked voltage of the starter battery and could see it going down every second from about 11V. I called the dealer and they replaced the starter battery as well as installed a bilge float directly wired to the house battery so that I can safely turn both batteries off.


Everything seemed fine for about 3 weeks until the same problem started happening again. Same as before everything would initially work with both batteries in parallel and then in a couple of days I got engine error and no throttle on the water. This time I was always turning off batteries before leaving. Also, I was running both batteries in parallel so I have no idea why would Yamaha disable the throttle. Very dangerous.


After reading this helpful post, I checked voltage in my starter battery this morning under direct sun light. It was actually showing negative -0.78V with the battery fully drained. I then covered one of the panel with a seat insert and checked voltage again. It was -0.56V. Then I covered both panel and the voltage was -0.06V. There was also no light on DVSR indicating no charging. Even after turning starter switch on, the voltage stayed the same. Implying no load on the starter battery other than the solar panels.


I did not want to fix polarity myself because my dealer has mobile service and I’m hoping will correct everything as well as replace the starter battery again early next week. Just wanted to post this as a warning to be careful if you run into this problem.

 

[Julian]

I’m pretty sure I have the same problem on my 2017 242x. The problem can actually be pretty dangerous if you discover it while in the water. Also, I believe that it kills the starter battery.


I got my boat in August and used it multiple time for about a week. Everything was great. I keep my boat in a slip on a lake. Then about a week later, I could not start my boat and received a ton of engine communication failure messages, etc. on Connext. I put both batteries in parallel and was able to start the boat. I used it this way a couple of times hoping it’s just a battery issue. Then when I was getting from a lake gas station, I realized that the throttle didn’t work. No forward or backwards. The boat was idling with reverse buckets fully raised meaning that it was slowly going forward.


This was a rather stressful experience because when I discovered this, I was on a boat with friends and a few small kids while about 30’ away from going under a narrow bridge and trying to stop because another boat was heading at me already under the bridge. I barely made the u-turn and avoided hitting the bridge or the other boat.


I eventually got the boat back into my slip using this “idling” speed. Not much fun to drive this way especially under narrow bridges. I checked voltage of the starter battery and could see it going down every second from about 11V. I called the dealer and they replaced the starter battery as well as installed a bilge float directly wired to the house battery so that I can safely turn both batteries off.


Everything seemed fine for about 3 weeks until the same problem started happening again. Same as before everything would initially work with both batteries in parallel and then in a couple of days I got engine error and no throttle on the water. This time I was always turning off batteries before leaving. Also, I was running both batteries in parallel so I have no idea why would Yamaha disable the throttle. Very dangerous.


After reading this helpful post, I checked voltage in my starter battery this morning under direct sun light. It was actually showing negative -0.78V with the battery fully drained. I then covered one of the panel with a seat insert and checked voltage again. It was -0.56V. Then I covered both panel and the voltage was -0.06V. There was also no light on DVSR indicating no charging. Even after turning starter switch on, the voltage stayed the same. Implying no load on the starter battery other than the solar panels.


I did not want to fix polarity myself because my dealer has mobile service and I’m hoping will correct everything as well as replace the starter battery again early next week. Just wanted to post this as a warning to be careful if you run into this problem.

I was curious if my polarity was reversed - one quick way to check without standing on your head is to unplug to solar panel connection between the 2 parts of the tower and test the red and black wires there for reversal. Mine were fine....I also check further down the line just in case...same result. So mine are fine.....just wired to the other side of the switches....so disabled if I have the battery switches off (which I typically do).

The reason the gates don't work isn't because Yamaha is "disabling" them, but because the servo motors simply don't have enough power to move them! Under the helm is a black box that you can remove the cover from, and operate the gates manually in the future.

You should only combine the batteries when you have a depleted battery that needs added juice to operate. So when I had this problem, I was able to put mine into combine and the gates operated. Also, I'm surprised your gates wouldn't work with the engines running....as the stators provide charge....so both your batteries had to be majorly depleted! You might want to get both batteries replaced or at least tested.

 

[jcyamaharider]

Mine has been working like a champ since I changed it. I have yet to charge it off of shore.

 

[Vlad]

Julian, my house battery was at 12.25V so it was fine. Only starter battery was bad. Also, because both engines were running, the stators had to provide sufficient additional charge (DVSR light was on). I'm not sure if manual operation of gates would be really helpful while on the way. Thought it was more for one time up or down vs manually changing position while driving. Still no idea why the gates and throttle didn't work with enough juice from the house battery and stators.

I do like your idea of unplugging wire connections. I'm assuming you're talking about small white connector on the port side of the tower around shoulder height. I'm not on my boat now but I remember seeing one there. I assumed those were for the speakers. But if they're for solar panels that's great. I can just unplug them to stop battery drainage until it's fixed. I could even temporarily reverse polarity right there until the dealer fixes it properly.

I also have a strong preference of having solar charging work while all battery switches are off. I keep my boat in the slip and turn all switches off. Solar panels would ensure that I'm always fully charged even if my bilge pump with the float directly wired to the house battery had lots of work.

 

[Julian]

Julian, my house battery was at 12.25V so it was fine. Only starter battery was bad. Also, because both engines were running, the stators had to provide sufficient additional charge (DVSR light was on). I'm not sure if manual operation of gates would be really helpful while on the way. Thought it was more for one time up or down vs manually changing position while driving. Still no idea why the gates and throttle didn't work with enough juice from the house battery and stators.

I do like your idea of unplugging wire connections. I'm assuming you're talking about small white connector on the port side of the tower around shoulder height. I'm not on my boat now but I remember seeing one there. I assumed those were for the speakers. But if they're for solar panels that's great. I can just unplug them to stop battery drainage until it's fixed. I could even temporarily reverse polarity right there until the dealer fixes it properly.

I also have a strong preference of having solar charging work while all battery switches are off. I keep my boat in the slip and turn all switches off. Solar panels would ensure that I'm always fully charged even if my bilge pump with the float directly wired to the house battery had lots of work.

The one time I had this happen, I had to shut the whole boat down, turn off all the batteries switches, turn on the combine switch, then bring the whole boat back online again, and this enabled to gate controls and shut off the voltage alarm.

The manual over ride for the gate controls is so you can get back "home" under power.....you are right, I wouldn't want to be maneuvering a lot with this approach.

On the solar panel item...yes....just unplug the white connector on the port side for now....at shoulder height...connecting the top bimini to the main tower.....you can check voltage there too.

 

[Vlad]

I checked voltage on the tower connector and it was around 16.5V closer to 6pm (still sunny but fairly close to sunset). Interesting observation is that there is a red and a black wires coming from the panel and polarity looks good because I had positive 16.5V. The bottom connector going to battery compartment had red and white wires. What I noticed is that the red wire of the bottom connector connects to the black wire of the top connector. Strange that the other wire of the bottom connector is white and not black but guessing this is where they messed up polarity. It's hard to see in the battery compartment where connections go. That said, my solar panels must be wired from the battery side because with all battery switches off and fully drained start battery I saw negative voltage from the solar panels and could remove it by covering panels. This is also what the dealer had told me.

 

[Julian]

I checked voltage on the tower connector and it was around 16.5V closer to 6pm (still sunny but fairly close to sunset). Interesting observation is that there is a red and a black wires coming from the panel and polarity looks good because I had positive 16.5V. The bottom connector going to battery compartment had red and white wires. What I noticed is that the red wire of the bottom connector connects to the black wire of the top connector. Strange that the other wire of the bottom connector is white and not black but guessing this is where they messed up polarity. It's hard to see in the battery compartment where connections go. That said, my solar panels must be wired from the battery side because with all battery switches off and fully drained start battery I saw negative voltage from the solar panels and could remove it by covering panels. This is also what the dealer had told me.

Cool...so you found where they reversed the wires....and it was right at the plug to the tower?? That'll be an easy to to fix!

 

[Vlad]

I had the dealer send a technician who fixed everything today. He basically confirmed everything that I was able to figure out with your help guys. The fix was to switch two wires at the bottom tower connector that Julian suggested above. He said that my setup was strange. Red and black wires at the top connector and orange and yellow wires at the bottom. Apparently the orange wire was supposed to be red and should have been connected to the top red wire. But it was connected to the top black wire instead. I haven't checked the boat yet, but according to the technician the battery is charging now. He also replaced the battery after confirming that the dead one was charging. The tower connector is the easiest way to check if you have wrong polarity and fix the problem.

 

[Sean Clements]

I have my tent. I love it!!

What is the make/model of that “boat tent”?

 

[jcyamaharider]

Shelter logic. 40 x 14 x 12.....or something like that. I bought it at Menards. Ot last a good while until we tried to move it to the property. All we need to do is buy another cover for the structure part, which we are getting ready to do.

 

[Todd Kyle]

I believe Ihave the same issue on a recently purchased 2017 242x - could you send a picture of what the wiring on the solar panel shuold look like as wll as the battery wiring? Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[jcyamaharider]

I believe Ihave the same issue on a recently purchased 2017 242x - could you send a picture of what the wiring on the solar panel shuold look like as wll as the battery wiring? Any help is greatly appreciated!

You need to check these to wires, Sp+ and G1. If they check positive voltage you are good, if it is negative voltage I swapped these wires up in my tower. ( second pic )

 

[Todd Kyle]

Thanks for the help! This was a huge problem for me, and I was able to tell the dealer the issue and they fixed it - great info!

 

[Glen]

Found the source of my charging issues-
Found the 5A fuse blown and replaced-
Further investigating, if for no reason other than to understand the system better, discovered this in the port tower connector-
Totally corroded.
Looking at it can't be sure if it was from water incursion (note end half out), or purely electrical.
Since mine, until this year, has appeared to work as designed (solar kept batteries topped off...even all Winter), I am assuming it is water.
Will replace the connector, with like connector and expecting that to do the trick.
Will simply leave disconnected until the swap is done-
(of course I am buying more than one, in case I am wrong
Giddy up! Love this forum and group of Yammers!!!

 

[Todd Kyle]

Wow, good find. When your panels were working as designed, what was your voltage reading when you were anchored with radio on etc? Mine (2017 242x) reads between 13.9 and 14.2 when running the engines, but drops quickly to 12.2 or below when I am anchored with engines off. I am not sure that the panels are charging...whats the best way to test if my panels are working? Thanks!

 

[Glen]

Wow, good find. When your panels were working as designed, what was your voltage reading when you were anchored with radio on etc? Mine (2017 242x) reads between 13.9 and 14.2 when running the engines, but drops quickly to 12.2 or below when I am anchored with engines off. I am not sure that the panels are charging...whats the best way to test if my panels are working? Thanks!

My numbers are not too far from those. It is a bit frustrating to see that drastic change.
With that said, have never had an issue while on the water, nor with the solar recharging for the next adventure.
Frankly, in Bimini for 9 days and never plugged the boat in. Didn't bring a charger. And never had an issue. Now we did more moving than sitting in Bimini and charging sun was near ideal, but the engine and solar charging took care of everything.

Until this season (solar not working), I have not been compelled to resolve this non-issue. I would like more accurate readings of each of my batteries and certainly, there has been a lot written on Yamaha flaws in design/execution, but my utilization model barely gets me towards the yellow zone of concern (battery consumption), so will invest time when return is worthy (or @swatski or @Julian figure it out and I'll do what they recommend ;-).