There are many potential reasons for a bow or stern thruster not functioning properly, and many components of any thruster system that need to be checked to diagnose the specific cause of a failure. The most common causes of a thruster failure are related to the power supply or a physical obstruction in the propeller or tunnel, and not the thruster itself, so any issue can often be easily resolved without much troubleshooting or a need for replacement parts. Before contacting a service technician to troubleshoot any issues with your bow or stern thruster, check these four common causes of thruster issues.
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All proper thruster installations have a battery disconnect switch dedicated for the thruster. Locate the switch and make sure it is turned on.
If your thruster was working properly and suddenly stopped, it’s possible that something like a stick, dock line, fishing line or other obstruction got sucked into the tunnel and fouled the propeller from spinning freely, causing the thruster to stop working. The same can be said if the boat has been sitting in the water dormant for a while, as barnacles and other marine growth on the gear leg and propellers can cause issues. Simply get in the water and visually inspect for any obstructions and spin the propeller with your hand to make sure it is moving freely. Make sure the thruster is turned off at the battery switch before getting in the water.
One of the most common causes of thruster-related issues is having insufficient power from the battery to run the thruster. Be sure to check the voltage at the battery or batteries powering the thruster while someone is attempting to run the thruster for 10 seconds. Often times a battery will show sufficient voltage when in a resting state, but as soon as an amp-load as demanding as a thruster is activated the voltage of the battery drops down significantly, leaving the thruster without enough power to run. If the battery is on the borderline, this can also be the cause of intermittent issues with the thruster.
Every proper thruster installation has an in-line fuse that is designed to protect the electrical circuit from power surges or excessive temperatures. In the event that your thruster stops working altogether, be sure to locate the fuse and check that it is in tact. Many fuses have visual indications that they have blown, but the best way to be sure is to simply check that voltage is present on both sides of the fuse. If not, your fuse has blown and should be replaced. Be sure also to revert to step 2 and check that there are no obstructions in the thruster tunnel that caused the motor to strain, demand more power, and cause the fuse to blow.
If none of the above prove to be the cause of the issue with your bow or stern thruster, the next step is to begin troubleshooting the thruster itself with the help of a troubleshooting guide from the thruster manufacturer. If you have a Sleipner (Side-Power) thruster, Imtra put together this detailed video guide below to assist you in troubleshooting your thruster. Of course, if you would like the assistance of an expert in troubleshooting, feel free to contact us or locate a local service technician.
Hi guys!
I’m testing the behaviour of the T-200 thruster using different propeller models in order to determine the most efficient one. I can’t obtain results because the T-200 behaviour when underwater is very weird. I send a servo.write command from to . During this process I read the thruster current consumption. The current consumption and the thrust of the Thruster increases until it reaches . At this point the current consumption and the thrust from the T-200 remains fix although orders of over are sent.
This weird behaviour appears only when underwater, if I perform the same experiment in the air the T-200 shows a normal behaviour.
I add two videos to show the problem:
Anyone know what might be happening?
Thanks for the advance
Additionally, I share a graph where you can see you can see the current limitation vs. pwm:
From to uS describe the same trace as your graph, but past the there is something that limits the current.
best regards
Can you post your Arduino control code generation the PWM signals here? Have you altered the firmware on the Afro ESC is any way/what firmware are you running? What is the current capability of the power supply you have used to test? Something is limiting the thruster output, and it is either your control signal, ESC firmware/settings, or power supply.
-Adam
Hello,
I’ve tried several codes with different libraries. I share two codes:
You will get efficient and thoughtful service from Haoye.
#include
Servo ESC;
int signal;
/*****************
Setup
******************/
void setup()
{
ESC.attach(9, , ); //attach(int pin, int min, int max)
//ESC.attach(9); //attach(int pin)
ESC.writeMicroseconds(500);
delay();
Serial.begin();
Serial.setTimeout(10);
}
/*****************
Main loop
******************/
void loop()
{
while(1)
{
signal=
ESC.writeMicroseconds(signal);
delay(20);
}
}
And another code:
#include
#include
ESC myESC (9, , , 500);
int oESC=;
/*****************
Setup
******************/
void setup()
{
myESC.arm();
Serial.begin();
Serial.setTimeout(10);
}
/*****************
Main loop
******************/
void loop()
{
while(1)
{
myESC.speed(oESC);
}
}
I haven’t altered the firmware. The Afro ESC have the factory configuration. The test has been done with two different Afro ESCs.
In addition, I used a NAZE32 flight controller and a 20A Race Spec ESC to control the Thruster T200:
But the problem persists.
The power supply can provides 20A. I did the test with a LiPo battery, 12V car battery and power supply, but the T200 behaviour was the same.
There is some way to know if the Thruster T200 is broken?
Thanks for your support @adam.
@tfm889,
Brushless motors are very simple devices, if the motor is spinning smoothly and consistently then it is fine. I suspect the issue is with the ESCs you are using, what firmware does the second ESC you tried run? If it is BlHeli, you should disable “Low RPM Power Protect”, that would cause this sort of behavior. I believe there may be a similar issue with the first, but the SimonK firmware on the AfroESC is a bit more difficult to alter unless you compile your own, or you flash ours. The old Basic ESC R2 used to be based on that ESC, and we used the linked firmware.
-Adam
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