Heart Interface Pathmaker(was: Alt. dead?)

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Speaking of combiners, does anyone have any experience with the Pathmaker by
Heart Interface(http://www.heartinterface.com/pathmakersheet.pdf)? My 73
has the original three battery(coach/house/generator) arrangement. I'm
planning to keep this, but will probably end up with 12V batteries for the
coach and generator and two golf cart batteries for the house. Also on the
wish list further down the road is an inverter/charger. The 100amp/3bank
Pathmaker looks like a good choice to combine this arrangement for charging,
but I've never heard anyone in this group mention these units. Any pitfalls
with having all three systems charged by the same source(I'm aware of the
problems involved with discharging in parallel) or problem reports for the
Pathmaker?

TIA,
Patrick

>
> You might consider a combiner which does not load down the
> power as does an isolator. You can see one on Gene's site.

 

[henry davis]

>Speaking of combiners, does anyone have any experience with the Pathmaker by
>Heart Interface(http://www.heartinterface.com/pathmakersheet.pdf)? My 73
>has the original three battery(coach/house/generator) arrangement. I'm
>planning to keep this, but will probably end up with 12V batteries for the
>coach and generator and two golf cart batteries for the house. Also on the
>wish list further down the road is an inverter/charger. The 100amp/3bank
>Pathmaker looks like a good choice to combine this arrangement for charging,
>but I've never heard anyone in this group mention these units. Any pitfalls
>with having all three systems charged by the same source(I'm aware of the
>problems involved with discharging in parallel) or problem reports for the
>Pathmaker?

I haven't heard of any problems - but then I haven't heard much about these
units except through techs at Camping World (all good).

One reason that I went with the Truecharge 40+ is because it provides 3
separate charging circuits that combine for 40 amps. If one battery has a
problem that can be detected by the charger (shorted for example) then that
circuit doesn't charge.

You lose that capability when doing a parallel charge. But then, I don't
think that this is a big deal in any case. Just check your batteries
periodically.

Henry

 

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Thanks Henry!

I like the Truecharge's capability too, but I also want to be able to charge
all three banks off the engine alternator without using a diode isolater. A
combiner that would only latch when the alternator was charging and the
"converter" was offline would be nice, but I don't know of such an animal.

Maybe I should just go with a three-way isolater and the 40+.

Patrick

>
> One reason that I went with the Truecharge 40+ is because it
> provides 3 separate charging circuits that combine for 40
> amps. If one battery has a problem that can be detected by
> the charger (shorted for example) then that circuit doesn't
> charge.
>
> You lose that capability when doing a parallel charge. But
> then, I don't think that this is a big deal in any case.
> Just check your batteries periodically.

 

[henry davis]

>Thanks Henry!
>
>I like the Truecharge's capability too, but I also want to be able to charge
>all three banks off the engine alternator without using a diode isolater. A
>combiner that would only latch when the alternator was charging and the
>"converter" was offline would be nice, but I don't know of such an animal.
>
>Maybe I should just go with a three-way isolater and the 40+.

The Truecharge has built in isolation - that takes care of the charger
operation. So, it seems like you should be able to use a combiner with the
control line tied to the alternator output. I'll take a look at some
alternatives that I have information on.

Henry