Sea Fire Remote

[ttmott]

Did you upgrade your blowers to the continuous duty squirrel cage ones? If you did those breakers need to upsize from 6 amps to 10 amps.

 

[dtfeld]

Did you upgrade your blowers to the continuous duty squirrel cage ones? If you did those breakers need to upsize from 6 amps to 10 amps.

I have not upgraded anything. I did replace the breaker with a new one to rule that out, did not fix the blower tripping the breaker. I’m thinking the breaker tripping is a 3rd separate issue, the horn/LED being one and the Engine shutdown/blower module being the second.

 

[Arminius]

Many units are available on Ebay cheap. Search Seafire, Sea-fire, & Xintex.

 

[dtfeld]

Many units are available on Ebay cheap. Search Seafire, Sea-fire, & Xintex.

Lol. Parts availability isn't the problem (for once!!), its determining which one and why. It gets expensive when you let the magic smoke out of the new part!!

So far I'm leaning towards the Blower module having issues, but need to verify. Could also be wiring/ground issues. This thread has provided a lot of information for troubleshooting.

The schematics from sea ray and the manual are exactly what I needed!

 

[dtfeld]

If all else fails RTFM. One of the manuals states something to the effect "the schematic is accurate when all systems and associated equipment is in it normal powered state". Duh!!

I found that BOTH blowers relays were not working suspicious. I am correct that the relays are not powered, but that's because the blowers were not turned on, thus NO POWER to the relays.

I bet if I turn the blowers on, the the relays will function, and I will confirm that the engine shutdown module is working just fine.

I updated my checklist to ensure blowers on and 12V on the blowers relay pin 6 & 8.

 

[dtfeld]

That still leaves both LEDs illuminated.

I think the only way the Red and Green LED's are on simultaneously if the diode in the helm switch has failed/fried. Probably took the piezo alarm out with it (or someone stuck an ice pick through it to shut it off).

I'll head up in the next couple of days and rerun the troubleshooting and pull the helm remote unit.

 

[Arminius]

I'm betting on the override switch as it is a moving part without protection from water.

 

[dtfeld]

I'm betting on the override switch as it is a moving part without protection from water.

That’s a possibility, but it actually works as intended. The bad diode would allow back feeding the circuit and a complete 12VDC circuit.

I think I could test with the blowers off and the pressure switch disconnected. That should remove power from the circuit.

 

[Dan B.]

Wow guys, this thread has been a great help... I am dealing with probably the exact system but with a 440 Carver aft cabin. Mine is 1995, and it just randomly decides to buzz. It might be that the bottle is marginally empty. So far that has not caused a shut down of the engines, so who knows, but since we are planning to start the loop this fall I have a deadline to fix it. The good news is, since reading this thread I now at least have knowledge of how the thing works, sort of...

By the way, David, please let us know how it turned out! Did you figure out why the red LED was on?

I think mine (red) sort of blinks randomly? and then after a few minutes just comes on solid. We just unwinterized a couple days ago, so have not had much time to look at it yet, over the winter we replaced our water tank in the forward bilge and just now wrapping THAT up.
Thanks again!

 

[Dan B.]

By the way guys, if you still have that trouble shooting guide, I sure would appreciate a copy? Could you PM me or something?
Thanks!!

 

[dtfeld]

To finish this up, after running the diagnostics, I determined I had a bad remote display unit. I purchased and installed a new one an everything works as intended. It was pretty easy, needing to connect just 3 wires.

My only gripe (very minor) is the remote is grey instead of black and the LED's are very bright. There is a button to dim them, but you cannot set it to Hi/Med/Low and have it retained to that setting.

 

[Dan B.]

To finish this up, after running the diagnostics, I determined I had a bad remote display unit. I purchased and installed a new one an everything works as intended. It was pretty easy, needing to connect just 3 wires.

My only gripe (very minor) is the remote is grey instead of black and the LED's are very bright. There is a button to dim them, but you cannot set it to Hi/Med/Low and have it retained to that setting.

View attachment 103211

Thanks!!!
I am pretty sure I am in the same boat (LOL)... turns out I have a mark III version, and I checked my bottle... Yeah, it is Halon, but looks to be just fine, if it had popped, I would have known it. Connections all look pretty good. So, now I have to figure out where to buy a remote... Mine really does look pretty beat up. I found a company called BoatiD, online, but not sure if the 131-461 is the right gadget for my control board. Maybe all are the same? Probably need to call Sea Fire...
Ahh... finally found the contact info on the web page! Maybe could help others with dumb questions also!

 

[dtfeld]

I bought from Sea Fire directly. Tech service will so help get you the right part.

 

[Carpediem44DB]

Wow guys, this thread has been a great help... I am dealing with probably the exact system but with a 440 Carver aft cabin. Mine is 1995, and it just randomly decides to buzz. It might be that the bottle is marginally empty. So far that has not caused a shut down of the engines, so who knows, but since we are planning to start the loop this fall I have a deadline to fix it. The good news is, since reading this thread I now at least have knowledge of how the thing works, sort of...

By the way, David, please let us know how it turned out! Did you figure out why the red LED was on?

I think mine (red) sort of blinks randomly? and then after a few minutes just comes on solid. We just unwinterized a couple days ago, so have not had much time to look at it yet, over the winter we replaced our water tank in the forward bilge and just now wrapping THAT up.
Thanks again!

Hey Dan B, Another Carver guy enjoying the value of CSR! Welcome. Have you found that the Carver owners forum is pretty pale in terms of activity as I have? I have posted several questions on the site about 506 specific topics and basically all I heard were crickets.
Carpe Diem

 

[Arminius]

With a suspect low voltage component, it may be helpful to remove it, (note the parts numbers), thoroughly clean it and its terminals up and put it back. Take a good look at those crimped on terminals. Could be you could flow rosin core solder in although it would be better to put new terminals on cut and freshly stripped wire as it will oxidize inside the crimp. Once I had an outboard harness in which some of the wires had turned into green dust. Diodes generally do not fail unless severely abused. Heat shrink tubing over the shank of the terminal and the wire's insulation will also serve as strain relief.

 

[Dan B.]

Hey Dan B, Another Carver guy enjoying the value of CSR! Welcome. Have you found that the Carver owners forum is pretty pale in terms of activity as I have? I have posted several questions on the site about 506 specific topics and basically all I heard were crickets.
Carpe Diem

Thanks for the welcome! I am not sure I signed up for the Carver Owners Forum yet to tell the truth... might have some time back, we had a contract on a Nashville 440 in late 2019 that fell through when it failed my survey. Think I signed up when I thought we had bought that boat... but have not been back to the forum since...

Just FYI, I am not a fan of Face Book, but there is a pretty active Carver page there I have posted some on. We bought this 440 last fall. After looking at boats all over the eastern half of the country, this one turned up in a harbor a couple miles away from home!

I only found this forum after looking for info on my Sea Fire unit... this thread was so helpful! When the thing started acting up, I didn't have a clue what it was supposed to do. (My last boat was a 47' Harbor Master houseboat, had a fire suppression unit, but no remote shut down. Was a gasser.)

Thanks again guys!

 

[Dan B.]

With a suspect low voltage component, it may be helpful to remove it, (note the parts numbers), thoroughly clean it and its terminals up and put it back. Take a good look at those crimped on terminals. Could be you could flow rosin core solder in although it would be better to put new terminals on cut and freshly stripped wire as it will oxidize inside the crimp. Once I had an outboard harness in which some of the wires had turned into green dust. Diodes generally do not fail unless severely abused. Heat shrink tubing over the shank of the terminal and the wire's insulation will also serve as strain relief.

Very good thought... this boat is a fresh water boat, and the connections looked pretty good that I have checked so far. Have not seen any really obvious corrosion yet... obviously something went south though, a bad connection would explain the flicker of the red LED I get. As in, it getting a signal that the extinguisher has popped and turns red here and there (because the voltage is dropping down intermittently.) I am sure that circuit is fail safe... I am thinking I could just crack the screws on the control board and wiggle the wires a bit to clean the connections. Prolly should before buying a new remote unit... although, like I said, it looks like it has seen better days!