We are in stalling a Peplink MAX BR1 MK2 LTEA on our boat. When in the Marina (most of the time) we have shore power and all 12v Batteries are isolated and turned off. When at sea we use this 12v batteries and obviously have no shore power.
We want to hard wire the device to the 12v batteries, but when these are off we want the device to run from a regular plug.
Is there any reason why both cannot be plugged in at the same time or will this cause problems with the device if both the hard wire and the plug are supplying power?
I have had the same model on multiple boats. Why would you turn off 12v? Usually people use shore power at the dock to charge their batteries and keep their systems working. You still need 12v bilge pumps etc. Batteries should stay charged. Why not leave the Peplink on 12v all of the time? For us it provides a great tool to monitor boat systems, security cameras that are on the boat, etc.
@mystery - it will be on all the time. We isolate the 12v batteries when on shore power but they are maintained by the charger in this state. The bilge pumps are on separate isolation. The Peplink will be on at all times because it will be plugged into shore power when 12v Isolated. Many, many reasons for isolating batteries (including fire risk and battery drain should shore power fail/run out), I’ve never been on a sailing yacht where this was not the approach. But the pros/cons of that are probably better suited to a dedicated sailing yacht forum.
Fire risk? Doubt isolating changes anything. Reality is if there is a short prevented, then when you go to use the yacht, the risk is just delayed and it will happen at another time.
Battery drain? A peplink will not drain a yacht’s battery bank by itself for weeks probably. Invest in a monitoring tool/alarm that you can monitor shore power and 12v battery bank status. You can be alerted on your phone if shore power is lost, or if 12v bank stops receiving charge, starts depleting too far.
Thanks for your input. I really was not looking for a debate on how to manage power on my boat when unattended, better suited to a different forum I’d suggest. I just wanted to know if two concurrent power sources on the device would be a problem which was succinctly answered by @Rick-DC.
I don’t have my MAX transit on me right now, but as soon as I get it back I will check that the AC connector and the green wired connector are not directly connected, and fully isolated.
You should power the BR1 via the AC plug and then check the voltage at the terminal block (With nothing else connected) If you see 12V, then you would be back feeding the DC bus via the transit unless you isolate it with a diode.