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Thread: Voltage drop

  1. #16

    Re: Voltage drop

    Does anyone know of an electronics manufacturer who says you need a dedicated stand alone battery to run their equipment?
    If I bought equipment like that and found out "the fix" later I'd demand a full refund.

  2. #17

    Re: Voltage drop

    Quote Originally Posted by Gon Fishun View Post
    FIIIIIINNNNGGGGAAAAAA
    Whhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat??

    Quote Originally Posted by Fed View Post
    Does anyone know of an electronics manufacturer who says you need a dedicated stand alone battery to run their equipment?
    If I bought equipment like that and found out "the fix" later I'd demand a full refund.
    They do. It minimises inference with other marine electronics. An outboard is full it the stuff..

    sounder manual.jpg
    I intend on living for-ever....so far so good


  3. #18

    Re: Voltage drop

    Quote Originally Posted by finga View Post
    Whhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat??



    They do. It minimises inference with other marine electronics. An outboard is full it the stuff..

    sounder manual.jpg
    thats a great piece of fine print that one

    been chasing intermittent interference between my Bird fishfinder and VHF for months now (yep I am slow) seems to be a bad connection on the fishfinder base to unit connection??

    about to rewire a mates boat with a Lowrance that loves to switch itself off every second engine start

    cheers Murf

  4. #19

    Re: Voltage drop

    Some ifs & mays in there Finga, notice how the first instruction suggests hooking to the fuse panel and only talks about a second battery to stop interference.
    It sound to me like they're covering their rear ends, I bet if they thought they could get away with it they'd suggest you don't even turn it on.

    It's 2012 I don't believe any manufacturer would make something that couldn't run off a good single standard battery setup. There would be hell to pay if that was the case.

    FWIW Murf there has been a few threads come through here with that lowrance problem I think they could be a bit sensitive to low voltage but I bet if the cable size is right, the battery is right & the connections are right it won't happen.

    Be cautious with your critical length.

  5. #20

    Re: Voltage drop

    Quote Originally Posted by oldboot View Post
    any electronics that cant cope with a momentary drop in voltage or a small spike in voltage is just poorly designed...the designers need to go back to 1st year colledge and revise their voltage regulator theory....any spotty youth with an interest in electronics sould be able to manage better
    If it's so easy how about bunging a circuit diagram up so we can build our own little spike arrestor/power filter/sounder saver and put it in the power wire?
    I intend on living for-ever....so far so good


  6. #21

    Re: Voltage drop

    Well as long as I can remember, every bit of electronic gear I have ever installed, the manufacturer has provided warnings about a healthy battery power supply. Many of my boats have only had the typical dual battery arrangement but both engine and electronics running of one or the other battery at the same time. I have just made sure that the batteries capacity was well above the minimum requirement especially for engine cranking so that the voltage drop was not a problem for the electronics dropping out and always try and start the electronics after the engine has started as per manufacturers recommendations. So in 20 odd years of using this more sensitive type of electrics on board I can't remember ever having a failure, the stuff has been reliable to say the least.
    I think it would be fair to say that if your sounder or GPS is dropping out and losing setup info or data, there is a problem that needs your attention, and that will require starting at the Battery making sure that it is in good condition and currently more than adequate for the engines cranking needs and then working through all your connections, fuses, switches, wiring and size of wiring right through to where the power needs to be.

    I think that the gear we use is fairly robust and manufacturers have to build to a price and keep things simple to do so. To make gear that can cope with major voltage drops they would need to build in some style of UPS (uninteruptable power supply) which will require some type of secondary battery anyway which will add to the cost and another component to maintain. So to build that into every unit we have would be impractical and painful I think and as many of us are wiring up more and more and bigger gadgets we need to consider the dedicated electronics battery which becomes our UPS for all that gear.
    Voltage spikes are easier to manage and I believe that most bits of gear have filtering built in but it may fail over time with ongoing electrical stresses. So my recommendation is to fix it if you are seeing obvious symtoms, then your fishing day won't be ruined by electrical failures and dramas.
    Just to add that many buy a battery or dealers fit one that is only just adequate for their engines cranking requirements. So the battery is barely adequate when new. 12 months to 2 years down the track the battery is not adequate, so I recommend that if your engine requires 650CCA and you are running all your other stuff as well then go at least one size up to 720 or better 850CCA. If just a start battery only well one size up anyway. That goes for all your wiring too..

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