Garmin Gremlins-Maybe Low Voltage?

[ajw18]

Last two times out with my boat I've had some new little gremlins in my Garmins. I have a 106sv at the console and a 70s and 93sv with livescope system at the bow.

Updated the 106 and 93 and then went Crappie fishing way up a creek with my dad. Barely ran the big motor and had all electronics plus livewell pumps on all day. About halfway through, the old 70s started flickering and then froze up. I turned it on and off and it kept doing the same thing. Also, the Livescope kept going in and out. I would get messages like "a transducer is disconnected" and cannot livescope transducer cannot be found. It would come in and out seemingly at random. All the wires seemed to be connected snugly. Then, when I did crank the big motor the 106sv shut down. Now it shuts down everytime I crank the motor. I've had this happen on my old boat but this is the first time it's happened on this one.

Yesterday I went out and everything I described above happened again. Before I went I checked all connections and they seemed fine. I'm thinking that I have a low voltage problem. I've heard of low voltage causing everyone of the things I've described but I just bought the boat new last summer with brand new Interstate Batteries. The cranking battery is only a 24 series so it might not be enough for all the things drawing from it but it's been fine until the last two trips.

Any thoughts? Do I need to load test the battery? Go ahead and get a bigger one? Is it not a battery issue at all?

Thanks

[LWINCHESTER2]

You don't have to wonder about low voltage. Each unit you have is capable of displaying the voltage.
For example the 93sv. From the Traditional Sonar screen,
Menu->Sonar Setup->Overlay Numbers->Device Voltage (Show/Hide)

And I bet you will see that you have low voltage.

PS.
I left out that under System Settings you can set an alarm to warn you when voltage drops to a certain point.

[ifishinxs]

As Leonard stated. Just look at the screen it will tell you the voltage. So no doubt from your description you have a voltage issue. Livescope pulls some voltage and you are not the first to have an issue. Get the biggest baddest battery you can. Or install a stand alone battery just for your electronics. I like the idea of using a 31 series AGM as your starting and house battery.

[Gford]

We install new wire straight from cut off directly to battery. We have had so many voltage issues and find that all boats just don't have sufficient enough wiring to supply it.....we fix several "self installs"...and most of them are wiring issues.

[ajw18]

The Xpress dealer installed the console unit and Alabama Trolling Motor installed the rest. The 106sv is wired to the aux switch and the rest are wired directly to the battery.

Going to get the current battery tested. If it load tests fine I’ll probably get a 31 agm from Sam’s. If there’s a problem with it I’ll see what Interstate will do. I doubt they’d give me credit for it toward a larger battery, right?

Thanks for reminding me that the unit reads voltage.

[DOFC]

As Leonard stated. Just look at the screen it will tell you the voltage. So no doubt from your description you have a voltage issue. Livescope pulls some voltage and you are not the first to have an issue. Get the biggest baddest battery you can. Or install a stand alone battery just for your electronics. I like the idea of using a 31 series AGM as your starting and house battery.

What Bob said about AGM. And now that you have spent $4000 on electronics and power DO NOT scrooge out on the wiring. 10 gauge to everything.

[ajw18]

Checked the voltage today. Batteries were charged for 3 days. Turned on the units and they were only getting 9 volts. Grabbed the meter and only got 9 volts at the battery. Pulled the battery and took it to get checked. It came back "bad cell." I'm taking it to the Interstate Battery distributor in Birmingham Monday. It's within warranty so they should replace it but I'm going to see if they'll let me pay the difference and upgrade the battery. Whether they do or not, a group 31 is going in the boat (preferably AGM.)