Last couple of trips when I go to from one place to another, one I hit the ignition switch, it cuts my Hummingbird unit off. Is this a sign that y cranking battery is beginning to fail? I've checked and cleaned all my connections, they are clean & tight. Motor still cranks easily. Thoughts?
It could be a sign that the battery is getting weak. Could also be charger problems, outboard charging system issues or just inadequate wiring.
If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity,
nothing else matters.
I've also noticed this on many later electronics, and it never happened on earlier units. The inlet wiring on most modern units is way too small. The power supplies are barely adequate, and don't have enough filtering or storage to keep the unit running during a few seconds of cranking operations. I've even had it happen with dual group 31 batteries (over 2200 cranking amps) wired in parallel. Cranking can take several hundred amps and can drop supply voltage below 12 v and sometimes below 11 volts. IMHO, it's the cheap built sonar of today. I can hook up my 14 year old LMS480 and it doesn't do it.
If your battery is good, and your graphs are wired through the boat's harness, then direct wiring your electronics and bypassing the harness will likely alleviate your issue.
2019 BCB Classic
Merc V8 200 4S
I did overkill and direct wired my electronics with 8 gauge wire directly to the battery and still had the issued with modern electronics. Zero issues with my old electronics.
I wound up putting in a 5th battery so it wouldn't happen. During troubleshooting, I monitored input voltage to my electronics right at the ingoing wires, and the internal voltage would still drop at times while supply voltage was constant. I believe the power supply is not adequate to maintain voltage at times when the transducer is really working,
This is a relatively new problem that rarely happened before these new larger systems became popular.
if you have a sufficient battery and proper wiring you shouldn't have that problem. I run 2 solix 15's with no issues. I did run a separate blue sea fuse block directly to the battery with 6 gauge. my units are connected with 8 gauge
Problem solved. Bought a new 1000CCA Battery and that solved the problem. The other battery was 850 CCA and 4+ years old. Thanks for the input & replies.
Use of a pulse type charger has in the past been identified as the true cause of sonar/gps unit resets for some.
Over-sizing the battery or simply wiring the units directly to the battery aren't so much of a fix but a cover-up as only reducing the voltage sag. The sonar/gps product support groups have jumped on blaming the boat wiring as the scapegoat rather than point out the actual failures present in their delicate input power filters.
The over-sizing of the battery and/or wiring direct to battery does not correct the root cause: a high frequency pulse charger has caused permanent circuit damage to the delicate sonar/gps unit's input power filters.
Last edited by Lou r Pitcher; 01-24-2018 at 10:51 PM.
so whats your explanation for those who don't have a high freq pulse charger, those who charge without the units on the boat or a breaker on the units but still have this issue?
John, from your description, I would also check the starting circuit on your outboard. I don't know which outboard you have, but as the starter brushes and/or the solenoid gets age and wears it takes more current to activate and turn the outboard. This creates a voltage drop in the supply (battery) that is seen by any other accessories. If you direct wired to the batteries with 8ga and all that is on that is the factory DF wiring, and all others systems are fine, you shouldn't have the problem where you needed to add a dedicated battery.Originally Posted by John Jackson
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Among other possibilities:
Poorly designed or faulty filtering of the outboard engine's AC power generation resulting in damaging charging output ripple leakage onto the vessel's DC power taking out the input capacitor filters
Excessive voltage sag present on boat's DC system actually allowing below the min. threshold input voltagestof the device as a result of inadequate battery or wiring.
Last edited by Lou r Pitcher; 01-25-2018 at 02:05 PM.
I've been through the wringer with this. It only started after upgrading my graphs. I sold my 250XS and bought a 300XS, and it's not near as bad. But part of the issue is with these Garmin units. Plenty of internet data about these issues. Garmin replaced one of my units. It got better, but never went away. I know the power supplies aren't sufficient when the internal voltage drops 2 to 3 volts below the supply voltage, right at the graph.
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