I have 3 Lowrance HDS 12 Gen 3 units and have been getting a "Low Voltage < 11(v)" alarm. Any thoughts about this? Thanks
I have 3 Lowrance HDS 12 Gen 3 units and have been getting a "Low Voltage < 11(v)" alarm. Any thoughts about this? Thanks
What condition and size/type is the battery and how long does it take to alarm?
I consistently got voltage alarms on my lowrance electronics even after running dedicated large gauge wiring to the graphs. I feel the units are not reading the voltage properly. I finally changed the alarm voltage down in the settings to make it stop.
another thing that never made sense to me is that we are all running 10 ga or 12 ga wire to these units so they will have the best supply voltage possible then we tie into the 22 ga lowrance factory harness.
Butch Derickson
2011 Z521 w/250 hp SHO
Traverse City, Michigan
I ordered the boat and picked it up in March 2017 and they look pristine. I have 5 batteries; 3 Interstate Deep Cycle, 1 Optima Blue Top D27M and 1 M.E.S.A. M-Power MP1200 Battery. The alarm has come on a few times and I can't say exactly how long it has taken, but I believe it came on rather quickly this past Saturday. It's even come on while it was in my garage and I was just studying some lake maps.
double posted........delete
Originally Posted by dgilliamcfm
Is it happening when you start the engine?
If you haven't add a voltage overlay to your main page you use. What is the voltage?
Does the alarm go off when starting engine?
Of all the Lowrance graphs I have owned, they have all been fairly accurate when voltage drop is removed from the equation.
I use a regulated 13.8 volt supply that I use in the house for playing when off the water (verified with a calibrated Fluke meter). All of my graphs I have had Gen1's, Gen2,s and gen3's have all been within .2 volts of the power supply.
That being said, I have heard people say there voltage was off on these threads before. But it is hard to say how they tested them. Obviously in the boat is not the best way.
But with your setup, I would say you should have little voltage drop. Maybe look at poor connections.
What does you voltage overlay show in comparison to your battery voltage measured with a good volt meter at the battery, the difference is you voltage drop.
I have had the same problem. I've even had my battery go down 2 times. My battery is only 5 months old. I went to Interstate Batteries and bought an agm with the most cca and reserve minutes that they carry. Even with it the units would flicker when starting the engine after I had been fishing for a while. I have 3 hds units, 2 power poles, a point 1 antenna and a blue tooth antenna for the trolling motor. I just added a 5th battery and pulled all of the hds units off this week and put them on it. I'll know more after fishing Sunday.
Your issue sounds like a voltage drop issue, I gave some tips above to check for voltage drop.
Alarm only goes off when I am graphing. However, once I touch "ok" on the alarm, it goes away for the day. I just tested all 5 batteries (one is dedicated to my Viper Alarm system, so can't be the issue) and two were at 13.1, two at 13.0 & one at 12.9. My fear is it might be a poor connection somewhere, but not sure how to figure that out? My three Interstate batteries all have a little corrosion on the leads, so I'm going to remove and clean them real good, just to make sure that's not the issue. I'm also thinking I should remove the Optima Blue Top and take it to NAPA / Autozone and get it load tested. The Optima has all my electronics attached to it, so I'm thinking that one is the issue? After that, I'm in the dark?
Clean your leads and connections. I had issues with this on one of my boats.
Bryan McDonough
2023 Nitro Z21 XL
Nitro Team
Thanks for all the responses. I cleaned all the leads and connections last night (they look brand new again) and I'll respond later after I see whether or not this solves my issue.
Did you add voltage overlay to the graphs, and then measure the voltage at the battery like mentioned? The difference is your voltage drop.
Edit: forgot to mention, turn on your navigation lights, pumps and any other accessories, ohh and all your graphs on. And compare graph voltage to battery voltage. Note: Pumps will not pull much of a load when they are dry ran not pumping water.
Also the voltages you are showing are appear to be when you either just removed the charger or with charger hooked up.
You only need to check the voltage of the battery your graphs are hooked to (typically starting battery).
So, as I stated a few days ago, I cleaned the leads and connections to where they looked brand new. However, when fishing yesterday, the low voltage alarm came on, but ONLY when I cranked up the big motor and came on EVERY time I cranked it up. I've read above and other blogs that the load is causing a quick drop in volts, but that there is nothing to be concerned with and some comments to simply disconnect / turn off the alarm on my units. However, I would prefer to fix the issue, but not sure how to determine what the real problem is?
....I turned on my lights, all 3 Lowrance units and compartment fans, etc and the voltage overlay on my main unit showed 12.1, but dipped a few times to 11.8 & 11.9 while I was sitting there. While everything was on, I put a volt meter on all the batteries and they were all at 12.7. Thoughts?
You do have some voltage drop, I would like to see no less than .5volts. Was this test done on or off the water? (pumps will pull much higher load when pumping water)
My hunch is your starting battery (looking at your post#4) is or has lost some capacity. Although not much, just enough to start triggering an alarm.
Do you leave your boat plugged in and charging?
What do you have your voltage threshold set at on your HDS to alarm.
It sounds like you have it set at 11volts.
I have mine set to 10volts. When I had it set to alarm at 11volts, I would get an alarm every time starting. When hooked to a starting battery it would be normal for it to alarm when cranking. (note: I would get an alarm but no reboot of the unit)
What I would do.......
Set Alarm Threshold to 10volts
Check Battery
Check Charger
Upgrade wire guage (positive and negative) to minimize voltage drop.
Thank you....great info! The tests were done off water in my garage and I did not have the boat plugged in at the time of the test. However, I leave them plugged in / charging whenever its in my garage. The alarm is set to 11 volts, but will do as suggested and reduce to 10 volts and try to figure out how to upgrade the wire? The units never shut off or reboot, just get the alarm. Thanks again!
I also added a voltage overlay to my pages.
One note about the voltage alarm.
I use it as an indicator that I should maybe run my engine for a while or a possible issue. They key is to set it were it never alarms when starting the engine.
Different engines pull a different load when starting, and even a battery rating can effect the voltage the battery drops too.
If while fishing your voltage alarm goes off at 10volts, typically its to late, you will be jump starting.
I use volt alarm as an indicator of a possible problem. Example, my alarm never triggers, but I noticed that one day after fishing awhile and starting the big motor I started to get a voltage alarm. After several more fishing trips, it started alarming more often.
Tested the battery, found it was on its way out. The battery was going on 4years, so it was time.
In another scenario having the voltage alarm set and in combination with voltage overlay I was alerted too another voltage issue. Turned out to be a corroded fuse holder causing voltage drop.
The only time I get an alarm is those very rare days, and I am on the fish and have not started the engine for a long period of time, and get an alarm when starting the engine. Any other time I start investigating why.
Hope this makes sense!
Last edited by moetorola; 11-19-2018 at 02:36 PM.
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