Electronics rebooting or shutting off.

[Top Water Huff]

My front and in dash electronics will restart when there is a surge on the battery. if I start the motor or even when the aerator for the live well comes on, they will reboot or not come back on at all. Sometimes I will have to turn off and on the master power switch to get them to reboot I have a fairly new battery. Any thoughts will be appreciated.

Thanks

[CatFan]

Battery too small, battery not charged, battery bad, loose connection from battery to engine or inadequate wiring for the electronics are the most common causes. An Optimax takes a huge battery compared to most outboards.

[TableRock Coral]

CatFan: Do you think that adding a diode and capacitor to the fish finder power supply would prevent momentary voltage dips from dropping out the unit? I don't have this problem, so I haven't had the opportunity to test this circuit.

[drgrammer]

I have thought about this as well. A big cap of. 5 to 1 farad (like the kind used in car stereo systems).

My shut down issues are chart related (loading charts, redrawing maps, etc) on the older legacy units, and not voltage drops so I didn't need to give it a try.

[CatFan]

CatFan: Do you think that adding a diode and capacitor to the fish finder power supply would prevent momentary voltage dips from dropping out the unit? I don't have this problem, so I haven't had the opportunity to test this circuit.

No. you’ll lose 0.7V with the forward drop on the diode to start with. The time the load is on a boat electrical system is far longer than the brief peaks a car audio system sees. A conventional cap just doesn’t store that much energy. Except for cases where larger wire would be excessively heavy or is inaccessible, it’s just a band-aid when the real fix is just larger wiring and is simple.

[wmitch2]

Where are you getting your power source from ? I suspect you've just "Tagged" on to a hot lead under the dash or at the bow. Todays electronics require 12v constant, uninterrupted and the only way to get that is to wire directly to the battery for both Pos and Neg. Run a dedicated 10 ga wire from the battery side of your breaker (Pos) and a Neg wire directly to the battery, then to a new fuse block either under the dash or like I did and put it under the locker lid in front of the drivers console. Attach your leeds from your finders to the new block and this should solve your "Flashing" problem.

[Lou r Pitcher]

Nothing that incorrect in wiring electronics from a boat's robust switched power circuit of the appropriate wire size having minimal voltage losses. If seeing resets, it may be simpler to troubleshoot/repair than give up and just 'wire around the problem' for each affected unit using the boat's wiring.

Boat electronics cannot be 'wired directly' to a battery as appropriate overcurrent protection is necessary at the battery location for each positive lead connection.

Some boaters such as those using pulse type battery chargers (without having heavy transformers) in the past have permanently damaged their boat electronics' internal input power smoothing filters by leaving their units connected to the battery during charging. That can result in resets due to brief power sags in their supply voltages during engine cranking. An added external smoothing filter in such cases might restore normal problem free operation.

Going to a house battery setup for supplying the boat wiring is another solution as then there are absolutely no power sags when cranking the engine.

[wmitch2]

Nothing that incorrect in wiring electronics from a boat's robust switched power circuit of the appropriate wire size having minimal voltage losses. If seeing resets, it may be simpler to troubleshoot/repair than give up and just 'wire around the problem' for each affected unit using the boat's wiring.

Boat electronics cannot be 'wired directly' to a battery as appropriate overcurrent protection is necessary at the battery location for each positive lead connection.

Some boaters such as those using pulse type battery chargers (without having heavy transformers) in the past have permanently damaged their boat electronics' internal input power smoothing filters by leaving their units connected to the battery during charging. That can result in resets due to brief power sags in their supply voltages during engine cranking. An added external smoothing filter in such cases might restore normal problem free operation.

Going to a house battery setup for supplying the boat wiring is another solution as then there are absolutely no power sags when cranking the engine.

Well, I[m not saying you're wrong, but I've had ZERO issues since I and many others have done what I said and did. I do, however wire the fuse block to the Pos lead off of the Boat side of the Breaker switch and always turn the switch OFF before plugging in the Charger. This Wiring set-up is what was instructed by Lowrance about 20 yrs ago when the were having issues with the X-25 (if I remember correctly). ANYWAY, You can do it which ever way you like. I'm just giving anybody the option of doing it as I did, which works for me.

[The Noid]

From past experience, this can also be caused by a power surge. I had a bad voltage regulator a few years ago and had the same symptoms you describe. To save themselves, many types of electronics will shut down in the event of a voltage spike.

[Top Water Huff]

Thanks for your inputs, looks like I have some options to try.

[Lou r Pitcher]

From past experience, this can also be caused by a power surge. .... To save themselves, many types of electronics will shut down in the event of a voltage spike.

Not much of anything on a rec boat typically results in much a voltage SPIKE .

Op seems is describing characteristics of a voltage DIP as the result of cranking the motor or turning on a pump motor.