Electronics shut down-Voltage drop but...

[jpaulsen]

Ok so I have an 05 620 with a 225 Vmax with a Cabelas Angler Group 27 starting battery. Battery puts out 950 CCA (1200 MCA). Only since I recently installed my LSS1 hub have I had issues where when I start my engine..the radio and dash sonar (HDS 10) restart. My LCX 27 at the bow seems fine. I'm guessing there is a voltage drop with the addition of my LSS1 sounder now and I'm looking at upgrading to a 3100 series with at least 1000 CCA. I think the 950 CCA should be fine for my engine but before I get a new battery wanted to run through all the options...

I also read on here somewhere that with some of the older rangers there were some grounding issues with the accessories switches causing the same issue and guys who re-grounded their sonars fixed the issue.

I've checked the battery leads at the motor to make sure they are snug and sanded all of the battery leads last night to ensure good connection.

Optimally, I wanted to have a dedicated battery just for starting, one for my electronics and then my 3 for my 36V system. Problem is where do you put a 5th battery?! Plus I only have a 4 bank charger so I don't know if I'd be ok without having a dedicated charger for the starter battery.

[REW]

J,
There is no question that switches can cause enough voltage drop to cause issues.

The thing to do, is to put a good digital voltmeter directly on the terminals of the starting battery and start your engine, with all of the electronics turned on.

Record the voltage on the battery terminals before, during and after starting your engine.

Many of the electronics units on the market today will shut themselves off if the voltage at the terminals of the electronics fall below 11 volts.


So, start at the terminals of the battery and see what the voltage is, before, during and after starting your rig.

--
Now, go to the accessory switch and do the same thing on the load or electronics side of the accessory switch. i.e. measure the voltage going to the electronics, before, during and after starting your rig.
If you find that your voltage is fine at the battery but is not fine after going through the accessory switch, you need to clean and reinstall the connections on your accessory switch. If you still have the problem of good voltage at the battery but bad voltage at the output of your accessory switch; you need to replace your accessory switch. A good switch should have essentially 0 voltage drop across it when turned on.

--
If you do find that your voltage is falling below 11 volts on your battery during starting, you need help at your starting battery. You can go to a larger battery - like a group 31 that I went to when I had the same issue; or you can parallel one of your trolling motor batteries to the starting battery to take care of the issue. You can put a battery selector switch in the jumper wire between the trolling motor battery and the starting battery. That way, if running the boat, you select the trolling motor to be in parallel with the starting battery. But, if you want to charge the batteries, you open the switch so that each battery is isolated and the on board charger can properly charge each battery separately.

The use of the jumper and battery selector switch is actually a good idea anyway. That way, if you did not have the trolling motor selected, and if your main starting battery went dead due to use or what ever, all that you would have to do would be to flip the switch to put the trolling motor in parallel and you would be able to start the motor without any issues.

REW

[Dave S]

Does any one know what kind of electrical demand the LSS-1 puts on your battery? Amps / hr ?? Have heard it requires far more power than the HDS unit.

I also installed a HDS unit with Structure Scan in a 2007 Ranger with Optimax starter battery and for the first time in 3 years had my starting battery become run down at the end of the day that the battery would not turn over my 250 Yamaha motor. I was running two livewells and the HDS for 10 hrs with structure scan for 3- 4 hours. Fortunately last year I took the advice of REW and several on WC and had wired a selector switch which with the flip of a switch allowed me to jump my starting battery from my trolling motor batteries and get my motor started.

I have my LSS-1 wired into my accessory panel so I can simply shut off the power to the LSS when not searching for fish. Learned that I need to be allot more deligent of shutting it off when the boat is anchored and not running the main motor for extended periods of time.

[REW]

Dave,
Your LSS-1 draws 1/2 amp when on.

http://www.lowrance.com/Products/Mar...pecifications/

Each of your depth finders draw 1/2 amp when on with the back light off.
They each draw 1 amp when the back light is on.

However, each livewell may be drawing up to about 5 amps. So, I would be inclined to think that the livewell is what caused the battery to be discharged; rather than the depth finders.

But, even at that - if your cranking battery was discharged in only 4 hours of this use, either your cranking battery was not fully charged; or your cranking battery is on its way out. You should have only used about 50 amps out of a 120 amp battery.



Good luck
REW

[David Anderson]

Originally Posted by jpaulsen

Ok so I have an 05 620 with a 225 Vmax with a Cabelas Angler Group 27 starting battery. Battery puts out 950 CCA (1200 MCA). Only since I recently installed my LSS1 hub have I had issues where when I start my engine..the radio and dash sonar (HDS 10) restart. My LCX 27 at the bow seems fine. I'm guessing there is a voltage drop with the addition of my LSS1 sounder now and I'm looking at upgrading to a 3100 series with at least 1000 CCA. I think the 950 CCA should be fine for my engine but before I get a new battery wanted to run through all the options...

I also read on here somewhere that with some of the older rangers there were some grounding issues with the accessories switches causing the same issue and guys who re-grounded their sonars fixed the issue.

I've checked the battery leads at the motor to make sure they are snug and sanded all of the battery leads last night to ensure good connection.

Optimally, I wanted to have a dedicated battery just for starting, one for my electronics and then my 3 for my 36V system. Problem is where do you put a 5th battery?! Plus I only have a 4 bank charger so I don't know if I'd be ok without having a dedicated charger for the starter battery.

Your electronics is specified to run at voltages down to 10 volts. If it is resetting the voltage is dropping below this. When you are start your motor and your battery is weak it is possible to see the voltage drop at your electronics but they take relatively low current however if your battery is old or your connections are bad you will have problems. I would suggest that you look using a series 31 deep cycle for your main starting battery and it should be more than adequate to power all of your electronics, pumps, and lights. It will allow you to use your 4 bank charger without looking at an extra battery. I run a 24 volt system in my Ranger, 3 series 31 AGM's. I keep it plugged in when it is not in the water and I have never had to worry about power. I have 2 HDS's, LSS, Sonic Hub, LWX, and run pumps all the time and it cranks my engine everytime.

[jpaulsen]

REW - Dude, thanks for all the input and help... much appreciated.

Well, I bought a nice digital voltmeter last night and will check all the connections and accessory switch this weekend. Even if this battery looks good I will probably opt for upgrading to a 31 series starting battery of which I've read the Dual Purpose Starting/Deep Cycle as long as it has the CCA rating I need.

[BlackSilver]

If you decide to add a selector switch to parallel one of your trolling motors, one important caution.

Make sure that the trolling battery selected is on the "bottom" of the series string, in other words in a 24V series string, this must be the "0-12V" unit, not the "12-24V" unit. Otherwise you can end up with some seriously farkled ground issues, with the possibility of putting a dead-short across one or the other battery and a resulting explosion.

[3M TA3]

Originally Posted by REW

Dave,
Your LSS-1 draws 1/2 amp when on.

http://www.lowrance.com/Products/Mar...pecifications/

Each of your depth finders draw 1/2 amp when on with the back light off.
They each draw 1 amp when the back light is on.

However, each livewell may be drawing up to about 5 amps. So, I would be inclined to think that the livewell is what caused the battery to be discharged; rather than the depth finders.

But, even at that - if your cranking battery was discharged in only 4 hours of this use, either your cranking battery was not fully charged; or your cranking battery is on its way out. You should have only used about 50 amps out of a 120 amp battery.



Good luck
REW

So I take it then that you are assuming that the livewells were running the entire time. Would that be right Dave S? Were they actually running the entire time? I leave both mine on auto and at the most they only run about 10 to 15 minutes every hour. Your battery could be much worse off than REW implies.

[Dave S]

Thanks everyone for the info on the amp draw for the LSS-1. It appears it only draws 0.6 - 0.75 amp / hr which is very small. I had my front bait well and rear livewell pumps running at a high recycle rate for 10 hours which was the likely culprit. If they were running 75% of the time they would draw (5 amp x 2 x 10 hr x 0.75) 75 amps alone. Add in the HDS and Structure Scan for 10 hours and then having a hard time starting my kicker motor initially on this trip turning it over repeately at the end of the day and I can see why the starting motor would not turn over the 250.