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Locator turns off when engine is cranking????


sheepheadslayer

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I had the same problem last year. I believe that even the loss of a couple of volts to the depthfinder when you are cranking the motor will shut the depth finder down.

I had to wire my Lowrance directly to the battery to prevent that from happening.

Cliff

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when you crank the engine,the starter is demanding most of the juice the battery can supply.As previous question,did you wire with a heavy enough wire to allow for your graph? Is your battery large enough to give both circuits a good amount of power?check the voltage on the battery to see if it is at 13.8 volts,as it should be. Worst case, buy a battery seperator diode to keep the starter from robbing the juice from the graph. good luck 2

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I've got the same problem and am frustrated, to say the least. I am hardwired directly to the starting battery and not tied into any other electronics, but do not have separate terminals. I'm guessing my battery just isn't good enough to handle the startup and still keep the graph going, so I'm looking at getting a new battery. Not to sidetrack off this subject, but do you recommend Trojan batteries? I want to get a good battery so this problem goes away. Thanks for the help.

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I don't think a diode will help it will drop 0.7 Volts across it the whole time leaving you with 0.7V less at your depthfinder. When you crank main engine the battery voltage is dropping too low for your DF to stay on.

It sounds to me like the

1) battery is going bad or

2) your have poor connections

Measure the battery voltage with nothing turned on if it's 13.5V or higher start looking at your connections especially at the battery then your motor, then going to your depthfinder.

Good Luck,

Ferny.

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Had the same problem in the past on a brand new Tyee. The accessory circuit wire was only 16 ga wire. Ran an additional 12 ga rubber cord to the console and wired all of my electronics to this circuit. I noticed the electronics going dead at night when I turned on my spot light (not good) that was plugged into the 12V outlet on the dash. They never run a large enough wire to handle the amount of current a spot light draws. Most depth finders and GPS's quit or reset when the voltage drops to around 9-10V. Don't forget to fuse any new wiring you run from the battery cause if the wire shorts out or gets pinched that battery can melt the wiring in an instant and possibly cause a fire. I would guess that your battery is bad or you have a bad connection. Your locator doesn't draw enough current by itself to max out a 16 ga wire.

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Any solutions to this problem? I am noticing the same on my newly installed LCX-27. I wired into an open accessory switch and my graph shuts off every time when I start up. Sure is a bummer but I'm curious if anyone got to the bottom of this.

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Ensure your battery is fully charged.

Clean battery connections.

With the motor and all accessories off, turn on your sounder and go into your menu to show voltage.

If it shows below 12.5 volts you battery is suspect.

Most sounders have a threshold of 10-17 volts.

Drop below that and it'll shut off.

Lets say you've done the above and everything checks out good.

Time to clean ALL accessory connections from the battery to the fuse/breaker panel and then from that panel to their respective device/accessory. Don't overlook cleaning the the fuse holder for your sounder. As suggested jumping up in wire dia from the battery to panel might be in order.

Try bypassing the breaker panel and wire directly to the battery.

If that all checks out then consider the following.

What type battery are you using for your starting battery?

A deep cycle battery is intended for continuous use and not as a starting battery. If you put a starting battery in its place then that isn't all that good if your running accessories off that battery. A starting battery in not intended for long draws. A dual purpose battery would be the best solution here.

Still having trouble? Try taking the power for your sounder from the trolling motor. Yes, its possible you might get interference but the half a dozen trolling motors I've owned, only one would interfere with a sounder. That was years ago.

Its worth a try.

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I must be losing it...I could of swore this thread was on open water. Frank, I have a starting battery now and I did see the above reply of the Lund wiring being suspect (not looking forward to pulling new wiring for the console power panel). When I installed, I followed the Lowarance installation guidelines. I wanted to put it on the trolling motor battery but Lowrance specifically said not to. At any rate, I will try your suggestion of checking voltage. I'm thinking the starting battery is probably suspect. I believe it is going on three years and was a cheap battery to start. Thank you,

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For some of you guys, maybe when you wired your DF to an accessory outlet or switch, when you turn the key to crank the motor, the accessory circuit is automatically shut off, in order to supply full battery current to the motor. Thus, your DF shuts off. Solution would be to wire direct to the battery. If it still shuts off, I would investigate the battery.

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I had the same problem with my new LCX-27 and I had a thread going on it about 3 weeks ago.

I had mine wired into an accessory switch on my Lund fisherman and not directly to the battery(starting bat). What fixed it for me was trying a new ground. Maybe I had a bad connection to start with?? I don’t know.

On a second acc switch, I have an am/fm/cd stereo and a vhf radio. Now, when I only have my graph on I can start the motor and the graph does not shut off. However when I have the graph and radios on and start the motor--graph shuts off.

There has been talk that maybe the batteries are bad. I really don’t think, with 5 or so people on here having the same problem, that we all have bad batteries. I was using a new fully charged bat when it first happened to me. There is a possibility that the new color graphs call for a stronger/high quality battery.

I have talked to a few area dealer boat riggers and they all have different answers. Maybe someone from lowrance would have the answer?

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I had mine wired into an accessory switch on my Lund fisherman and not directly to the battery(starting bat). What fixed it for me was trying a new ground. Maybe I had a bad connection to start with?? I don’t know.

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Switching my ground fixed it for a short time, but now its back to shutting off again when I start the motor.

I am going to have to retract my statement about everyone's batteries being bad because now I’m thinking it could be my battery.

Question 1: To all, what is the volt reading when your motor is running and when not running? Mine is about 11.7-12.1v while running and low 11's or less when not running. That seems low compared to what it should be as mentioned above.

Question 2: Do you guys/gals use just a starting battery or the combination starter/deep cycle?

I think I will get a load test on my fleet farm marine starting bat, stamped Feb. 08. Maybe its bad and I need to get a name brand bat?

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"Question 1: To all, what is the volt reading when your motor is running and when not running? Mine is about 11.7-12.1v while running and low 11's or less when not running. That seems low compared to what it should be as mentioned above."

I think I can say with certainty that your battery is the problem there. Its bad, or your connections are bad, or your not charging it between uses. Yes, even though it connected to your outboards charing system, if you use accessories on that battery it has to be charged after a day on the water.

If your sharing accessories with a your outboard's starter then you want a combo Marine Dual Purpose Starting/Deepcycle battery. If the outboard is on the small size you could use a a full out Deepcycle. You don't want to use a Starting battery with accessories attached to it.

I would not run a questionable battery on any type charging system. If its stamped Feb 08 bring it in have it tested. If its bad then you'll get a new one or at least prorated.

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Question 1: To all, what is the volt reading when your motor is running and when not running? Mine is about 11.7-12.1v while running and low 11's or less when not running. That seems low compared to what it should be as mentioned above.

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There are a few things that need to be established beyond the obvious clean all connections.

1. What is the low voltage cutoff of the locators in question? The manufacturer should be able to answer that.

2. What is the battery voltage of the system when cranking the engine? Check it at the battery and where the device is connected and turned on. If they are basically the same the wiring is fine. If the cranking voltage is close to, or less than the low cutoff voltage you have the reason.

3. Figure out the root cause. First thing to check out is whether or not the battery is large enough.

Does the battery size you have meet or exceed the engine cranking needs? Usually, the engine mfg can tell you the necessary size of battery. May want to consider something with more than the minimum spec.

Is the battery OK? Meaning is it being charged properly. Have the battery load tested. Is it OK? If you can check it, is the electrolyte level OK?

If it all checks out so far, perhaps the starter on your engine is drawing too much power. It can be tested for current draw.

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3. Figure out the root cause. First thing to check out is whether or not the battery is large enough.

Does the battery size you have meet or exceed the engine cranking needs?

After speaking with a reputable dealer about this shut off problem, he suggested to make sure I have a battery with enough Marine Cranking Amps (MCA) and/or Cold cranking amps (CCA).

I have a 115 hp and he said for 115 hp and larger they like to put in a 1000 MCA. I looked at what I had and it was a 525 MCA (450 CCA). This was a new battery put in by the person I bought the boat from and I’m sure he just didn’t spend more than he had to.

So I picked up a new interstate 1000 MCA 800CCA, made sure it was charged, and put it in. Turned over motor (without it firing)—tried it a couple times and Graph stayed on.

I’m sure the 525 MCA bat I have is not bad, rather just doesn’t have enough to start the 115hp and run the graph and radio at the same time. Now I have a extra starting battery with no use for it, but at least my graph wont shut off when I turn over the motor.

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A big thing on batteries in boats is the size of the motor (as listed above) and the type of fuel delivery system it uses - a DFI or EFI 4 Stroke require (and subsequently provide) more amps than a carb'd motor did in the past. You need to have a larger battery to give it the reserve it needs to run properly. 1000 MCA is a good target to shoot for.

marine_man

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