Isolator Circuits ?????

[Walleye_GFA]

Ive heard that Ican get an "isolator" or something that I can put on my trolling battery to help reduce interference between my trolling motor and my front fish finder (Lowrence X-70)... when I hit the trolling motor, you can see that the unit picks up much less detail, when I kick it off, its back to its great picture...

Whats this isolator called and where do I get one... Ive looked at C's and BP, but cant find anything that looks like what I was told about...

Wally

[Whoaru99]

The isolators I'm familiar with are for allowing one charger to charge two or more batteries while preventing the draw on any given battery from draining the others.

What you may be referring to is a noise filter. You should be able to get one at Radio Shack or just about any store that sells car stereo gear.

A simple test to see if a noise filter might help would be to temporarily connect your sonar to a separate battery. If the interference goes away then I'd try the noise filter, or another possibility would be to wire the sonar to your starting battery - assuming there is one and its in decent condition. Of course, the risk then is will you get interference with the main engine running. You never know 'till you try it.

[Walleye_GFA]

Ill try that, the interference goes away altogether whne the trolling motor is off, so thats got to be it... I will look at Rshack, or maybe even rewire it to the starting like you mentioned... Does the interference protection work well or you think it would be better to hook to starting battery ???

[Whoaru99]

The filters work very well for certain types of noise such as alternator whine in a car stereo setup.

However, there are a couple ways that noise can get in. It could be through the power leads or it could be through the transducer cable. If its through the power leads there's a good chance the filter would work otherwise it won't help.

I'd try going to the starting battery first because your investment is only several feet of wire that you likely have laying around somewhere. The only caution is that if you decide to permanently go to the starting battery install an in-line fuse holder as the first thing off the battery in the wire run to the sonar.

[Walleye_GFA]

Great thanks !!!

I will probably take the opportunity to cahnge out the location of my finders... I think it would be better to have the more accurate on the dash...

Wally

PS I did not even think of the interference coming from the cable or the mount.. thanks