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Marine Radion Kills Dash & PP


iliketoski

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Your 6:48 post was good diagnostics. A large current draw somewhere is being triggered by the radio. Fix the cause or fix the symptom???

Step 1:Try connecting the radio to a different battery. If same thing happens then the radio RF signal is triggering something - which would be strange. If everything works then there must be some kind of feedback through the electrical system to trigger some component (still strange).

Step 2: Start pulling fuses (breakers) until you find out which circuit is somehow being triggered by the radio? It must be a significant draw to cause that much of a voltage drop. Maybe try an amp meter at the battery and a few other wires to see if you can trace the current flow? Make sure you have some extra fuses for the meter in case there's a lot of amperage going somewhere. If you find the guilty component you can decide if you can do without it whenever you're using the radio and put a switch in its power supply. Remember that lop amp meters do not work on DC lines.

If connecting to a different battery (in Step 1) solves the problem and you don't want to deal with two completely separate battery systems, try a line filter (capacitor) like described here http://www.capacitorguide.com/filter-capacitor/

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Did I say I hate electronics!!!!!

Latest update:

Took battery out and had it checked (at 2 shops). Battery checks fine and strong!

I reinstalled the battery, but did not turn on my battery switch, so whole boat has no power. I direct wired the marine radio to the battery and checked the voltage on the battery, All was good voltage only changed -.2 volts when the mic was keyed to transmit.

Then, all I did was turn on the battery switch. Ignition switch was left in the off position, no accessories turned on.

When the mic was keyed on the radio (it is still direct wired to the battery), the voltage across the battery dropped significantly, varying anywhere from 8-11 volts.

I'm really at a loss as to what to try next. The radio is not using any of the boat wiring to be powered. And, when it is just wired to the battery with nothing else connected, it works just fine and does not drop the battery voltage. So I can rule out the radio.

I have determined as Woodski shared, the original symptom with the PP display blanking (and the occasional dash crashing ) has to be due to the low voltage that happens from the battery, But what is causing it is the issue.

I'm leaning toward RF energy impacting it somewhere/somehow.

Just to confirm, you are NOT using the dash or built-in voltmeter, but instead a separate voltmeter when you do this test?

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When you connect the radio directly to the battery, are you using very short wires, or do you just have long ones draped over to the battery? Use very short wires for the test, or roll the spare wire into a very small loop and tie it to keep its shape. If you leave the wires dangling, you have a very good antenna for RF power to get in. Twisting the power wires together first is even better. Using a drill is best, so you get two to three twists per inch.

Did you actually check under the dash and clean all the connections? A dirty contact can act like a diode, and will rectify the RF power into (you guessed it) your power lines to the other equipment.

You have the advantage here of knowing that your installation worked correctly before. Get all of the connections clean and secure before you try other troubleshooting. Asking questions on the internet doesn't replace lying on your back with your hands buried under your dash.

Finally, if you have an old ham radio friend, see if he will help you in person. Old school hams have a knack for this stuff.

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Another update.

I took the radio out of the boat, the new antenna, my battery, and the voltmeter, and put everything on the swim platform. I connected everything together there, the radio direct to the battery, (with a quality set of jumper cables). The voltmeter went to error (-1) when keying the mic, switched to low power, worked fine. Moved antenna away, worked fine, moved antenna closer, problems. Thought maybe impacting voltmeter, moved it to multiple locations, no change.

I though I have to video this! Went in had dinner, came back, can't get it to reoccur to the degree it did. Antenna had to be right next to the setup to impact the voltage. Gave up for the night, going to play with it more tonight. Need to try different wires than my jumper cables, but I figured they carry plenty of amps if needed :-)

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