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Wiring change to temporarily silence alarm?


uk_exile

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We recently set the depth alarm in our 03 RLXi. It’s certainly a useful reminder when in unknown areas of lake but it drives my wife mad when she’s putting it on trailer.

Has anyone modified the wiring to have an external button to silence the alarm for a short time?

I’m hoping to put a little push button under the lip of dash or another out of the way place that when pressed it cuts the supply to the beeper for say 30 seconds. Gives the driver time to trailer or move out of the shallow area without the distracting beep beep.

I’d go investigating myself however boat isn’t stored at home. I’m hoping the beeper speaker is external to the gauges making it  easy cut a wire and insert a time delayed relay contact. Fingers crossed anyway!

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I think finding an ignition protected device to do this might be a challenge.  Or you could get a simple 12v  relay and pot it.   Frankly, I would not disable the beep.  If your wife is like mine, she'll ignore those pesky warning things anyways.

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46 minutes ago, Eagleboy99 said:

I think finding an ignition protected device to do this might be a challenge.  Or you could get a simple 12v  relay and pot it.   Frankly, I would not disable the beep.  If your wife is like mine, she'll ignore those pesky warning things anyways.

Mine's a good driver giving consistent pull out, drives straight lines, scans gauges, etc. We feel having alarm set is a good idea in case we get distracted near edges or lake bottom changes but the beep beep at trailer isn't assisting, it's hindering.

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A simple circuit based on a 555 Timer should provide the relief you need.  You can invert an on circuit to an off circuit with a transistor and a resistor.

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4 minutes ago, justgary said:

A simple circuit based on a 555 Timer should provide the relief you need.  You can invert an on circuit to an off circuit with a transistor and a resistor.

There are scads of such simple timers on Aliexpress for 3-6 bucks.  Set it up and pot it in silicone and you are good to go.

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20 minutes ago, justgary said:

A simple circuit based on a 555 Timer should provide the relief you need.  You can invert an on circuit to an off circuit with a transistor and a resistor.

Shwinggg!!!!! And the 555 is back again baby! Best timer ever!!! These days though I just go dump some microcode in an ATTiny 10 and get way better product. 

Edited by Slurpee
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44 minutes ago, Slurpee said:

Shwinggg!!!!! And the 555 is back again baby! Best timer ever!!! These days though I just go dump some microcode in an ATTiny 10 and get way better product. 

True, and that's exactly what I would do too, but I assumed the OP wanted to stay simple....

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12 minutes ago, justgary said:

True, and that's exactly what I would do too, but I assumed the OP wanted to stay simple....

I miss Radio Shack.
For the OP though I’d just do one thing. Put a single pole switch in line with the power to the depth gauge. A little button can close the circuit and light it up or kill it by need. You talk about trailering. But what about a long courtesy dock tie up in a few feet of water. BEEEEEEEEEP! Just give yourself a very obvious kill switch. If you’re as diligent at checking gauges as you say you’ll notice it’s blank and flip it on. 

Edited by Slurpee
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42 minutes ago, Eagleboy99 said:

Good idea!  But use this: https://www.ebay.com/p/12041550753?iid=193600567517&rt=nc  Simple push utton with timer.

Shewt, I'd use this one instead: https://www.allelectronics.com/item/tdrm-1/relay-module-with-0-999-second-timer/1.html and add a nice switch (perhaps https://www.allelectronics.com/item/pb-139/spst-n.o.-pushbutton-black/1.html, but they have other colors as well). 

This is where we all say, "man, I gotta get me summa that!"

I understand that @uk_exile is in NZ, so maybe they have a crazy surplus house like All Electronics way down there.

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Thanks for timer and switch suggestions. Does anyone know if it's possible to isolate the right wire though? The depth is part of the multi function LCD display in bottom on the Malibu speedo.

I was thinking isolate the output beeper. Perhaps other option is isolate the input i.e. the depth/temp transducer.

Here in NZ we've got www.Jaycar.co.nz but it's nothing special. I'll go there if needed and want something urgently but typically I just order electronics from AliExpress as that's where most Jaycar stuff comes from anyway!

 

Edited by uk_exile
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4 hours ago, uk_exile said:

I was thinking isolate the output beeper.

I like this idea better than mucking with the inputs.  Even a simple push button to turn on/off would do the trick.

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First thought was temporarily isolate the output beeper, thinking it'd be easy to find and isolate. I'm expecting to see a beeper mounted somewhere under dash with 2 wires.

Later thought was isolate the depth input so that any other alarm such as oil pressure, temp etc would still beep. Shouldn't be hard to trace wire from the hull transducer to the gauges, but I suspect it'll have several wires as I beleive it does depth and water temp. Then becomes a which wire to isolate, or short to make depth function think it's still deep.

 

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My Lowrance depth finder has the beeper inside of the sealed can, as far as I can recall.

I would *not* attempt to take the transducer out of the circuit.  I suspect that you will have big trouble if you do, namely blown output transistors unless you are very careful to switch the transducer out and switch in a similar impedance load simultaneously.  This will not be easy to do.

Perhaps the solution is that your wife backs the trailer while you wait in the boat... you can find something interesting to look at to keep your mind off the beeper.

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1 hour ago, uk_exile said:

First thought was temporarily isolate the output beeper, thinking it'd be easy to find and isolate. I'm expecting to see a beeper mounted somewhere under dash with 2 wires.

Did you ever find it?  Or is integrated into some scren or soething?

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Haha, we fairly equally drive boat and back trailer. To be fair the beeper annoys her more than me though.

I've not gone looking yet as the boat is not stored at home.  

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Found it. It's just like this topic below.  Disconnecting the white wire silences it. I'll put time delayed open relay contact in white wire.

 

 

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