Battery problems, c-80, and radar

flapbreaker · Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 2:13 pm Post subject: Battery problems, c-80, and radar

Everytime I troll while fishing my house battery seems to loose voltage rather quickly. I have the kicker motor wired directly to the battery but it never seemed to keep up with the electronics. I have a Tr-1 autopilot for the kicker and figured that it must be pulling too much current. We'll yesterday after only 2 hours of trolling the c-80's DSM module kept powering off which from my expereince is due to voltage issues. So I check the voltage on the house battery and it's only at 12.1 volts with the kicker motor running. We'll for some reason it occured to me to check and see if the Radar head was powered on. Sure enough it seems that the c-80 by defaul powers the Radar unit on even though it's in standby mode. When I powered the scanner down and ran the kicker a little longer the house battery voltage was back up. I'm relieved to have found my problem but was wondering if there is a way to have not have to turn the scanner off everytime I turn on the c-80? Can't find anything in the manual about a default setting.

Sneaks · Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 3:16 pm Post subject:

Just reach behind the C-80 and unplug the biggest cable there. (Radar cable.) Yah yah yah, yer supposed to have the radar going if you have one. Well I have one that's not hooked up 90% of the time.

Don

flapbreaker · Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 5:04 pm Post subject:

starcrafttom · Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 7:55 pm Post subject:

i have the same set up minus the tr-1and have never had a problem with the dms going off. Do you mean that you loose bottom or do you get a no signal .

flapbreaker · Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 9:08 pm Post subject:

The c-80 display sounds an alarm that it lost communications with the DMS module. This only happens when I have a low voltage situation. It's either the DMS module rebooting, turning off or a the display is just too sensative to the low voltage. It may be that the TR-1 pulls too many amps combined with the radar having power.

chewyjackson · Joined: 29 Apr 2006 Posts: 29

I haven't tried this, but maybe you can give it a shot (I won't be on the boat for a couple of days).

I think if you power up with a page set that doesn't include radar, it doesn't power up the radar. I could be wrong about this, but often times I only have it set on a page set that has the GPS and fishfinder. If I want radar, I switch the page set up, and then move to a radar page. At that point, it gives me the note that the radar will be powered up in "x" number of seconds.

Again, I could be wrong, but you might give it a shot. If for no other reason then to prove me wrong.

flapbreaker · Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:04 am Post subject:

Falco · Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 5:47 pm Post subject:

My 2kw scanner is always on (in scanning not transmitting mode) whenever I switch on my C80. It does not matter what page views are displayed. In scan mode it eats up 0.75 amps. This not much.

(BTW, on a C80 the only way you can power up the scanner to transmit is to physically push the button to do so. Changing page views does not do this.) (Also BTW, you can turn the scanner off simply by using the option button to do so.)

My DSM (250) eats up anywhere from 0.5 to 8.0 amps, depending (presumably) on what it's doing at the time.

(BTW, owners manuals with these specs are here: http://www.raymarine.com/raymarine/Default.asp?site=1&Section=3&Page=166&Parent=3 )

My C80 display takes 0.83 amps. Total Raymarine power consumption: about 2-10 amps.

I don't know what your TR-1 is drawing (you could check with the manufacturer).

My SRM-24 Interstate battery will provide 4.6 hours of power at 15 amps of draw - without any sort of recharging.

My Suzuki 40 HP alternator will provide about 21 amps of output. All in all, plenty of power.

I wonder in your case about:

1. The condition of your battery. It may simply be unable to hold a charge. Depending on how much the auto pilot is drawing, two hours seems far less than what the battery alone (even without charging) should provide.
2. Rated output from your kicker. You can get this from the manufacturer. Maybe it's a combination of bad battery and low alternator output. (BTW, are you sure the alternator is putting out its full rated output?)

I'm not sure I would power off/on the scanner so cavalierly. The owner's manual specifically states the scanner should not be disconnected unless you power off the display first. Besides, it seems unlikely this is the power sucking culprit given how little it consumes in scan only mode.

Good luck.

flapbreaker · Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:18 pm Post subject:

Interesting stuff Falco.

My Tr-1 states that it might use up to 8 amps. I guess the only reason I thought that the radar was the culprit was when I turned it off my volts on the battery went way up and I never had any more power issues the rest of the day. I'm using an Optima marine battery. I did pull it and have les schwab check it and they said it was perfect. My trolling motor's altenator will only put out 6amps but I'm assuming that is at full throttle and not at trolling speeds. I guess I will have to do a little more testing with the radar. BTW, I'm not refering to the radar unit actually sending signals just that the c-80 display indicates it's "ON" and in standby mode.