Author Topic: 999ci ... when i start the motor, my 999 fries the power circuit board. why?  (Read 6361 times)

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Offline ecpackers

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I have a odd power issue. the power route is very direct. i have a regular 12v boat battery, the battery has 3 wires to the negative and 3 wires to the positive. (a positive and negative wire to the fish locator, boat motor, and power anchor)

my fish locator works fine, but about an hour into the day, when i start the motor the fish locator fries something in the power circuit board. then refuses to power on (buttons are still backlit though, so it's still getting power, but screen is blank). the locator was repaired by viewsonic. i hooked it back up, and it worked for an hour, then the unit went black again (once again while starting the motor)


so somehow and for some reason, when i start my engine (obviously drawing power from the battery), it makes my fish locator (hooked to the same battery) fry the screen out. (power circuit board, or so i was told)

i cannot think of why this could happen. and its now happened 3 times in a row.   i used the fishlocator all year last year without a single problem. 

on the positive wire to the fish locator, is a small 5amp fuse (as stated in the owner manual to use)

i know jack about electricity...so hopefully this doesn't sound like a crazy scenario. the battery itself is not connected/grounded to anything else, other than a power anchor/40hp evinrud.



any ideas?    the store gave me a helix to replace the 999, but i seriously doubt that it'll be just fine.


edit:    Just read on another forum (walleyecentral),  some guy was saying someone he knew who would have this issue because the engine backfeeding into the ground on the unit when starting the engine.   idk anything about electricity.  but the post said "make sure you put the locator wires on top of the engine cable wires if connecting to the cranking battery"      why in the world would it matter if your wires are on top or bottom?   wouldn't the electricity flow into anything its touching?
« Last Edit: June 19, 2016, 10:40:08 AM by ecpackers »


Offline Bob B

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Seems like it must be something in the motor.....but I have no idea what it could be.  Haven't heard of that one yet......I think the recommended fuse size is 3A......and you could probably be going smaller than that and not have issues blowing the fuse.

Have you called customer service and asked them about it?

It's not going to make any difference what order the connections are on the motor .... unless you have a bad connection there.
**Looking for the one that makes it all worthwhile**

Offline Ohio Archer

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Actually, it is good practice to have the engine cable next to the battery post/lug then stack the smaller eyelets on top of it.  We see this quite frequently on the Harleys we work on.  Guys will put all the accessory eyelets under the starter cable then have slow starter issues.  If the eyelets are not the same size and surface area as the starter cable you're trying to pull the same amount of current for the starter through a smaller conduit (kinda like having a piece of 8 or 10 gauge wire spliced into a 6 gauge wire).  Most eyelets I run into are not the same size as the starter cable or each other.  Then you have the problem of keeping the post nuts tight which will cause arcing and a lot of heat.  I always put the starter or engine cables on first so they have maximum contact to the battery post.  On marine batteries you have two posts per side so my outboard cables go on the big posts with clamps and my electronics go on the threaded posts with nyloc nuts which keeps them somewhat separated...

Offline ecpackers

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good info, thanks for the replies guys.

i think, just to be safe, i'm going to put the new Helix 9 unit power cable to the front battery (which only has my front power anchor and my trolling motor on it) just to avoid the entire ordeal.



whats also cool is, my 999ci HDSI transducer i guess will work with the helix 9 (which actually comes with a compact transducer that is not as good or not HD anyway)....   

Offline Bob B

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It is not a good idea to power the unit from the trolling motor battery ...... You can get lots of interference that will be nearly impossible to get rid of ..... I guess you could do a temporary wire and test it.....or bite the bullet and put in a battery dedicated to the electronics.
**Looking for the one that makes it all worthwhile**

Offline ecpackers

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It is not a good idea to power the unit from the trolling motor battery ...... You can get lots of interference that will be nearly impossible to get rid of ..... I guess you could do a temporary wire and test it.....or bite the bullet and put in a battery dedicated to the electronics.


dang, no crap?   gah./    f'n boats.   BUST OUT ANOTHER THOUSAND.

Offline RV Sam

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Sounds like your motor is putting out a high voltage spike on start up.  A mechanic with good electronic background should be able to track this down.  Alternator or regulator is my guess. 


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