• Welcome to Jetboaters.net!

    We are delighted you have found your way to the best Jet Boaters Forum on the internet! Please consider Signing Up so that you can enjoy all the features and offers on the forum. We have members with boats from all the major manufacturers including Yamaha, Seadoo, Scarab and Chaparral. We don't email you SPAM, and the site is totally non-commercial. So what's to lose? IT IS FREE!

    Membership allows you to ask questions (no matter how mundane), meet up with other jet boaters, see full images (not just thumbnails), browse the member map and qualifies you for members only discounts offered by vendors who run specials for our members only! (It also gets rid of this banner!)

    free hit counter
  • JetBoaters.Net 2nd Annual SeaDoo Switch Group Buy Sponsored By JetBoatPilot Is Live Now. Save 25% Off Select SeaDoo Switch Gear through October 31st.

    Click Here to go to the Jetboatpilot Seadoo Group buy

    You can delete this notice with the "X" in the upper right>>>

On board battery charger turning on my amps?

Venkman

Jetboaters Lieutenant
Messages
67
Reaction score
31
Points
152
Location
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Boat Make
Yamaha
Year
2011
Boat Model
AR
Boat Length
21
In May I installed a new on board battery charger. It is a Promariner 8, charges perfectly ( I did have a problem with it not charging a battery but that issue resolved itself), the charger is connected to two batteries, a starting battery and a "house" battery for the amps. I have two amps for my stereo, that are each wired through a power block and a ground block with 8 gauge wire and them from the blocks to the house battery with 4 gauge wire. The only way the amps are connected in any way to the boat/starting battery is via the pre outs and amp on wire ( I really don't know what that wire is called, but the one that goes from the stereo to the amps to tell them to wake up and start receiving signal.) and the house battery is grounded to the starting battery ( I do not know if this is required, but I have always done this to ensure there is not a grounding issue with the stereo). I know this is a lot of back story and set up, but from my experience these are all questions/considerations people are going to have.

When I plug in the battery charger the amps turn on and stay on. It does not matter if the radio is on or not, I have the boat systems isolated via a battery switch and I have even used a voltage meter to confirm the radio has no power running to it when the switch is turned off. I cannot figure out how this can be happening, Everything worked perfectly for years with no problems, the only difference between the last three years and today is a on board battery charger.

So I have isolated every system in the boat and I have came to the conclusion that either the boat is haunted or the battery charger is somehow sending somekind of signal through the radio to the amps telling them to turn on. I can not see how the amps could be getting a turn on signal any other way via the batteries, and if I pull the amp turn on wire, they do go off. I am just wondering if anyone else has any experience with this issue and maybe I am missing something very simple. Right now to keep my amps from being eternally on, I have pulled the fuses.
 
where is the AMP on wire plugged into? typically its tied to a wire coming out of the stereo (blue antenna/amp on wire).. so if the stereo is off the amps are off.
 
Are the AMPs connected to the "far side" of the battery switches, or directly to the battery? My amps are currently (pardon the pun) connected directly to the batteries and I'm not sure why they are. I plan to ask the dealer about this and wire them to the switched side of my house circuit. I don't want them to be able to turn on if the switch is OFF. That is the point of the switch...to isolate the battery to avoid any chance of a drain. The only thing that should be on the battery side of the switch is the "keep alive" memory wire to the stereo (and why HUs don't have memory that doesn't require power is beyond me!).
 
There is always a reason. There are no gremlins. They don't like wet environments. I can't give you the exact reason at this time but I can tell you what to do to eliminate the issue.
Check the amplifier manual. If the amplifier has three turn-on options (remote turn-on lead, signal-sensing, DC offset-sensing), make sure that the amplifier is set to the 'remote turn-on lead' method.
The amplifier should not be wired battery-direct. Supply power should come from the common/output post of the dual battery switch. So whenever in storage, there should not be power to any portion of the audio system.
All, I repeat, ""ALL""" grounds of every component in the audio path need to be connected to the exact same physical ground point, which is the stereo battery ground terminal. No exceptions. No helm buss. No factory harness. Verify that the HU chassis is grounded with the RCAs disconnected.
In the same way, make certain that ""ALL"" B+ supplies of all components in the audio path go to the dual battery switch common/output post. One physical point only. No helm buss, key, or factory harness.
If this proves successful then you can go back and change the HU memory to battery-direct as the only exception, and test again.
You can still maintain the 'key on' function with a single relay and without circumventing the intended helm/key/switch isolation. But worry about this later.
Make sure that there are no tiny single wire strands (that may be hard to see) that jump across from the amplifier main supply terminal to the amplifier turn-on terminal.
Check for amplifier or HU internal water damage.
Unplug any/all remote controls at the back of the HU.
Verify that the charger output is not exceeding 14.5 volts in any mode.
 
Thanks for everyone's reply,

The amp on wire is attached to the blue (maybe blue/white) amp on wire coming directly from a Kenwood HU.

My amps are directly, via some power blocks, to the house battery. At one time I had them through the On/Off switch, but at some point I disconnected them for a reason I have sense forgotten.

David Analog has given me some new ideas, I didn't even think about he amps coming on via DC offset. I don't have the manuals with me, but I recall seeing something on the amp for that before, I can only hope for such a straight forward answer.

I did previously check the charger output and it was below 14 volts, I do not recall the voltage now. I did check all the wire strands for a loose strand as I have had that problem before. I am starting to think that I need to run a new power and ground wire from the house battery directly to the HU, I did use the original factory HU harness and I keep feeling like in that set up is the problem.

Again thanks for the replies I am hopeful to get this resolved as it has been driving me nuts.
 
Sorry for the delay in reply to a subject that I'm well versed in. First @Venkman, providing photos of your battery and charger setup would be helpful to help you trouble shoot the system. I'm not really sure why you have the starting battery grounded to the house but like @David stated, you need to ground everything to the same source.

My recommendations would be for you to hook all electrical to the house battery. Nothing should be on your starting battery except the boat running system. Led's, bilge, stereo, or any other accessories need to be on house battery to protect your starting battery more and to help alleviate stress from your stators when boat is running.

Unless your amps are getting constant 12v power, no reason they should turn on if HU is off, unless it's not properly wired. Most common mistakes I've seen are on new HU there can be 2 blue wires and the wrong one is being utilized. On top of that, to run your equipment more safely and more protection, I would recommend a relay for all your amps and stereo equipment. If a relay is wired using the HU as the main remote power source, nothing should come on or off without the head unit telling them to.

Sorry for the delay and I hope someone got you fixed up this summer. I know how much of a pain it can be. I have put over 80 hours in setting up/tuning/ and troubleshooting little nuisances. If you still need help just PM. By the way I'm in Moore OK so not too far from you.

Happy Jetting!
 
Post a stereo wiring schematic.
 
Back
Top