Wet Sound System NOT WORKING @ Yamaha 242X - Help Needed!

[captain.nomad]

Hello all,

My name is Luis and I bought a new Yamaha 242X last year (2018) and brought it to Europe where I live. Since the day I received the boat from the importer company the sound system worked erratically. That means that the sound might go off after some minutes working well and then come back again and continue working perfectly fine. Hoping that something was loose I tried to identify over time some patterns of when it would go silent and when it resumes the music. I could not find any pattern at all: some times the boat was without moving at all, sometimes it was moving, sometimes the engines was on, sometimes off, sometimes it took several songs, sometimes in the middle of the first one. The behavior was totally random and my analysis did not help at all to get an idea what to check.

The importer dismissed the problem as something loose and suggested checking the cable connections (the importer is in the Netherlands while I am in Croatia, which is quite far). I have tried myself checking all the connections, then hired an electrician company at the marina where the boat is staying and they have no clue what is going on. To make a long story short, time passed ant the problem persisted after me and friends trying to guess what is going on.

In the last week things went worse, since now the sound would not start anymore. We already checked all fuses, and that the amplifiers have electrical current. At the boat screen I can see that the song is playing but no sound. I already tried with different phones, with a direct aux cable, but that does not seems to be the problem. No radio station is heard either, nothing.

According to Yamaha warranty, it is only valid on the US so no luck for me there. I have not researched yet wet sound, if they have warranty, support or any way to help their customers. The importer company just recommended to take the boat to a car sound system installer to get it checked there, but I am far from any of those, and I am not sure that is a good path.

Any ideas, tips or suggestions from this community are welcome.
Thanks!
Luis

 

[tek4fun]

If your amplifiers are powered on, then the emblem will light up blue. If the emblems are lighting up, then you do not have to do the next troubleshooting suggestion. From what I am hearing, it sounds like the AMP on circuit may have a loose connections. Not only do you need 12 volts to the amps themselves, but there is a blue wire that is connected from the radio head unit to both of the amplifiers telling them to turn on. Usually when this happens it is the terminal in the connector going to the radio head unit on the swim deck that is coming loose. You would have to remove the head unit. When looking at the back of the radio, it would be the connector on the top right hand side. It should have a red (12v), black (gnd) and blue (Amp on) wires in it. Remove the connector from the back of the radio carefully. Try not to pull on the wires. This can be a tough one to remove. With the connector off of the radio unit, check to make sure the blue terminal is locked into the connector by gently pulling on it.

 

[Mainah]

Good advice with the amp turn on circuit already. If that does not work those are dsp oem wetsounds amps and only someone with the wetsounds hardware and software can diagnose further. Being in Croatia might be best to get the rca out dongle from fusion and swap for a more common amp set up if problem persists.

 

[jacoviii]

RCA harness is not needed BUT.... So the wires that or at the amp are labeled Zone 1, Zone 2 , SUB just add RCA ends to them. Save the time $$$ from adding 3 new sets of RCAs.

 

[leonard delia]

Hello all,

My name is Luis and I bought a new Yamaha 242X last year (2018) and brought it to Europe where I live. Since the day I received the boat from the importer company the sound system worked erratically. That means that the sound might go off after some minutes working well and then come back again and continue working perfectly fine. Hoping that something was loose I tried to identify over time some patterns of when it would go silent and when it resumes the music. I could not find any pattern at all: some times the boat was without moving at all, sometimes it was moving, sometimes the engines was on, sometimes off, sometimes it took several songs, sometimes in the middle of the first one. The behavior was totally random and my analysis did not help at all to get an idea what to check.

The importer dismissed the problem as something loose and suggested checking the cable connections (the importer is in the Netherlands while I am in Croatia, which is quite far). I have tried myself checking all the connections, then hired an electrician company at the marina where the boat is staying and they have no clue what is going on. To make a long story short, time passed ant the problem persisted after me and friends trying to guess what is going on.

In the last week things went worse, since now the sound would not start anymore. We already checked all fuses, and that the amplifiers have electrical current. At the boat screen I can see that the song is playing but no sound. I already tried with different phones, with a direct aux cable, but that does not seems to be the problem. No radio station is heard either, nothing.

According to Yamaha warranty, it is only valid on the US so no luck for me there. I have not researched yet wet sound, if they have warranty, support or any way to help their customers. The importer company just recommended to take the boat to a car sound system installer to get it checked there, but I am far from any of those, and I am not sure that is a good path.

Any ideas, tips or suggestions from this community are welcome.
Thanks!
Luis

I just had this same issue happen to me, my boat took on much water and we discovered the amplifier even with lights on was toast. i am waiting for a new one to hook back up

 

[captain.nomad]

Thanks all for your suggestions. After a few days dedicated to the problem we finally found the root cause and we were able to fix it. This is what happened:

1. One of the cables getting into the amplifiers is labeled something like 'on signal', which we interpreted that it is the signal that turns the amplifier on.
2. We traced that cable all the way to the back of the boat where there is a small sound controller for users to adjust the sound while they are in the water.
3. After removing that from the wall of the boat we saw that 'on signal' cable and all others there covered with salt. That equipment was poorly sealed and sea water was getting onto the wires.
4. We cleaned the salt carefully and the overall system stared working well again.

It seems the randomness of when it worked or not was because of the salt accumulated short circuiting those cables. Hopes this help someone else in the future as it took me several months to find it out.