Deck that remembers input

[jEt_jAk]

I upgraded my stereo with a new Deck which works great, but the Kenwood deck forgets the input setting after battery is cut, which means I have to cycle over to the Bluetooth setting every time I go out. Do any other decks not have this issue?

 

[Julian]

The only option is to connect the remote wire that provides enough power to remember the settings. On many decks this is a blue and white wire. Just know that it will slowly....over many weeks drain the battery. I did this with my old SX230 and the Clarion deck I installed.

 

[zipper]

My current Kenwood and this Alpine have a yellow "memory" wire that gets connected to the battery, by-passing the battery switch. The red wire connects thru the battery switch.

 

[Beachbummer]

Your special find would be the deck that remembers settings during lack of power. I have a sony deck that also looses memory and it's a bit of a pain to re-pair devices every time, but I refuse to let the parasitic drain kill the boat. Let us know if you figure it out, I have the same issue!

 

[Compatico]

Your special find would be the deck that remembers settings during lack of power. I have a sony deck that also looses memory and it's a bit of a pain to re-pair devices every time, but I refuse to let the parasitic drain kill the boat. Let us know if you figure it out, I have the same issue!

I doubt too many companies worry about power loss as these are usually used in a vehicle with battery power available 365 days a year like a car/truck - no need to add another circuit for flash memory. And that "parasitic" drain would be milliamps to keep the memory intact - it would take months to drain a fully charged group 24 or larger battery. The electron loss self discharge rate of lead/acid batteries is probably higher current than the memory wire would need. So if you don't use your boat for weeks or months, you're going to turn off the switch and/or remove the batteries anyway, making it a moot issue. Just connect the memory wire and enjoy.

 

[Beachbummer]

I need to measure the draw on mine, maybe I take you up on that

 

[zipper]

This is from a sailing forum Stereo Memory Wire Draw - Some Data ! - SailNet Community

Current draw on the yellow wire with stereo off and on.

 

[Beachbummer]

It is low, but it's not insignificant either
0.007x24x30 is 5 amps. But a group 24 battery in good shape should offer 60-80 amp hours, so your point is valid that it would not kill me to add the memory line to the battery directly.

And it's sad if on season the boat is not used in 30 days. Great info. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Ronnie]

I thought a member here attached a 9v battery to his head unit’s accessory input with a connector like this.

 

[Compatico]

It is low, but it's not insignificant either
0.007x24x30 is 5 amps. But a group 24 battery in good shape should offer 60-80 amp hours, so your point is valid that it would not kill me to add the memory line to the battery directly.

A typical 90-100 AH lead-acid battery (that's a good one) has about 4-5 AH per WEEK electron loss...so another amp is not much more of a drain. If you don't use your boat that often (say once or twice a month), you really should have a battery maintainer on it anyway to prevent sulfation. Lead-acid battery charge should be kept up, unlike cell phones which can take 50-80% drops and recharged without a hugh performance issue. Even deep cycle or AGM lead-acid should not be deeply discharged contrary to what the marketing crap suggests. If you have a deep cycle lead-acid battery, keep it above 50% discharge rate for optimal performance. If you do run it down to 50% or less, make sure you fully charge it back to 100% to keep the plates in good shape. Running a deep cycle down to 10-20% often will cause sulfation of the lead plates and kill it a lot sooner. A regular "car" battery should be kept at 80-100% charge all the time, and a so-called "deep cycle" battery should not run lower than 50%. Compared to regular batteries, that's a deep cycle. But the marketing crap "suggests" they can be discharged much lower every time, which is quite simply wrong. But hey, kill your battery and they can sell you a new one again. Repeat business is the end goal.

In other words, it's a non-issue to have a small drain like this on the battery. Just use it regularly, enjoy your boat to charge the battery and you'll be fine.

 

[Ronnie]

I don’t want to run a new power lead to the battery to maintain power the unit for memory and setup retention purposes. I ended up purchasing a small sealed agm 5ah 12v battery instead and plan to connect it to the had units accessory lead and install in the helm. I know the drain on the main battery would be minimal but for under $20 and a few minutes of labor I can effectively eliminate the issue with no concerns over what it’s doing to the main battery. My only question is how long it will be before the 5 ah battery needs to be recharged or replaced but for under $20 it wouldn’t kill me to replace it every year or two.

 

[Beachbummer]

With the math we did earlier, unless you charge it, it will last about a month on the deck used as an example. 0.007 Amps, 24 hours per day, for 30 days. = about 5 Amp Hours (The rating of your batter)

 

[swatski]

I upgraded my stereo with a new Deck which works great, but the Kenwood deck forgets the input setting after battery is cut, which means I have to cycle over to the Bluetooth setting every time I go out. Do any other decks not have this issue?

The thread title is a clickbait! Made me think of a soft deck with rotten wood, lol, silly me.

Not in my Yami!


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[Compatico]

With the math we did earlier, unless you charge it, it will last about a month on the deck used as an example. 0.007 Amps, 24 hours per day, for 30 days. = about 5 Amp Hours (The rating of your batter)

I concur...and now that battery is starting to die due to sulfation - you'll need to fully charge it at least twice a month to make it worthwhile. So unless you intend to leave the boat unused for months at a time, and you shouldn't unless you have a battery charger available to keep the main batteries topped up, there is no need for this extra battery. I think it just adds more issues and failure points. It shouldn't be too hard to run a small gauge wire back to the battery switch for power.

 

[Drexx3]

My previous boat was a 24’ Hurricane 2400 OB that came with a Sony head unit which would forget everything once we Turned off the batteries. Drove me nuts. I wanted to upgrade the system and ultimately went with the Polk PA4A primarily because it didn’t require the yellow wire connection. It saved everything NV memory and was such a worthwhile change.

 

[Ronnie]

With the math we did earlier, unless you charge it, it will last about a month on the deck used as an example. 0.007 Amps, 24 hours per day, for 30 days. = about 5 Amp Hours (The rating of your batter)

Thanks for the estimate. Now I’m thinking about either returning the battery and just running a direct positive lead to the house battery or getting a battery with more amp hours. Having to recharge a 5 ah battery monthly doesn’t sound like a great option especially since my boat’s batteries are on a charger / maintainer whenever the boat is not in the water.

 

[Ronnie]

So the best solution is to install a deck like the Polk pa4a with its own NV memory?

 

[jEt_jAk]

Looks like it. Funny these so called “marine” decks forget setting knowing that marine battery’s typically don’t stay on all the time.

 

[JetPowered]

The Fusion decks don’t loose their input memory.

 

[Ronnie]

The Fusion decks don’t loose their input memory.

Winner for me because I have already purchased a fusion 670 and plan to install it before next season.
silly me for not reviewing the manual or taking a closer look at the wiring harness before posting to this thread.