Speaker Issues!

[96Pirate]

@cbus I realize that may have been confusing. There should be two sets of wires. 1 red and 1 black connected to the battery.

I added a switch to mine so I had to change a few things as well as running new wire for the amp. But the power and ground to the accessories/hu remained the same other than where it comes in to the new battery switch I added.

 

[tdonoughue]

@cbus, sorry for the delayed reply. No, mine just kept going up and up and up. Then another time it kept switching the input by itself. Just really weird behavior. At any rate, probably too late (and good that you are replacing the HU--that is on my list still), but did want to let you know.

 

[cbus]

Well, I decided to try to play around with the wires in the back of the HU and I still couldn't get it to work properly. Something different is happening now. The light on the switch of the bilge pump will turn on when I hit it but about 3 secs later, shuts off. The bilge pump stays on but the light shorts. If I hit the circuit breaker, the light will go back on but again for only like 3 seconds...

Curious why only the light goes out but not the pump...anyone know why that would happen? Should I be concerned?

Thanks!

 

[tdonoughue]

Likely you have something stuck in your bilge pump. When you turn it on, it is trying to pump to sense if there is water there. But something is likely stuck in the pump (or the pump is frozen), it overloads the circuit and pops the circuit breaker.

Remove the bilge pump from the base. Try to spin the pump and clean the screen below it. Likely you will find a little something stuck in the pump, in which case you remove it. If the pump will not spin and there is nothing in it, the pump is frozen or corroded and will need to be replaced, most likely.

 

[Ronnie]

In regard to the wiring on my 2010 242LS the HU is wired through the switch on the dash to the accessory switch near the batteries not directly to the batteries.

In regard to the Aquatic AV HU. Mine has always been a little squirrely. That is, the display on the transom remote never worked, sometimes a few of the buttons will stop working and the HU will power up all by itself unexpectedly. I bought a wireless remote for it but all it can do is turn the volume all the way up with one touch, not down nor can I stop it. That remote doesn't even sit in the boat anymore. The iPhone 4 connector is useless in that whenever I use it and put the phone or ipod in there the phone or ipod overheats, oh and the dual zone feature is junk. Still it (XM, FM and Aux In to all 9 speakers including sub) works for me so as long as does I'm keeping it. Too bad the manufacturer didn't put more R&D into it.

 

[cbus]

@Ronnie Thanks! When I put power on and go behind the HU, I can always hear the ipod holder spinning even when nothing is in there it just keeps going and going....
Btw, Where is the accessory switch near the batteries? I'm not familiar with that.

 

[cbus]

@tdonoughue The bilge actually works fine and there is no problem at all with the flow just that the light from the switch goes out. I think the short or loose ground is causing the short in the dash but that is a guess. I literally have no idea.

 

[Ronnie]

I'm not sure what you are hearing spinning behind the face plate of the HU. There should not be any moving parts In there other than the slide mechanism and clip which holds the iPhone/iPod.

As for the switches , other than the one one the dash, I'm talking about the master switches near the batteries. This should be three, engines, accessories and emergency (battery combining) along with a vsr module. At least that along with two batteries is what came stock on my boat.

 

[tdonoughue]

The light on the switch goes out, but the pump keeps going? And then you reset the breaker and the light comes back on, but the pump still keeps going? Sounds like someone wired your pump directly to your battery and bypassed the helm switch. So now when you turn on the switch it shorts and blows the breaker. Only thing I can think.

 

[cbus]

@tdonoughue what you described is correct. It seems like that is the case but I couldn't match up the wires leading from the bilge.

Also, when I have the blower motor on to start the engine and I hit the docking light switch, the blower motor noise goes way down - is there that much draw going to the lights? Seems odd to me. Would the bilge being directly wired to the battery slowly drain it even though I have the switches off? I'm confused so any help is appreciated.

 

[tdonoughue]

Well, if the bilge is running while the switch is off, it pretty much must be wired directly. Or via another switch. I guess someone could have switched them? You may need to trace the wires from the pump forward to figure this one out. But it would not surprise me if someone did that--many do so that you cannot be on the water and forget to switch on the pump. Yes, having it hooked that way, if you have the batteries connected and on (if you have a switch), you would slowly drain the battery. That is because our bilge pumps work by turning on periodically. If they spin wildly (indicating that there is no water there), then they immediately turn off and wait to check again in a few minutes. If they detect a load (indicating there is water there to pump), they stay on until they start to spin wildly. Then they turn off and wait again. That constantly turning on to check for water does slowly drain a battery.

The lights making the blower change pitch does not surprise me. Those would be incandescent, so the draw would be much more than LED ones. Certainly would cause a pitch change you would hear.

 

[cbus]

@tdonoughue If the bilge is directly tied into the battery and it bypasses the switch, would it always be on even if the switch is off? I'm just trying to narrow down what is connected to the battery and if it leads from the switch or not. Thanks!

 

[tdonoughue]

Yep, exactly. Basically, you can't turn off the bilge. It is always 'on' because it is hardwired and bypasses the switch. There are a couple of ways to do it (shorting out the switch, re-wiring from the pump directly to the battery with the switch side of the circuit). So I would trace from the pump forward. Trying to trace from the battery forward would likely make your head hurt...