My lesson for the day!

[Crow Terminator]

So....I jumped back in with the holiday deals on the Livescope stuff. It came Thursday and I ran out to start hooking and wiring everything up. Instead of undoing the wires on my main batteries...I decided to just test it to make sure everything worked. I hooked the GLS10 black box power to a separate 12v 54amp hour battery I had handy. The Garmin unit itself was hooked up to my main boat battery. Well...on the black box, all I got was a blinking red light. It wouldn't recognize the transducer. I called Garmin and they said it sounded like a bad transducer. We started the deal for a return...they were going to send me a new one whenever they received the defective one. I was a little bummed but hey...if there's one bad one out of a million, I'm gonna end up with the one bad one. That's just my luck.

I was going to ship the transducer Monday (today). Over the weekend though, my buddy came over with his boat and I had the idea of trying my transducer on his black box. It worked just fine. Hmm. So I tried his transducer on my black box...and nadda. Red blinking lights.

So I called Garmin this morning and told them I had the return label for the transducer but told them the above story...and that I knew now that the transducer was fine. It must be the black box. Right? Well...this tech guy was a little more knowledgeable. He asked me what power source did I have for the box and unit. As soon as I told him I had the graph unit and black box hooked to two different batteries...he says "there's your problem...the black box and unit have to be hooked to the same battery. Now in my head...12v is 12v. Why would it matter as long as it was 12v. But he seemed adamant that my problem was in the batteries. He told me to try putting them on the same battery and he'd call me back in 30 mins. I reluctantly went out to the boat...did a quick connect job and put the Blackbox and graph on the same battery. And couldn't believe it. Green light on the black box...works just fine.

And wouldn't you know it...wind is blowing 15-20 mph steady and higher gusts. No lake today to even get to play with it. In fact...waiting on the power company to come now as the wind just knocked a tree down on the lines. No power.

 

[Urban_Hunter]

I have a 93sv and the original livescope transducer, and I have my unit tied to my cranking battery and black box tied to a drill battery. Works for me

 

[Carlos]

I've contacted the support departments for so many systems over the years- it's all in who answers your call. If you get the right person, they'll have you going in no time- it's simply luck of the draw.

Glad your systems are working, I agree- much too windy for fishing today.

 

[TNLynn]

So....I jumped back in with the holiday deals on the Livescope stuff. It came Thursday and I ran out to start hooking and wiring everything up. Instead of undoing the wires on my main batteries...I decided to just test it to make sure everything worked. I hooked the GLS10 black box power to a separate 12v 54amp hour battery I had handy. The Garmin unit itself was hooked up to my main boat battery. Well...on the black box, all I got was a blinking red light. It wouldn't recognize the transducer. I called Garmin and they said it sounded like a bad transducer. We started the deal for a return...they were going to send me a new one whenever they received the defective one. I was a little bummed but hey...if there's one bad one out of a million, I'm gonna end up with the one bad one. That's just my luck.

I was going to ship the transducer Monday (today). Over the weekend though, my buddy came over with his boat and I had the idea of trying my transducer on his black box. It worked just fine. Hmm. So I tried his transducer on my black box...and nadda. Red blinking lights.

So I called Garmin this morning and told them I had the return label for the transducer but told them the above story...and that I knew now that the transducer was fine. It must be the black box. Right? Well...this tech guy was a little more knowledgeable. He asked me what power source did I have for the box and unit. As soon as I told him I had the graph unit and black box hooked to two different batteries...he says "there's your problem...the black box and unit have to be hooked to the same battery. Now in my head...12v is 12v. Why would it matter as long as it was 12v. But he seemed adamant that my problem was in the batteries. He told me to try putting them on the same battery and he'd call me back in 30 mins. I reluctantly went out to the boat...did a quick connect job and put the Blackbox and graph on the same battery. And couldn't believe it. Green light on the black box...works just fine.

And wouldn't you know it...wind is blowing 15-20 mph steady and higher gusts. No lake today to even get to play with it. In fact...waiting on the power company to come now as the wind just knocked a tree down on the lines. No power.

I have my box hooked to a small lithium battery up front and garmin unit hooked to battery in back and have no problems. If my lithium dies, I still have depthfinder.

 

[RUGER]

You will like it.
If not you won't have any problem selling it.

 

[jlanecr500]

Gotta have your grounds common. That's all.

 

[TRIGGER]

I've contacted the support departments for so many systems over the years- it's all in who answers your call. If you get the right person, they'll have you going in no time- it's simply luck of the draw.

Glad your systems are working, I agree- much too windy for fishing today.

I HATE calling hummingbird customer support. Those women (I say that because I have contacted them several times and all I ever talked to were women) that have zero clue about boats, electrics or fishing read off of a script that's handed to them. If the issue isn't spelled out in their book they don't have a clue.

 

[Crow Terminator]

I sure wouldn't have thought it mattered. Like I said...12v is 12v. But putting them on the same battery was the only thing I did differently and it started working fine. I needed to undo some wires anyway. I'm probably taking the Mega 360 off the boat. I used it like crazy the first few months of having it and I bet I haven't even turned it on in 8 or 9 months. It's just extra weight on my trolling motor at this point.

 

[Big Pop]

I've got my 93SV hooked to one battery and black box/transducer to another one. It's always worked fine.

 

[deerfanatic]

Run a wire between the negatives on the two batteries. Then you can connect and use the two batteries. Dc is a different animal. I work on dc pretty often. I've tried to use two power supplies (usually 24v) and when they are on different devices and go back to something like that the commons (negatives have to be tied together). It'll work like a champ like that

 

[Doecrusher]

So what are the advantages with having the black box on its own battery besides still having the fish finder if the battery for the black box dies?? You hear about clean power but does it really make a difference with the return?? I'm wanting to eventually run the black box and fish finder up front off one battery....

 

[Urban_Hunter]

So what are the advantages with having the black box on its own battery besides still having the fish finder if the battery for the black box dies?? You hear about clean power but does it really make a difference with the return?? I'm wanting to eventually run the black box and fish finder up front off one battery....

I run my black box in a 8.0ah m18 battery. From what I gather, the transducer picks up much greater detail around 12.5v and above. When you're on a cranking battery and running on 20' of wire going through at least one fuse panel, most people see around 11.5 on their graph. I get about 4 hours out of an 8ah battery and I carry a 6ah as backup.

 

[Crow Terminator]

Well I went to go to the lake this afternoon. Jumped in the truck and...not even a door open chime. Hmm. No power at all. I almost suspected a fuse but since I had my multimeter out when I was working on the boat, I grabbed it and checked my new truck battery. It had .73 volts on it. I've never had one drain that low before. I don't know whether I left something on or what happened. But it sure squandered my fishing trip since the truck was already hooked to the boat.

 

[Creek]

When you get out and about you need to buy a lottery ticket.
Surely your luck will change by that time.

 

[agelessssone]

Well I went to go to the lake this afternoon. Jumped in the truck and...not even a door open chime. Hmm. No power at all. I almost suspected a fuse but since I had my multimeter out when I was working on the boat, I grabbed it and checked my new truck battery. It had .73 volts on it. I've never had one drain that low before. I don't know whether I left something on or what happened. But it sure squandered my fishing trip since the truck was already hooked to the boat.

I always have a small jump pack in my glove box. My truck has a short that bleeds the battery if left for two days without running
Once I start the truck and drive it, it's good for another two days of sitting idle.
My truck has the 6.0 liter engine and the jump pack starts it instantly.

 

[yesmarwh]

I run the black box and my garmin 126 on the same 12 volt lithium battery. 50amp. I can fish all day and they only use about 20%. I've gone three trips without a charge, but mostly I charge when I get home.

 

[WTM]

like @jlanecr500 pointed out, common B-. a continuous flashing red is no mfd detected and it makes that connection thru the ethernet bus. that cable is shielded and terminated on both ends. when you have a difference in potential between the two it creates an EMI along the entire shield foil and basically blocks the 5v data running across it. hence no handshake between the gls10 and the mfd. if the EMI is low enough it may work, but you are just introducing noise into your system and could potentially damage the ethernet ports.

another common mistake folks make is running a ground from the skeg of their trolling motor and terminating it inside the controller. instead of running it back and terminating B- common of the TM string and the house/cranking battery. if they have an aluminum boat then they just created a sacrificial anode out of their entire boat.

yet another mistake is adding a house battery for their main console fuse box and never terminating the the B- to the cranking battery. the needle guages will sometimes move the other direction if at all.

@deerfanatic explained the way large boats terminate all battery B- to a common terminal block and is basic wiring recommendations by ABYC standards.

 

[deerfanatic]

Thanks @WTM I don't fool with boats or autos but I am a controls electrician in a factory so I do deal with dc occasionally and anytime systems are interfaces with each other and they have separate power supplies they tie commons together. I made that mistake early on with dc in my career and had to figure that one out along with a whole lotta other stuff the hard way on my own lol. There's a whole lot more I still learn all the time. Electricity is pretty fascinating.

 

[East TN Bowhunter]

I have a 93sv and the original livescope transducer, and I have my unit tied to my cranking battery and black box tied to a drill battery. Works for me

I have a 93UHD and an LVS34 black box and transducer and graph is hooked to 12v trolling motor battery and black box with transducer is hooked to drill battery, never had issues.

 

[7mm08]

I always have a small jump pack in my glove box. My truck has a short that bleeds the battery if left for two days without running
Once I start the truck and drive it, it's good for another two days of sitting idle.
My truck has the 6.0 liter engine and the jump pack starts it instantly.

I had that once on my Tahoe. What a PITA!!
It took 3 weeks and 3 guys at 3 shops to figure out what it was…… some switch in a passenger door had shorted