Hey guys. I finally had a chance to test my new 522 on the water yesterday & it seems to work great but when I start the big motor it powers down & I have to power it back up. The Eagle I had there before never powered down like that & I connected the Lowrance exactly the same, to the same hot wire & same ground. The only real difference is the new unit has GPS so I have 2 power wires w/ inline fuses going to the same hot wire. Any ideas why it is doing this and/or how I can fix it. Could it be a faulty unit?

You may have low voltage when starting BIG motor..
Have heard that will shut down -- then you have to power back up;

Check your starting battery for voltage output.

I didn't think it could be the battery since the big motor was starting fine all day & charging while running. Seemed that when I start the motor it pulled the current away from the fishfinder causing it to shutdown. Maybe the Lowrance requires more current or voltage than the Eagle did. The previous owner wired everything on the console to a main power on/off switch to prevent him from leaving any of the electronics on & draining the batt. I simply removed the 2 wire connections (hot & ground) on the Eagle and hooked up the Lowrance. I noticed the cigarette lighter is wired to these connections as well. Could this be the problem?

John,
My new Lowrance was doing exactly the same thing last year...I ran a power wire directly back to the battery with a on/off switch for it (the GPS has a current draw even when the unit is not powered up). It solved the problem.

Steve

Steve,
Thanks for the info. There is obviously a voltage drop when I start the motor. Do you have both the GPS power wire & the Sonar power wire go straight to the 1 switch & both grounded together? I spoke to a technician at Lowrance yesterday & he said that each has to be independently fused & switched. I have each independently fused but not switched. I have a master power switch to my center console. I have them both wired to a hot wire that my cigarette lighter is also wired to. It doesn't seem like I should have to put 2 swirches in here but this is my first sonar/gps combo unit so what do I know! Maybe I should disconnect the cigarette lighter first & see what it does.

I bet your battery has low voltage. It will still start the motor fine but the volatge will drop so low it kills the Lowrance. You can set your Lowrance to show voltage, on your menu screen got to OVERLAY DATA and select voltage. If you have below 12V when your engine has been shut off for a while, thats your problem. May need a new battery.

Good question John...not sure how I did it but will check tomorrow when it is daylight and let you know.

Steve

your cranking battery is not holding or maintaing a good charge(probably starting have a bad cell). like one of the guys said. overlay our voltage. then press pwr/light key to dime the light and you will see your volts go down by half. ie 10.5 with light full bright dim it couple of times 11.5 volts. then start your big motor. mostly like it wont turn off.

tip when not using that unit either front or console. i turn down the light.

mine did the samething had to get new battery.

For reference

Digital Voltmeter Open Circuit Voltage and Approximate State-of-Charge
12.65 100%
12.45 75%
12.24 50%
12.06 25%
11.89 Discharged

So @ 25% (12.06V) my boat will likely still start but will not be enough voltage to keep my Lowrance on while starting the motor? If I put a volt meter accross the terminals on the starting battery & it reads 100% charge @ 12.65V than this is not my problem, right? I will have to go check my voltages first before I start disconnected wires as I did such a nice neat job installing. I think I will try what Medic suggested (w/ the backlight) as well before I do that. Appreciate all the info guys.

Point is, if your charging system is working properly but your battery is not holding a charge, you probably need a new battery. Hate to see you get stranded. Checking your voltage is an easy way to find this out. Good luck

I have had the same problem and yes if you have 100% in your battery and start the motor your unit can shut down. Try this it will help diagnose it simply go to data overlay and select enter to add then scroll down to voltage and press enter then exit out this should overlay the units voltage on your sonar screen or the map screen. Then check your voltage at the battery and compare i bet they are not the same you will only see this when a little load is appied like when the unit is on the backlight test as suggested before will show alot lower voltage when on bright than when on dim if this is the case I bet you have a voltage drop problem due to corrosion at the terminals on the battery,fuse,switch or connectors or just have too much stuff pulling power on that one circuit. The 522 uses alot more power than a non gps or greyscale unit. I will tell you that if you make any electrical connection apply dielectric grease to the contacts to seal out moisture and prevent the corrosion. You may also have a starter going bad on your motor or a bad battery that is just not holding up under load they can have 100% charge and not hold squat when a load is applied. [i hope not] but if the starter is going bad and drwing too many amps it will pull down the voltage in the battery too low so that the unit powers down. Try turning on the unit and putting the votage up on the screen and do the test on the battery and compare then pull your kill switch and turn the engine over while watching the voltage on the screen see how low it goes if you just bump the motor over. I have to diagnose some of the same iossues every day like this on vehicles if you keep having trouble shoot me a pm with your # and maybe I can walk you through it.

Ps I keep the voltage up on both gps and sonar screens so I can visually check the voltage while im fishing and the charging state while im running.

buy a new battery anyway. That way it will last all year with no problem and put your old battery on your wifes car