Hummingbird units shut off

On my skeeter I have lowrance units and 2 helix 7’s. When I start the big motor the hummingbirds shut off and I have to unplug them to restart. The lowrance’s don’t. Anyone know why this is? Brand new battery this year.

Thanks

Is your power source. hooked up to the ACC side of the keyswitch. That power source is temporarily cut off while cranking.

Did you change anything besides the battery? Did they not do this before you changed the battery. Did you add any or change any electronics? This info will help with the troubleshooting.

Yes they are wired in to the power switch on the switch panel, but like I said the lowrance stays on. Yes this happened before I changed the battery. It has happened ever since I installed them I have just dealt with it up until this point.

Humminbird say to wire directly to the battery.

My Helix 7 did that as well in my Lund when wired into the panel. I redid the power source direct to the battery. Haven’t had it shut off when starting the motor.

Yes as others have posted the drop out voltage of the humminbirds is higher then the lowrance units. You can increase the size of the wire from battery to switch and switch to units, or run a dedicated wire to the battery. Voltage drop on these lighter gauge wires when the motor is cranked is enough to make the units shut off. Just to make sure your cranking battery is not to small you can connect a unit directly to the battery and start the motor if the unit stays on then your battery is big enough and you just need to run the wire.

You’re not getting enough voltage to the graphs. Mine did that too when I upgraded to bigger graphs.

Bypass the switch panel, which often have very small gauge wires in them, and wire directly from battery to graph using an inline fuse and heavy gauge wires. This fixed the issue.

I also prefer to use solid wire rather than stranded wire because it’s easier to route through tight places.

I will do that!
Thank you everyone

Khuiras23 wrote:

I will do that!
Thank you everyone

Add a fuse as close to the battery as practical, per Humminbird’s specs.

I have had friends with this same issue and upgrading the wire gauge to like 10 gauge wire along with making sure you battery cranking amps is large enough that when you start the motor you don’t lose as much power those two things should clear that issue up. Yes to wiring direct to battery as well.

Ron wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Khuiras23 wrote:</div>
I will do that!
Thank you everyone

Add a fuse as close to the battery as practical, per Humminbird’s specs.

And use at least 12 ga. wire. My Helix 9 runs to a fuse block approx. 18″ from the battery. I wanted a battery kill switch between my battery and all my accessories.

Fixes listed above. More gauge wire and more cca.

Display voltage on your lowrance, then start your motor and watch the voltage plummet. It’s probably below 10v.
Birds don’t like that.

When I start my main and my bird shuts off, I’m usually so dead already I cannot start or barely start my engine. I have good wiring…
So, assuming your motor cranks over good, your just way under gauged for the length of wire and possibly have some crummy connections mixed in there also.

You can also display voltage on your bird, with a fully charged battery you should be reading over 13.5v. If it is less, then the resistance of your wire is stealing all your voltage.