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Can I hard wire my charging cord, then when it need’s charging I can plug it into the wall socket, I think that plugging and unplugging my charger after a while will cause problems. Just thinking. I know I have a onboard charger for my other batteries.
No reason why you can't do that
I've got a flat 2 pin connector pig tail bolted to my terminals on my Amped Outdoors battery, and have flat 2 pin connectors in the boat on the live scope to plug it into, as well as the charger. Makes it pretty easy to just unplug from one and plug into the other.
I have onboard charger and installed one of these in my spash well. It only took maybe 5 minutes to mark out the hole and drill it with a hole saw. One of the better improvements I've made. Now i just back the boat into the garage, flip open the back compartment for air vent, and plug the extension cord into the port. All can be done from outside and no more fishing around for cables or hooking up chargers. They also sell it with 2 ac plugs, so you can add another onboard charger to your battery and also attach everything to the same port Attachment 449768
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Good idea
This is what I’m wanting to do. But, when you have 10ga running to LS it defeats the purpose when you choke it down to the 16ga wire on the connectors. But I am also gonna admit I have not fully understood or agree with the whole 10ga wire deal. No more than LS pulls I dont inderstand the ‘need’ for 10ga wire. My2bitsQuote:
Originally Posted by TreednNC
Could be the lower resistance offered by the 10ga wire is what the livescope requires
Thats the universal blanket response when someone is having a sonar issue. Ive seen people recommending 4 and 6ga wiring now. Its kind of absurd, you should not need bigger than 14ga for a boat length run for 1.75A livescope draw... Thats 1/2 the draw of your livewell pump. Yeah livescope pulls 3A at start up, but your usage draw when running is 1.75A at 12v, about 1.5A at 13.5v.Quote:
Originally Posted by KRW
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Resistance from wiring in the run can cost you several tenths of a volt. Resistance from connections, including at the battery, at the unit, at the unit’s cable and the fuse can cost a bunch too. When you only have about 1.5-2V to spare above the minimum operating voltage of the equipment, it’s important to save everywhere you can, especially if the battery is used for engine cranking.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin22
Wire resistance is per foot. 16 gauge has 4 times the resistance of 10 gauge, so you get quite a bit better connection running the 10 most of the way.Quote:
Originally Posted by KRW
About 5-8% loss is okay, any more that and you have some bad connections somewhere or need to go to larger wire.Quote:
Originally Posted by CatFan
14 gauge marine wire running 20 feet on a 3amp load (twice that of livescope) should drop about 0.3v off 12v, so 3%. Having resistance and voltage loss is normal, you just do not want it to be excessive. There is zero reason to use 8, 6, or 4ga wire for a 1.75A draw just to reduce a 3% voltage loss to <1%. Sounds good, but makes no real world impact other than you are spending 5 times more on wire.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin22
Until you crank the outboard and see a large voltage sag. Then, any reduction in loss to the units is critical. Voltage loss happens on both the positive and negative wire.
This post is not about running livescope on a starting battery, it is about running on a dedicated lithium battery.Quote:
Originally Posted by CatFan
And even then, a voltage sag when starting the motor is a weak or too small of a battery. You can have 0 gauge wiring to your fishfinder and it will still sag to whatever the battery goes to when your 30A starter is engaged... Having thinner wire to your fishfinder does not make your voltage drop when you start the engine.
On top of all of that, why do you care if your livescope transducer voltage is dropping when you start the outboard? I dont know if I have ever been watching sonar while starting the motor.
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You are clearly an amazing expert. No sense correcting your misunderstanding.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin22
The long and the short of it is, especially with modern sonar and FFS, is that the more voltage to the unit the better the picture. So running 10 ga wire will get you significantly more voltage to your unit than 16 ga wire over a 17-20 foot run. The foot or so of smaller gauge wire at the unit doesn't affect the voltage nearly as much as the long run.
Negative. Livescope is internally regulated to 12v, so any voltage over 12v will not improve picture. Under 12v is not noticeable until you get around 11v. Lithium batteries are dead at 12v, running volts is 13-13.5v for 90% of capacity. so even if you have tiny wiring, you are going to be just fine as long as your transducer is getting the appropriate AMPS without heating up your wiring. You cannot drop enough voltage in a 20ft run to hurt livescope, with a lithium battery. You will run a fire risk if you go too small.Quote:
Originally Posted by Soonerdg65
16ga is actually appropriate if you are just running your livescope off the wire run, on a 20' run. Livescope draws 3A at start up for 3 seconds, then draws 1.75 while running. I personally would not use 16, because the price difference isnt that much to go ahead and use 14 or 12 marine wiring.
Likely your running lights draw more power than livescope, that is what most guys do not understand. Your actual head unit is what is drawing the most power. Attachment 450370
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