Humminbird used to sell one called the SureVolt. They ran about $75. When they quit
selling them, they remaineder the last ones for $15-20. They would produce, IIRC,
about 1.5 A of 13.8V. Not enought to run a VHF (in transmit mode), but enough
to keep my GPS and fishfinder from wigging out when I started the motor and the
battery got pulled down to around 8V. It's still going strong on my whaler.


"Larry" wrote in message ...
cavelamb himself wrote in
m:

I'm trying to find a stabalizer circuit for the house battery.
Someone (probably Larry?) a while back mentioned a device that could
take a wide range of input voltages and supply a reliable and smooth
12
VDC.

Any ideas?

Richard


Totally unnecessary. Any voltage from 10-18VDC will run any electronics
made for boats.

If you want to make it smoother, take all the connections apart, wire
brush them to a nice shine then put them all back together and spray
some battery post protector on them.

What you're talking about is a voltage regulator. The only problem is
you'd have to have a much higher voltage to start out with than a
standard battery. The regulators need "overhead" voltage, unless
there's some kind of switching power supply, which I do NOT recommend
because switchers make a lot of RF noise to tear up your VHF and SSB
radios!

The battery is a natural regulator and holds its voltage quite steady at
the posts. The voltage drops you see are caused by light wiring,
corroded breakers, corroded contacts and wires.

by the way....to find where a corroded contact is is quite easy with a
simple voltmeter. Load the circuit to full load. Put the meter ACROSS
each connection and breaker. If the connection is perfect, you read no
voltage. A corroded connector has a voltage drop you can measure UNDER
LOAD CURRENT....narrows down where it is.

In article
eyinternet,
"Chuck Tribolet" wrote:

Humminbird used to sell one called the SureVolt. They ran about $75. When
they quit
selling them, they remaineder the last ones for $15-20. They would produce,
IIRC,
about 1.5 A of 13.8V. Not enought to run a VHF (in transmit mode), but
enough
to keep my GPS and fishfinder from wigging out when I started the motor and
the
battery got pulled down to around 8V. It's still going strong on my whaler.


In the Jameco.com Catalog, on page 123 they sell DC to DC Switching
Power supplies, of various Input and output voltages. Just a quick glance
shows a 8-18 Vdc Input, 12 Vdc Regulated Output at 1.25 amps for $33US
in ones'es. I use these all the time for various projects and they work
very well, and I buy them from OEM Distributers, at a lot less than
from Jameco.

--
Bruce in alaska
add path after fast to reply

Bruce in alaska wrote in
:

In article
eyinternet,
"Chuck Tribolet" wrote:

Humminbird used to sell one called the SureVolt. They ran about $75.
When they quit
selling them, they remaineder the last ones for $15-20. They would
produce, IIRC,
about 1.5 A of 13.8V. Not enought to run a VHF (in transmit mode),
but enough
to keep my GPS and fishfinder from wigging out when I started the
motor and the
battery got pulled down to around 8V. It's still going strong on my
whaler.


In the Jameco.com Catalog, on page 123 they sell DC to DC Switching
Power supplies, of various Input and output voltages. Just a quick
glance shows a 8-18 Vdc Input, 12 Vdc Regulated Output at 1.25 amps
for $33US in ones'es. I use these all the time for various projects
and they work very well, and I buy them from OEM Distributers, at a
lot less than from Jameco.


Powerstream has one that puts out 13.8VDC with 9-14V input and won't
shutdown on starting if the battery stays above 6VDC..

It'll put out 700 watts for 5 minutes surge and 20ADC continuous.

http://www.powerstream.com/DC-PC-12V.htm

idle load is only .15A

wrote in news
Not true. I have a spare depth sounder (a cheap Humminbird fish
finder) that goes berserk at anything over about 15 volts. Keeping the
input voltage to all those other, more expensive instruments
controlled at 12 volts lets them run at lower temps, which in
electronics, equals longer life and greater reliability.



It is impossible to put 15 VDC across a normally-charging, functional on
all cells, lead acid 6-cell battery.

If there is 15V on that battery you are WAY overcharging it or have
corroded battery terminals causing series resistance the charging current
is flowing through. This is not a problem bacause a NORMAL alternator with
a working regulator will simply cut the current back, as it folds over the
voltage at its 14.2VDC setting.

Your fishfinder is going berserk because the regulator has lost control of
your alternator's charging and is charging a battery with high internal
resistance caused by a dead cell, probably, to create pulsating DC across
the bad battery....that whining sound in your car stereo is caused by it.
Now with several volts peak of pulsating DC riding on top of the battery
voltage, the pulses are causing havoc in the sonar's digital circuits.
They expect it to be running on SMOOTH DC....

look at:http://www.logicsupply.com/products/m2_atx
I use them to run my cpu, monitor and TV.


Hanz


wrote:
On Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:31:17 +0000, Larry wrote:


wrote in news

Not true. I have a spare depth sounder (a cheap Humminbird fish
finder) that goes berserk at anything over about 15 volts. Keeping the
input voltage to all those other, more expensive instruments
controlled at 12 volts lets them run at lower temps, which in
electronics, equals longer life and greater reliability.



It is impossible to put 15 VDC across a normally-charging, functional on
all cells, lead acid 6-cell battery.

If there is 15V on that battery you are WAY overcharging it or have
corroded battery terminals causing series resistance the charging current
is flowing through. This is not a problem bacause a NORMAL alternator with
a working regulator will simply cut the current back, as it folds over the
voltage at its 14.2VDC setting.

Your fishfinder is going berserk because the regulator has lost control of
your alternator's charging and is charging a battery with high internal
resistance caused by a dead cell, probably, to create pulsating DC across
the bad battery....that whining sound in your car stereo is caused by it.
Now with several volts peak of pulsating DC riding on top of the battery
voltage, the pulses are causing havoc in the sonar's digital circuits.
They expect it to be running on SMOOTH DC....


See, you really don't know as much as you think. You said any marine electronic
device can run on 10-18 volts, which is simply WRONG. My charging source is the
alternator built into a 9.9 hp outboard. Regulation is more or less
non-existent. When voltage gets up around 15 volts, I turn on some cabin lights
to bring it back down.