Radio power and battery drain! HELP!!!

[PGreenlawMD]

Help

Electrical is probably one of my weaker areas

New marine radio out of the box. no amp installed yet. Adding parts step by step to make sure everything is working

Wiring directly to battery; yellow constant power for memory directly to the battery with in line fuse and negative back to battery directly. Switch red wire connected to a toggle switch off the same hot line from the battery.

It works great EXCEPT when the power switch or toggle switch is turned off the memory constant on yellow wire keeps all the HUD lights and backlit display on which is draining the battery. Even taking the front faceplate off still leads to battery drain

With the stereo completely unhooked the battery holds charge fully with no measurable discharge for 24 hours

With the radio connected and the only electrical draw being the yellow constant wire I am dropping about 25% of the battery charge in the first hour alone

The battery recharges the 25% in about 10 minutes on a slow charge which is not normal. Battery measures 12-13 volts on charger and multimeter.

First, battery must be bad so tomm will get a new combo starter/deep cycle battery. Battery is 3.5 years old

Second, any other way to wire this radio in not using the ignition switch (long story but can't use currently). Am going to call tech service for HUD unit but want to have exhausted most reasonable things prior to being on hold forever

Thanks

 

[broncnaz]

25% in a hour is way to much for just a radio Id sy your correct the battery is bad. Id say something is wrong with the stereo as well I dont really see how it could be drawing 25% in a hour by itself without burning up. So maybe its just a combonation of bad stereo bad battery. No other way to wire it up and have it hold memory.

 

[70_Steve]

New marine radio out of the box.

What radio?

 

[PGreenlawMD]

What radio?

Pyle marine blue tooth radio

Plmr17btb

Inexpensive to get everything installed and working correctly. Meaning if I fry it by wiring wrong I can live with that.

That being said the sound and the Bluetooth connection have turned out to be surprisingly good. Maybe a new battery will help with the drain. Need to break out the multimeter to measure the amps being drawn by the radio by the "memory" that keeps all the backlighting on. I always seem to screw that multimeter up

2 infinity marine 6.5" and 2 infinity marine 6x9" speakers and it rocks for not wiring in an amp yet

 

[broncnaz]

Reviews on that one are not that great seems like it has lots of issues.

 

[Steve83]

How are you measuring % discharge? If it only takes 10min on low-current charge, then either it wasn't 25% down, or the battery is ruined. The only way to know for sure is a LOOOOONG slow charge and then a MidTronics HF tester:



And if the radio is staying on, it sounds like you didn't wire it right. Are you sure you're turning off the correct power feed?

 

[PGreenlawMD]

How are you measuring % discharge? If it only takes 10min on low-current charge, then either it wasn't 25% down, or the battery is ruined. The only way to know for sure is a LOOOOONG slow charge and then a MidTronics HF tester:



And if the radio is staying on, it sounds like you didn't wire it right. Are you sure you're turning off the correct power feed?

Measuring battery percentage off a battery charger and charging using the slow setting (turtle). Charger has two other settings; trickle and fast as well as jump start. I am pretty sure battery is bad

Have wired radio with JUST the yellow memory wire and negative directly to a battery and even with faceplate off still draws down battery. I think something wrong with radio as well

 

[70_Steve]

Pyle marine blue tooth radio

Plmr17btb

Sorry, had to double-check you on the power wiring, and it looks like you've got it right.

I think something wrong with radio as well

I agree...

 

[elliottferrell]

Help

Electrical is probably one of my weaker areas

New marine radio out of the box. no amp installed yet. Adding parts step by step to make sure everything is working

Wiring directly to battery; yellow constant power for memory directly to the battery with in line fuse and negative back to battery directly. Switch red wire connected to a toggle switch off the same hot line from the battery.

Thanks

Just to clarify, you have everything wired up correctly? yellow wire from battery to unit, ground the same, and then you stated you have your red wire with toggle tied into the yellow and then back up to the unit? Just out of curiosity does the unit require both 12v on the yellow and red wire? Also, have you double checked that your toggle switch is working correctly?

 

[Steve83]

Measuring battery percentage off a battery charger...

That's pretty much meaningless. It's just a cheap voltmeter with a few scales printed on the face, and it's not even particularly accurate. Clean the battery posts, slow-charge it, & find someone local with a MidTronics tester.

I agree...

x3 Check out the KDC-X997 or -X998.

 

[PGreenlawMD]

Just to update and thanks for all the input

Had the battery tested at advanced auto parts and the battery % charge was nearly identical to my battery charger reading. Put it on the charger there and it charged way too quickly - battery is done for.

Bought a new battery.

Got in touch with Pyle regarding the radio constant draw off the battery with just the memory (constant) wire connected, even with the faceplate off. They agreed that the radio is defective. However, the only option is to send the radio back to them at about $15, and prepay the shipping for a new unit back to me of $15. I don't think it is worth $30 shipping for a radio that cost me $73 from amazon. I am doing fine with a $3 toggle switch that shuts off the constant memory wire. I am not programming anything into the HUD since I am basically using it for bluetooth with my iPhone. The radio still works fine when I want to use it. The plan is to get the system fully wired up with the amp, etc and then put in a good HUD unit.

Thanks for all your help