www.iFourWinns.com

In another thread, a discussion arose regarding the need for a "Marine" radio that would remember presets, clock settings, etc. when the key is off and the battery switch (if existing) is turned to "off."

Thoughts?

_________________
Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

My view on this is that it is not the function of the "radio" so as to make it necessary for a "marine" radio. Most car/marine audio head units have a "constant power" wire that you hook to the wire for this very reason. This is a separate wire from the power lead used to power the unit when it is turned on. In any car install I have done, I have often just tapped that wire into the cigarette lighter in cases where I had to work outside of matchup wiring harnesses.

It is more a function of the wiring system installed in the boat, and would be better addressed by manufacturers' running a constant power wire to from the battery to the helm. This would allow the radio to be hooked to a constant power in the same manner as an automatic bilge pump. However, the actual power lead for the head unit would still be switched, so you wouldn't be turning the radio on and listening. It would only draw enough current to store the presets electronically, so you wouldn't be pulling tons of volts off of your battery for hours at a time. If that were the case, you would have the same issues in cars-but you don't. A car stereo will store its presets for months without ever turning the key on, so long as the battery is good.

_________________
Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

I somewhat agree with what you are saying but have another point of view that may not be right. I don’t fully understand why you would disconnect the battier unless you where not going to use the boat for a long period of time like storing it for the winter. I don’t think I would ever really bother disconnection mine. I will most likely pull it out in the winter. But I don’t have a large boat with a lot of electronics. I believe that when I turn the ignition off and nothing is running, the only draw will be the radio memory.

_________________
2006 Four Winns horizon 200

Will that was mentioned in the other forum as well and you are not wrong at all. I started this thread because the same questions were asked over there, but they were branching a bit off-subject for that thread. Mine was, "Why turn the battery switch to 'off' if you have one?" Some said they were concerned about the ability of their auto bilge pump to cycle while on the trailer with no water in the bilge, thus killing the batteries.

Others noted that they had no battery switch, so they didn't have the problem of the radio losing memory so long as the battery was good and remained connected. Nobody with this setup reported that the radio memory retentioned significantly drained their batteries.

This was what brought up the topic of why FW didn't similarly wire the boats that do have battery switches so that there would be a constant power lead from the battery for this purpose. I guess the real answer to that is to just leave the battery switch on, but some people won't do that for various reasons.

_________________
Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

Well, if retaining presets is the goal here, and for various reasons disconnecting or switching the battery off is desired, perhaps a simple solution would be to wire a 12V 'Walkie Talkie' battery to the constant power line and ground to the radio chasis. For off season, a 12V 'Lantern' battery, might be the ticket.

_________________
2007 Horizon 200
4.3L GXi/ SX 225 HP