24 volt requirement - - - Miss-Be-Haven needs your help

[auguste]

My house and engine batteries are 12 volt (two 12 volt batteries for the house and two 12 volt batteries for the engines)

I am looking at the Raymarine 10kw radar (48 inch array) to connect to a RayMarine hubbed system HOWEVER it needs 24 volts to turn the array.

How would you supply 24 volt power? Your suggestions please. Thanks

[Mud Runner]

Auguste the simplest way would be to use a step up converter. !2VDC to 24VDC. Samlexamerica makes one that's marine gade.

They have three models:

VTC-120
VTC-305
VTC-605

It all depends how much current you need. They have a 45 amp unit that realistically puts out 27 amps or the 27 puts out 13.5 amps. You can even download the owner's manual to read before you buy.

http://www.samlexamerica.com/samlexhome.htm

[reel hungry]

If you have two twelve volt batterys one for each engine you could leave them hooked up the way they are for the engines but also wire them in series for 24 volts to the radar,they should still be 12 volts for the engines and chargeing but put out 24 for the radar.I believe this would work.JMO

[Airslot]

I can't pictue a way in my head to use the same batteries in series and parallel at the same time. Check the specs on teh rest of your electronics. Most furuno stuff can run on anything from 10.5 to 34 volts DC. (approx numbers) Might be easier to wire your house batteries up as 24 volts and use a step down transformer for your 12 volt needs? Just rambling...

Airslot

The only way using the 2 motor batts. would work is if the 2 engine blocks were isolated from each other. With the negative of each battery going to its own engine block , as soon as you connect the batteries in series you will have a dead short across one of the batteries.

This is not the way you want to get 24v. I'm sure your engine blocks are grounded together. You have an aluminum boat, correct?

This doesn't solve your problem of needing 24v. , I just don't want you to hook up your starting batteries in series. Battery explosions
are bad.

[Chaps]

Auguste - I recall someone on this board asking about that same deal. I think it ended up being much easier getting the array that ran on 12 volts and upsizing wires to handle the amperage. Why you going so big? Aren't you too low to the water to effectively use that kind of range?

[Vinny]

I have to agree with chaps in asking why 10kw? If its to look for birds, I would think that 6kw would be plenty and would get a furuno with a special chip they make tuned for birds.
regards

[auguste]

Thanks everyone

Mud Runner's suggestion seems fit best with my needs. Ray Marine OKed that option . . . meaning their guarantee not cancelled by use of the step-up converter.

Yes Furano makes a good radar but I want the ability to overlay radar over the chartplotter (used that twice in the past and loved it) so an integrated system would work best for me and probably be the easiest to set up as it is plug and play . . . also, I am not as electronics savey as most of you, so I prefer not to have to try to interconnect equipment from different manufacturers

With the tower, the radar array will be about 19 feet above the water . . . the higher output should provide higher definition and identify birds within a few miles and also provide me with earlier detection of electrical storms etc. as I plan to fish mostly off shore (weather permitting).

Thanks for your suggestions everyone.

much appreciated

[tunatyme]

I've been looking at fallowing every post about installing radar that I can. I just purchased a JRC 6KW unit and Im installing it on my 25'seacat. I just got off the phone with the Tech. from JRC and he said my unit will run on 12 of 24 Volts but when im clippng along at 25knots in a breeze the 4' open array will slow down with the 12 volt hookup but not the 24 volt. This has me thinking myself about a 24 V supple for me radar only??
Tight lines Dave

[auguste]

tunatyme

Raymarine told me that the units identified by MudRunner would work for my application . . . make sure you get a unit that is big enough for your application . . . and then tell Furano what you are planning to do and ask them if it will work for you.

More specifically it can take 12 volt power from my battery and feed 24 volt power to the radar array.

I selected this option be cause I do not have to change my battery set-up nor any of the wiring re my switches etc.

Hope this helps.

[catmandu]

auguste,

I had to deal with this issue for a 12KW unit. The 12/24 step up is the way to go. E-mail me and I can give you the specifics.


Cat

[Buck Wild]

auguste,
You have two house batteries, so getting 24 volts is easy to do. You need to run a wire from the positive terminal from one to the negitive terminal of the other. Then you supply your electronics from the positive of one battery and the negitive from the other. Very easy to do. If all your electonices can run on 24 volt, then I would supply them with it.

As tunatyme said:
"but when im clippng along at 25knots in a breeze the 4' open array will slow down with the 12 volt hookup but not the 24 volt."

This statement is correct and while running and using your radar it will pull some serious AMP from your batteries. Having it hooked to 24 volt will give your radar a better supply and allow it to perform better.

Again, this is not hard to hook up and is done a lot with all boats. You should not have to buy anything to get 24 volts if you have two batteries to supply it. Do some searches on Google, there are a lot of articles on this very thing.

Good luck!

[Buck Wild]

catmandu, do you have the Furuno 1953c? I just ordered this unit. How well do you like it and how far out are you seeing birds?

[auguste]

catmandou

you have e-mail

[catmandu]

Buck Wild

Yes I ordered the 53C

I'll let you know in April when I finish the electronics sea trial. congrats on choosing a solid commercial grade radar.