No power to amp or stereo

[Kidder522]

Hey all. Just travelled 1200 km to our cabin and was excited to launch the boat. Threw boat in water and all worked as it should.......but the stereo. I have 2 batteries, one for motor and one for everything else. All acc work( blower, heater, etc) but no power to amp or stereo. Toggle switch lights up, but does not put on amp or stereo. I thought the bumpy ride loosened something up, but I cannot see anything. Now I need some expert advice, which a lot of you have..... Any help will make my day.

Kidder

[Woody929]

Possibilities: Fuse, loose battery terminal connections, loose remote wire, battery not fully charged

[Brianinpdx]

Kidder - get a 5 dollar harbor freight volt meter and start checking to see where you have voltages. A visual inspection might lead to a determination of what wire pulled out where, but a volt DVM will allow you to go and check each amplifier remote cable and see if it has received 12V trigger voltage.

I suspect that you will find someplace in your cabling between your deck and remote cables that its not receiving proper voltage to turn your amplifiers on. Usually the amp 1 2 3 remotes are all home run style to the deck remote. the deck triggers all the amps to turn on. If you measured the deck output remote and theres no voltage on that remote, then the deck has an issue.

this should be a very easy problem to locate. the name of the game is isolate the problem and then address it. Your first task is the "isolation" of this problem.

-Brian

[David Analog]

Hey all. Just travelled 1200 km to our cabin and was excited to launch the boat. Threw boat in water and all worked as it should.......but the stereo. I have 2 batteries, one for motor and one for everything else. All acc work( blower, heater, etc) but no power to amp or stereo. Toggle switch lights up, but does not put on amp or stereo. I thought the bumpy ride loosened something up, but I cannot see anything. Now I need some expert advice, which a lot of you have..... Any help will make my day.

Kidder

The amplifier(s) cannot power up without the source unit powering up first. So this is an important distinction. Does the source unit display come on even though you get no sound?
If you have two batteries then I assume you have a dual battery switch. Have you tried setting the dual battery switch to the 'All' or 'Both' position? You should have a voltmeter in your dash cluster. Start by checking the voltage per the dash gauge of each battery individually using the battery switch, first position #1 and then position #2.
Next, a voltmeter/multimeter is an inexpensive and readily available tool. It can quickly lead you to the problem saving both time and energy. However, as easy as the meter functions are to learn and operate, you need to have some basic trouble-shooting logic to use it effectively. Check back in if you get to that point.

[MLA]

Stereo turn on switch lights up, thats a good indicator that the head-unit is receiving its 12V turn-on trigger form the switch, but its either lost its B+ or ground, or its dead. If the head-unit does not power up, there will be no 12V measured at the amp's turn-on terminal.

Getting a volt meter is good advice, as it will make short work of diagnosing the issue. If the batteries have been out or disconnected since the last outing, then look close for a rouge cable that got overlooked.

Start at the back of the head-unit and check for battery voltage across the black ground and yellow B+. If voltage is present, then move the positive lead over to the red turn-on. If battery voltage is present there, the problem is internal of the head-unit.

If not battery voltage across the head-units black GND and yellow B+: Move the meters negative lead directly to the battery GND post and test the yellow again. If still no battery voltage, trace harness back to source, checking the inline fuse thats just back of the head-unit. If voltage is present in the 2nd test, then move the meters positive lead to the battery and again test the head-units black GND. If no voltage now, the issue is loss of ground.

[Kidder522]

Thanks everyone for your insight. I will use the volt meter to check power and check fuse. I will try to trace power back to the head unit and go from there with your suggestions.

Thanks again.
Kidder