General Wiring / Audio Question

[drekar]

I have a dual battery with ACR switch setup. In addition, there is a yellow power cable that gets connected directly to the battery. This cable seems to power the amplifiers for the stereo system.

However, what is odd is that when the ACR switch is off, the trim can still operate and there's still power to the engine because my Volvo "Easy Connect" hub has power. This does seem quite right.

Wouldn't I want this yellow cable (that power's the amplifiers and is somehow providing some power to the trim motor) to pass through the ACR switch?

[jwill323]

i don't know anything about your installation but yellow wires on a boat connected to the battery are usually DC ground, could be yellow or black or a mix. It's probably connected to the negative terminal on your battery. probably connects to negative/ground on your amp and probably negative/ground on your trim pump. DO NOT CONNECT THIS TO YOUR ACR or you will have a dead short (sparks/fire/damage) picture would help to figure out what you are dealing with or get a trained tech to help you diagnose your issue. There should be some red wires that connect to your ACR, amp, trim pump, these are the power wires. DO NOT CONNECT ANY YELLOW WIRES TO RED WIRES!!!

[jhnmdahl]

The ACR is a relay, not a switch. When the power is switched off using the switch, a few things like bilge pump and outdrive motor often bypass the switch so that you can raise and lower the outdrive with the boat on the trailer, the bilge pump can keep your boat from inadvertently sinking at the dock, etc..

Note there are different ways to connect an ACR as well, including before and after the switch, depending on whether a bit of parasitic drain from the ACR when the switch is off is acceptable - see the diagrams near the bottom of the first page of this thread: viewtopic.php?t=3729

[drekar]

i don't know anything about your installation but yellow wires on a boat connected to the battery are usually DC ground, could be yellow or black or a mix. It's probably connected to the negative terminal on your battery. probably connects to negative/ground on your amp and probably negative/ground on your trim pump. DO NOT CONNECT THIS TO YOUR ACR or you will have a dead short (sparks/fire/damage) picture would help to figure out what you are dealing with or get a trained tech to help you diagnose your issue. There should be some red wires that connect to your ACR, amp, trim pump, these are the power wires. DO NOT CONNECT ANY YELLOW WIRES TO RED WIRES!!!

Thank you for answering my question. As it was a newer boat to me, actually tried connecting the yellow wire to the positive of the battery. I never turned on the ACR so hopefully nothing shorted out. (though if you had ideas of what to check, that would be great). When I connected this wire, I was able to trim the motor and my VP Easy Connect device was powered on. I thought this was odd with ACR switch set to off so I knew something wasn't right. At that point I disconnected it and left it disconnected and just turned on the ACR and everything seemed to function as normal (except for the stereo system). As you suggested, once I put the cable on the negative terminal, everything was fine, including the stereo. Is there anything I should check, just to see if I unintentionally shorted something?

[jhnmdahl]

If you really want to know what's going on, the first step will be tracing each wire out and making a diagram so you understand what you're working with. Not always easy - you may need to make a long test lead for one side of your meter to trace some things.

[jwill323]

What model and year boat do you have? Any pictures of what you are looking at would help. If everything is working then you probably didn't break anything! If you give us the model and year we could reference the manual for your boat from the Cobalt website and maybe have some info on the wiring layout but some pics of what your working on would help.