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jtwomey76 avatar image
jtwomey76 asked

Orion TR smart 12/12-18 isolated charger causing interference on boat sounder

I have 2 x Orion TR smart 12/12-18 isolated chargers fed from a start battery which is connected to the boat motor/alternator (see lousy picture attached). img-1777.jpgOne charger feeds the house batteries and the second feeds the electric troll motor battery pack. House system works fine. Electric troll motor battery pack is 4 x LiPo 120AH in parallel feeding a 12v to 36v transformer and onto the 36v trolling motor. My problem is I am getting interference on my depth sounder which is powered by the house batteries when my electric trolling motor is running. I have tracked the source of the interference and it is coming from the output cables on the electric troll motor charger. Ie if I disconnect the +ve and -ve cables on the Orion for charging the electric troll motor batteries at the output side the interference stops. Note if I only disconnect either the +ve or -ve the interference continues. This seems to indicate the interference is being passed back through the charger, to the starter battery and onto the house batteries which I did not think was possible given it is galvanically isolated? The electric troll motor pulls high currents (up to 120A at 12v) so I thought it might be inducing a voltage in the output cables however I ran a new cable well away from the others and no change. Anyone got any thoughts? Is the electric motor causing a messy signal and I should try a ferrite core? I have the jumper in for the remote switch so using the engine detect function - not sure if this is relevant. Thanks in advance for any advice.

orion-tr smart
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1 Answer
cdgatti avatar image
cdgatti answered ·

Did you ever figure this out? I am also interested in sharing power between my starter/alternator bank and my trolling battery bank.

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