My new CD player in my boat keeps cutting off.?

Question

I just recently installed a new cd player and 4 new speakers in my boat. My boat originallly only had two speakers but i cut some holes and ran some wires for the new ones. Now that its all hooked up it shuts off and turns back on, almost like its an auto shut off. All the speakers do work so the wiring is proper it just shuts off for no reason. Any Suggestions?

Answer 1

jtexas and cat38skip are on the right track.

First, ensure that your speakers are all wired the same. (positive output from the amp to positive input on the speaker) This eliminates the speakers being out-of-phase. Check the speaker cable gauge. Bigger cable provides less

line loss.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that when your volume is low (let's say about 25% of full) there's no problem. However when you lean on it, the problem surfaces.

Let's assume your original speakers are the industry standard of 4 ohms each. Parallelling them shows an impedance to the amplifier of about 2 ohms/channel. (Total resistance in a parallel circuit is less than any of the individual resistances: RTotal = 1 / (1/R1 + 1/R2  . . . )

Your player is protecting itself from thermal runaway. (Less resistance creates more current flow, creating more heat which further reduces resistance and creates more current flow and on and on it goes... until your amp goes up in smoke.)

When the amp cools off sufficiently, the thermal protection resets and it's back in business.

If you wire your speakers in SERIES, this'll show more impedance to your amp (4 ohms + 4 ohms= 8 ohms). What'll happen here is your sound level will drop by -3dB which might be noticeable, perhaps not.

Another way around this problem would be to get your hands on a digital voltmeter with LOW POWER ohms capability and see what the impedance of each speaker is. It just might be that one is of considerably less impedance than the rest.

The reason LOW POWER ohms capability is required is that most digital voltmeters have a 9-volt battery for a power supply. (9 volts across a 4 ohm speaker gives a current flow of 2.25 amps, which just might be enough to fry them)

There are not a great many ampifiers available to the consumer that'll load down to 2 ohms, I'm afraid.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Is it shutting off or just skipping due to rough pounding?Not all cd players are suitable for boats due to how good the anti skip circuitry is.If the buffering isn't good enough it will quit playing.

Answer 3

the problem is nothing is made here anymore its probable a defect take it back

Answer 4

most modern electronic devices that contain microprocessors include circuitry to protect the more sensitive components from over/under voltage.

very likely you could be getting voltage spikes, which would happen whenever an inductive load (blower motor, starter motor, power trim) switches off.  Or maybe a bilge pump on a float switch.  Or if you have one a those fancy new automatic sensing bilge pumps, they switch on every couple minutes to see if there's any water to be pumped.

Or a big voltage drop when some other device switches on.

Beyond that, you'd need to analyze your alternator output in relation to the number of devices and total amp draw, to figure out if you need to upgrade your voltage regulator, or some other component.

A big marine deepcycle battery in the circuit would probably help smooth out the voltage drops and spikes.

If you installed an automotive CD player, you'll have to take it back and a marine-quality unit.

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edit:  nope, catskip nailed it, my answer doesn't explain why it turns back on.  [note to self:  read the question next time]

Answer 5

JTexas has some excellent points .... the only thing to add is: If the player was working fine with 2 speakers and You have added 2 more, You may be overloading the amplifier and causing it to clip off. Be sure you have the correct impedance speakers and that you have them wired correctly to the player. They will play for a few minutes and when the amp overheats or is overloaded it will shut off till it resets and then repeat the same cycle.