Where does Radio Constant for 8v (6 battery) cart hook up at?

[DOOmsman]

Well so often we get asked whats a dvo (digital volt ohm meter) so i
typed dvometer to be clear, oh well.
I would use the second probe and check each battery neg post for my test.
That is the neg for your reducer and the one you will use for 8 volts.
I hope that makes sense.

[golfcarfixer]

Or you could just use a seperate battery that is 12 volt and put it somewhere on the cart.Charge every now and then,I have seen it done before.

[the_freshmaker5]

LOTS of information discovered last night. Firstly, i hooked the entire radio system up and decided i wouldnt hook up the constant until later to experiment and protect my system. I tried to fire up the radio and nothing happened so eventually i tied the constant into the red + which is controlled by the ignition. The radio worked so that made me feel good that i never hooked the constant to the 8v. I never did volt meter to see if there was back feed coming from the constant on the radio because it just didn't seem like a good idea to hook to 8v no matter what at that point. The second strange thing i learned was that when i turned on the ignition, the radio worked but the FIRST time i turned on my headlights the radio would shut off. I turned the radio back on and then I turned the lights on and off, on and off tons after that and is was fine. However, if i turned my cart off then back on by key, then that exact process would start over. I tested this 2 or 3 times trying to understand. After running the stereo for about 10 min on pandora before, during and after the "light" story through my phone, it seemed like there was static like a radio station not coming in well. It continued to get worse until there was no sound at all. At that point all the lights and buttons on the radio still were on and would say they were going through the radio stations or auxiliary etc when i pressed them. However, no sound was coming out no matter what i did. I pulled the speakers out and tested them in my truck system. They worked fine and weren't damaged. My friend convinced me that the fuse mounted directly to the back of the radio was sufficient so i didn't get the radio its own inline fuse. I did however splice into the + on the stock 12v converter after its inline fuse thinking that would help. Since the lights, horn, tail lights, cig lighter and blinkers come out of the 12v converter also, the only thing i can think of is when i turned on the lights, it drew a pulse of power but i do not understand why it was only that first time only. Any way, i never got the radio to work again and i believe that i fried it. My conclusion if i had to do it over is this. 1) leave the stock converter alone as you dont want to mess up your carts system anyway. Also i didnt like the fact that i would have to have the key on its 12v setting to run it because of 2 reasons. When its on, the tail lights are always on so to chill at night its more noticeable and burns the battery juice up if your just hanging out using the cart as a boom box. Also, i run my cart a lot in the day with out the 12v accessory on because i get 1 more mph and it doesnt suck additional unnecessary juice from my system. So if i wanted my radio on during those times i would have to run the 12v. My suggestion is to buy 2 more 48v to 12v converters and hook the positive on the first battery and the negative on the last one so that you are pulling 48v to convert it to 12v. Run one converter with a switch to the radio. This will allow you to have the radio on with all other accessories off and have its own dedicated system (use an inline fuse to be safe). If i care about saving the preset stations and the clock on the radio i would buy another 48v to 12v converter and i would also put a switch on this (use inline fuse to be safe). Typically you would never turn the clock/preset memory converter off because you want to save your clock but i thought if you store your cart in the winter it would keep the clock from drawing the battery for months on end when you're not even using the cart. You don't want to completely drain lead batteries as they have no memory like nickel ect. That's how you do it boys. I really appreciate all your help and in return i hope you all learned something from my experience. It stinks that i ruined my bday present from my wife and that it was brand new but i feel like i will be using my system mostly from my phone using pandora so im going to get a radio with bluetooth so i dont need to dangle cords and leave my phone on the cart. If im off my cart i have a "remote" (my phone) on me all the time anyway rather then carrying around the real remote to the radio. Thanks again and let me know if you have a suggestion for a bluetooth radio. Im thinking it should be marine grade as well as this one was. The only thing i want to know now is what Amperage 48v to 12v converters to get for not only the on and off of the radio but the constant for the clock/preset stations. I think a 10amp would be sufficient for just running a clock (the smallest converter i have seen). I really want an opinion on what amperage for the radio though before i mess up again!

[simple man]

I don't know how your cart is set up, but everything connected to the key switch on my cart is 36V. ( my cart is 36V at this point )
As far as the converter you will need, I'd check the specs for the radio you plan to get and see how much current it needs. As the memory doesn't use but milliamps, when you turn on the radio current draw will increase. I believe there are converters that are made specifically for radios. Google may help for that!

[Sir Nuke]

the_freshmaker5, the draw for the radio's memery is very minimal, less than an amp, actually its in the miluamp range. so if you want to use a single converter just for that, get the smallest one you can and that will be fine. one thing you could do, if you ever store your cart for long periods and are worried about they batteries becasue the converter is on keeping your radio memery alive, put yourself a hidden toggle switch that you keep ON all the time, but when you go to store the cart, turn it off. all that you would need to do is reset the memory settings once you take your cart out of storage.

[the_freshmaker5]

Originally Posted by Sir Nuke

the_freshmaker5, the draw for the radio's memery is very minimal, less than an amp, actually its in the miluamp range. so if you want to use a single converter just for that, get the smallest one you can and that will be fine. one thing you could do, if you ever store your cart for long periods and are worried about they batteries becasue the converter is on keeping your radio memery alive, put yourself a hidden toggle switch that you keep ON all the time, but when you go to store the cart, turn it off. all that you would need to do is reset the memory settings once you take your cart out of storage.

Sorry, i didnt see this reply and i already posted in the other thread but now i have a different questions going on each since your post. I will stick to one after this. I follow you on 10a for the constant but i now plan to run the radio off the same converter as the constant. The radio draws a lot more power then the constant so would a 10A be sufficient for both on one converter?

[Sir Nuke]

Originally Posted by the_freshmaker5

Sorry, i didnt see this reply and i already posted in the other thread but now i have a different questions going on each since your post. I will stick to one after this. I follow you on 10a for the constant but i now plan to run the radio off the same converter as the constant. The radio draws a lot more power then the constant so would a 10A be sufficient for both on one converter?

true, but just be aware that your converter will be powered up at all times and you will need to turn off the radio everytime.