Momentary Loss of Electrical Power When Throttle is Applied

[Beems]

I installed a radio in a gas Yamaha G14 cart that is losing power when the throttle is applied.

Before the cart gets warmed up (think chilly early mornings), it loses electrical power when the throttle is first pushed in. Whether you ease into the throttle, or slap it the floor, there is a momentary loss of electrical power - enough that the radio shuts off. Once the cart starts moving and we have constant power, the radio turns back on. It doesn't seem to be a short, since it seems to be fine once the cart is warmed up.

Any ideas on where to start looking at this, so that the cart doesn't lose electrical power momentarily when the throttle is depressed?

[sformal]

Try to get the voltage when it happens...

[Beems]

How do I do that?

[sformal]

Originally Posted by Beems

How do I do that?

Use a multimeter on the battery.

[griffo002]

What type of radio is it?...i mean these radios these days run on bugger all...remember the transistor radios...they ran on a cpl torch batteries.

Do you have a whopping sub woofer and all goodies ?

[Cartmaster]

it is quite common for the battery voltage to drop to as low as 10V on crank, so that may be your issue. it is always best to run your radio with a separate battery on gas carts.

[Beems]

It's a small (gauge-style) marine head unit with no subwoofer, so it shouldn't be drawing much power at all.

The thing is, I get constant juice when the weather is warm and I can run with no issues, it's just when the cart is running cold is when pressing the throttle causes the radio to lose power. What I'm hoping to find is some way to equalize that so that we don't have a momentary loss of juice when the throttle is applied during cold weather.

[Cartmaster]

Batteries are less efficient when cold, so you will not really solve this easily without a separate battery or some fancy work with capacitors maybe? I will let an expert on uninterruptible power supplies take that further.

[CP241]

Most radios should stay on even at 10v. Most specify operating voltage between 9-16v, that's a pretty standard spec. But there should be a label on it that says...

Hook a meter to the positive and negative battery terminals, and use the min/max setting. It's not as accurate as a scope but will record the min voltage readings. Many times the display is not quick enough to register.

Then do the same test on the power and ground wires behind the radio itself. Both B+ and ignition. There may be a weak or corroded connection between the battery and radio that exacerbates the voltage drop when you press the pedal.

[CP241]

Also what is the max current draw from your radio itself? If it is only a couple amps at max volume there may be an easy fix :) any car audio shop that sells metra should be ble to get these, if they dont already have on th level shelf. They work Great for around 2amps but I wouldnt go much above that. 4amps makes them very unhappy... they're designed for exactly what you're experiencing with voltage drop. Should run less than about 20 bucks

http://theinstallbay.com/product/IBVSTABL