R.Q Electrical Schematic - Moved Stereo Memory Wire
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R.Q Electrical Schematic - Moved Stereo Memory Wire

Bennington wires the radio memory wire to between the helm master power switch and the accessory switch (on boats with a helm master power switch - R and Qs?). This would lose the clock, presets, and such every time the helm master power switch is turned off. I moved the radio memory wire from the accessory switch to between the 5A breaker and the helm master power switch (to the circuit that powers the master power relay coil, not the circuit that powers the relay contacts), per the attached schematic drawing revision. In case you too find that resetting to be an inconvenience, it was a very easy fix for us and much happier to be able to retain those radio settings.On our boat, the jumper wire between the 5A breaker and the helm master power switch was just a short, red wire with female spade terminals on each end and the yellow radio memory wire was looped to that side of the helm, just past that jumper wire location which allowed me to cut the yellow wire long enough towards the accessory switch and relocate it to this jumper. I removed the jumper wire and soldered/heat-shrinked the yellow wire from the radio to this jumper. If you do this, be careful not to break the switch or the circuit breaker when removing the jumper wire terminals from them but once that wire is removed, can easily be replaced with a new jumper wire and/or attached to the yellow memory wire. Verify the proper yellow wire all the way back to the radio before cutting it and don't forget to cap off the now unused cut end of the yellow wire that went to the radio accessory switch as it will be powered when that switch is turned on. If you are not comfortable or have the proper tools to do soldering, you can use 'scotch-lock' insulation-displacement type splice connectors but the solder method is much more reliable long-term.For those of you who regularly kill power with your main battery switch, it wouldn't matter and for those that don't somewhat periodically maintain a charge on your batteries (not that you shouldn't), maybe this isn't for you. But for folks like us, it was a simple wire relocation under the helm and thought it might be a useful tip to others too.
R
"The reason we wire stereos the way we do is to avoid dead batteries.  Leaving constant power to the stereo makes the battery problem worse.  Pontoons can sit for weeks at a time without being started.  Usually a battery maintainer is not hooked up.  Sometimes the engine isn't run much even when the boat is used.   In these cases, the battery isn't getting charge enough, or even often enough.

For the people that do want to keep the radio memory powered, a modification similar to this is pretty easy (for "electrical people").  The dealer or customer could change the set-up at that point. 
GNC's diagram shows yellow powered off a 5 amp circuit.  That may not work for all stereos.  Some stereos use a 10 amp fuse in this circuit even though it's just the "memory wire"

Even doing that, you would lose presets if you kill the battery switch.  The KMC 10 will have EEPROM built in which will save all the settings (our upgrade 2016 stereo).  Memory storage is being built into more and more Marine radios. "

TB Engineers
 

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R & Q Stereo Memory Rewire
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