Weird electrical problem causes port riggers to quit?

[chowder]

I've got a pair of Cannon riggers on each side of my boat. Last weekend my corner port rigger stopped working (had to bring 13lber up from 100' by hand). This was only the 3rd time I've used this rigger b/c it was new this spring (replaced both older Mag 5 corner riggers w/ new Mag 5 HS units). So, I figured "typical of what you get anymore when you buy something new" and started using the other port rigger instead (an older Mag 5 Long boom). This rigger worked fine for 2 or 3 fish and then it quit working too! Today I checked the port connectors w/ a test light and got power so I took one of the starboard riggers over to the port side and plugged it into one of the port connectors and it works!

What the heck? Now I've got 2 dead riggers and what looks like some kind of weird electrical issue that caused them to go "off" on me. Any ideas?

[holy mackerel]

I had a bad ground (corroded) once that tested O.K. with a test light, but would not allow the amps necessary to run a Mag 15 through. Cleaning and greasing all connections did the trick.

[Mickey Finn]

First make sure all your connections are clean and tight. I assume your new riggers are faster and probably draw more current than your old ones. They may require larger wire than your old ones. The higher current will cause a greater voltage drop if the wire is too small or if there are corroded or loose connections. If the voltage is too low at the rigger when its running, the motors work too hard and overheat. I ran cannons for a long time and if they stopped it was almost always connections or the short-stop board. Seeing as yours are new, I doubt its the short-stop boards. Also, my older cannons had reset buttons on them that had to be reset if the motor got overloaded. Not sure if your have this or not.

[seasquirrel]

What Mickey Finn said sounds about right.

[HPORT]

Do the DR's that stopped working on the port side, work on the starboard side? If not, reset the breakers.

If they work, I'm with everyone else trace the problem on the port side all the way back to the battery, you will find a gremlin somewhere.

John

[DEFIANCE1]

I had a similar problem where my downriggers were not getting enough power, it turned out that my battery selector switch was only on #1 and the downriggers were drawing from battery #2 and draining the battery and not getting charged. So the boat was only charging battery one and not the one the downriggers were on. Might be something to check out.

[chowder]

Here's some further clarification; 1.) The port riggers that quit do not work no matter what you do w/ the resets and they do not work on the starboard side 2.) The battery switch is on 2. 3.) Remember the starboard riggers do work when plugged into the port side connectors! So it's not a connection or splice issue in the wiring going to the connectors

I suppose it's possible that a brand new rigger and an older one both experienced a problem on the same day that is similar in nature but dag, what are the odds? Guess I'm gonna have to take the riggers to somebody and see what's not functioning in them. I talked to the dude @ Screwy Louies , might bring them there.

[seasquirrel]

Andy, run a couple of wire off the battery right to the plug ends/connectors or whatever you have to be sure the motors are good to

[Has Been]

Have you tried hitting it with a hammer? Serously, I had the same problwm with mine & I traced it back to the up/down switch. Replaced it & it's all good. Saw a little corrosion in switch when I got it out as I remember. Buzz words for electricity are CLEAN & TIGHT.

[fdny76]

Maybe its just me but isnt a Mag 5 a little/lot underpowered for a 13lb weight? I hope it works out.

[fdny76]

Disregard my last. I guess I was thinking of older Mag 5's

[chowder]

Well, I dropped off the riggers at Screwy Louie's, so we'll have to see what's wrong w/ them before going any further off the wall- it could just be they both had some sort of malfunction that had nothing to do with the power source. Double checked again and the starboard riggers work fine plugged into the port connections (now remember, it's the port riggers that both went on the blink.)

[Mickey Finn]

We'll all be interested in what the problem was. Please keep us informed. That's whats so great about this site. Every time we discuss things like this on here, it provides valuable information for all of us when we have an issue that we can't figure out. This site has saved me countless hours of researching problems, making decisions on new equipment and I've got loads of fishing knowledge from it.

[mjb377]

Any chance those port riggers work when the cable is *out* of the water? I had a weird problem with my mag 10s at the end of last season where the riggers would work normally out of the water, lower the ball to depth fine, but then refuse to reel the ball back up. Apparently the shortstop feature was malfunctioning. I ended up totally bypassing the circuit board inside the rigger and just hooking up the motor directly to a DPDT momentary toggle switch. After that the rigger worked fine, but you have to hold the switch up or down to raise or lower the ball. Weirdest thing of all was this problem first appeared on my starboard rigger, and then, two weeks later the port side started doing it too!

I don't know if any of this affects you, but you might want to try bypassing the circuit board inside the housing just to verify that it is not the problem.

- Matt

[chowder]

Got the riggers back from Screwy Louie's and the older Mag 5 had a bad circuit breaker, the new Mag 5HS had a bad board. Bottom line is that I just happened to have two riggers on the same side malfunction w/ in 5 minutes of each other. Used both riggers the other day and all is well. I still don't quite get the switches on the new Mag 5 HS riggers, so I started a new thread/question.

[tcon]

Glad you got things ironed out Andy more time to fish now!

Tom

[shadster]

We'll all be interested in what the problem was. Please keep us informed. That's whats so great about this site. Every time we discuss things like this on here, it provides valuable information for all of us when we have an issue that we can't figure out. This site has saved me countless hours of researching problems, making decisions on new equipment and I've got loads of fishing knowledge from it.

I'll second that!

I have a pair of Mag 5 HS riggers and when putting them to the same battery they didn't work at all. A ground issue I'm sure. I now run one on its own battery and the other off of the main. What I have is total manual control on the independent batt rigger and the other runs in full auto. I don't have a problem with that setup on my small boat.