24v Battery Boat System - need 12v

Thing about those converters is that for the money, you might as well buy an inverter and then you can get a better A/C stereo.

As long as you connect as per the diagram that will not be a problem however if you wish to check, measure the voltage with a multimeter between the negative buss and the 12VDC buss while the battery charger is operating prior to hooking up any equipment. You should not have more than 14 volts. You should also check to see that you get a reading of 0 Volts between your ground and negative buss.

The benifit of using a converter are that your 12 VDC power supply is stabilized as well as avoiding placing different loads on batteries in the system.

http://www.newmarevpower.com/DC-DC_Converters_Standard_Series/DC-DC_Converters_Standard_Series.html

Yes it will always charge at 24 volt (actually about 27.2-27.8) but if you tap + at the mid + post (the one that is connected in series to the other batteries - post) your amp will not see it. Your amp, if of reasonable quality, will have no problem handling 18v, depending on its internal power supply board, it may handle anything from 6-32v as many high end units will. If you're worried, turn off your charger and run your batteries down a fair bit then just hook up your multi-meter and turn on the charger and see what you get. I doubt you'll see more than 14.2 -14.4 at that point which will be fine on even the cheapest amp.

Not to be simple but why cant he just come off the 24v terminals with a resistor in line to drop the voltage?

I hit the send button too quickly. I dont know the amperage draw for your amp but the formula is 24-12/amperage of amp will give you the ohms use the closest resistor. Its been a while but is there a reason this wont work?

Because the heat generated by the resistor. No sense in wasting energy into heat like that for no good reason when he can just tap the power he needs. Figure the stereo is 100 Watts, the resistor would have to be 100 watts as well. That means that resistor will be as hot as a 100w light bulb which means it would require a fairly large heat sink and it would be a fairly expensive resistor, over $50, and would waste the energy of 100w light bulb, just waste.

Didnt think of that.