A wired nebolink needs power 24 hours a day, straight from the boat's battery bank, even when the boat is switched off at the dock. It draws very little: under 1 mA when it isn't tracking.
What constant power means
Constant power comes directly from the boat's battery bank and is live all the time. Install a wired nebolink shows how to connect it:
- the red wire to the battery's positive, through a 3–5 A inline fuse as close to the battery as possible, on the battery side of any isolation switch
- the black wire to the battery's negative, or a negative bus wired straight to it
What counts as intermittent power
Any supply that isn't live around the clock. For example, power that comes through:
- a switch or a breaker
- a battery isolator or isolation switch
- the ignition, or any circuit that's only live while the boat is running
To start voyage logging when the engine starts, connect the ignition to the nebolink's white wire, not its power wires: see Connect a nebolink to the ignition.
What happens on intermittent power
The nebolink has a small backup battery. It's there for an unexpected power cut, not to run the nebolink whenever the boat is switched off.
- It goes offline. Each time the power goes off, the nebolink runs on its backup battery until that's flat, then stops reporting.
- The backup battery wears out. Draining and recharging it over and over wears it down until it can't hold a charge.
- Voyages can be lost. If the backup battery is flat or worn out, cutting the power loses the voyage in progress.
The boat's panel on the fleet map shows its backup battery and external voltage, so you can see whether it's getting power.
If yours is on intermittent power
Rewire it to constant power from the battery bank, as shown in Install a wired nebolink.