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When a boat is connected to shore power (AC mains), it introduces risks to the 12V DC electronics that are not present when running on battery alone. Understanding these risks protects your electronics including d3kOS.
Voltage spikes during charger switching. Battery chargers — particularly older ferroresonant chargers and cheap modern units — can produce voltage spikes on the 12V bus when they switch charging stages. These spikes can damage electronics, corrupt SD cards, and cause random reboots. A marine-grade DC-DC converter at the d3-k1 power input suppresses these spikes.
Galvanic corrosion. Shore power connections can create galvanic current between your boat and other boats at the marina through the water. This electrolytic corrosion attacks underwater metal — propellers, shafts, through-hulls. An isolation transformer or galvanic isolator in the shore power circuit is the correct fix. This is a hull integrity issue, not just an electronics issue.
Clean shutdown before connecting shore power. When the engine is running and you connect shore power, both the alternator and the charger are feeding the bus simultaneously. Most modern chargers handle this, but to protect the Pi, it is good practice to shut down d3kOS cleanly via the dashboard power-off button before switching power sources. The Pi 5 does not handle sudden power loss well — it can corrupt the SD card.
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