GPS Installation..Wiring Wrong

[Tug]

Spent 4 hours today trying to install my GPS..ha!ha!..First of all i mount the unit where i wanted it..i already had about 20 feet of wiring attached to the GPS unit from other boat so i just ran the wire to the battery and the GPS unit worked great.Now comes the confusing part...i wanted to attach the wiring to the pos/neg buses and the toggle switch. Here is what i did....from the GPS unit i ran the neg wire to the neg bus. Than the pos. wire plus the in-line fuse to the left side port ( connector ) of the toggle switch. There is already a red wire connected to the right side of the toggle switch to the positive bus. That didn't work ...my connections are good and shrink wrapped...the other electrical devices seemed to be connected like the way i tried to connect the GPS unit..any ideas what i am doing wrong..Thanks Tug

[JGrider]

I am by no means any expert. First see if you have power after the fuse. Check between fuse and negetive wire you are trying to use. Check if GPS has a reset of any kind which could have been tripped during installation.

[Tug]

I will try that tommorrow...to see if there is power where it is suppose to be . Probably will end up just running pos/neg wires direct to the battery, that is what i have always done. Thanks Tug

P:S....whose bright idea was it to use little..little..little..tiny screws for connections to the pos/neg buses....throw that into a tiny working area and it lots of fun...

[ghone]

Hi Tug, I believe you were correct in the first try. Most electronics equipment performs best if run directly to the battery with an in line fuse or to dedicated buss at the battery. Avoid panels and toggle switches when possible. Voltage drop and more connections add to reliability issues down the road.
My rule of thumb is if the unit has and on off button like a gps, vhf, stereo etc it goes to the electronic buss near the battery or right onto the battery stud. This gives good clean power. George

[Tug]

George..think i will do just that..don't know why i wanted to complicate something simple in the first place. Thanks Tug

[thataway]

A few throughts; First it is not proper to wire a bunch of electronics directly off of the battery, except perhaps in a small skiff. You want adequate wire, connections and fusing from the battery to the console where the bus is located. Done properly there should not be any more voltage drop, and it will be far safer. The batteries are usually in an area where there is salt spray and corrosion--the smaller wires are more susceptable. The positive wires must be fused within 7" of the battery--which means more connections, fuse connection etc off the terminals and in the way of corrosion.

Most of our boats come from the factory with marginal wiring to the console--add in the older the boat the more corrosion has occured along the way. I more than doubled the wiring from the battery in the Tom Cat and C Dory 25. When you put the connection of the wiring from the battery, it should go to the battery switch or a small point near the battery which is fused. The swages have adhesive shrink wrap, and are kept bright and clean, plus sprayed with "Corrosion block" regularly to prevent corrosion. The swages at the terminal blocks or bus bars also are adhesive heat shrunk and sprayed or greased with anticorrosive gel. There are two thoughts about using switches or fuses at this point--but you do need a fuse that protects the device as well as the wiring, so the smaller manufactuer's fuse is proper. It is certainly proper to avoid any switches for the electronics, but for the Tom Cat where I run 2 radios, plus HAM, plus 2 GPS plotters, Radar, satellite radio, Audio system, etc--I put in a completely separate switch pannel for the electronics, and small bus bars for each of the electronics. No significant drop of voltage, due to adequate sized wiring, no corrosion on both plus and negative sides, and proper proteciton. With the switches I always turn all of the switches off when I leave the boat. Granted if you have only one GPS/Fishfinder and a radio--it may well be just as easy to cut the main battery switch as separate switches--and best to wire directly to a bus bar attatched to that switch.

Part of preventive maintance is going over the entire electrical system each year and checking the connections. At some point they need changing or replacing.

[starcrafttom]

not beening a smart ass or anything ,but chaeck to see if a fuse is in the fuse holder. I have seen it happen.....

After that yes you should wire to the fuse panal or buse. and not the battery. I have to move a bunch of wires off my battery to a fuse panal. I also found out that my am/fm memory circut was drawing .22 volts even when off. so after three months it drew down my battery.

[cemiii]

Just in case you haven't changed a fuse on the panel of the older boats, the little red square fuse holders on the switch panel have a tiny hole on the left hand side of the black plastic surround. If you stick in something small like a small nail or an opened paper clip and push in they will pop right out. If you try to pry it out they will often break. Though inexpensive, they're not easy to find and if you think small screws on a buss bar are tough, wait until you need to solder in new fuse holders back there!

[mikeporterinmd]

I built a small electrical panel in the lazarette of my 22. See photos in my album. Very worthwhile. Everything is properly fused, plenty of power forward, etc. The only thing that blows fuses is the bilge pump. And guess why? It draws too much current (something is wrong with the motor. I connected it to a 15 amp battery charger, and it pegged the charger's output.)

I did switch the electronics because Lowrance said to, and to avoid having the GPS running all the time. Remember, with Lowrance, the GPS is in the mushroom, not the display.

Anyhow, I've been very happy with the work. It was well worth it, and I have not had any problems after several years.

Oh, and I replaced the factory hatches with the ones that were sold through this site. No more leaks in the lazarettes. I need to see how they held up over the winter. I kinda let that slide.

Mike

[Tug]

After listening to all your great advice and a few hours this afternoon of checking to see where the power was ,i got it figured out, it is really not complicated . The problem was the blown fuse in the toggle switch, everything went smoothly after that.If you hadn't told me how to remove the fuse from the toggle switch, using a little pin in the hole on the left of the square i would of broke it guaranteed.First i wired my GPS and than i did my Fishfinder, all works great. Thanks Tug

[Byrdman]

AWESOME.... another happy I done it project in the books.

Now, time to go enjoy the waters!!!