Wiring Power to Ray C-80 system

G

gotjm3

New member
Howdy All-

Have a bunch of questions about how to wire the power for C-80 with 2kW Raydome, DMS 300 sounder, Raystar GPS + a Ray 54 VHF and a Ray 400 Handheld GPS back up. If it helps, the boat is 2005 CD 25 with standard factory wiring (if that makes sense) and has a Honda 150 with 2 battery set up and 15 hp electric start kicker with separate dual purpose battery on a completely separate circuit. The motors are not rigged yet. I apologize in advance for asking so many questions and for my ignorance, but please know all of your advice is greatly appreciated!!!

The C-80 display unit, and the DMS 300 each have big shielded whopper sized power cables (14 ga. or bigger). THe GPS Raystar antenna and Ray 400 back up GPS have 5 strand NMEA 1803 type cables, and the VHF has 2 18 ga. +/- power wires plus 2 (green and yellow for GPS connection) as it's a DSC model.

Question #1. Where should I best wire these the big power cables for the sounder module and the C-80 display unit (which powers the radar too)? There are two accessory circuits on the breaker panel. Should I hook them up there or should they be wired to the fuse panel below the breaker panel. The fuse panel has many "open" circuits for which the fuses have yet to be installed, however the motor is not yet rigged and the electric windlass and Uniden depth sounder (part of Cutter package) are not wired yet, so they may take up some of those fuses...

Question #2. Should I wire VHF and back up GPS on separate circuit from the the main C-80 and depth sounder circuit? With the handheld GPS and Uniden depth finder as a back up to the main C-80 system, I'm thinking a separate circuit makes sense from a redundancy point of view... thoughts?

Question #3. I have also installed a stereo. That's already wired to one of the accessory circuits, but can easily be changed. Should it be changed?

Question #4. I have a tall factory radar arch. Any advice on which side to bring the cables/wires through (vhf antenna, radar, GPS, stern light), and any advice on fishing these cables through the arch and into the cabin.

Question #5. Any pitfalls for the NMEA 1803 or Sea Talk cables? DO I need that R232 interface box or can I just use a few Scotchlocks and connect the GPS related components that way? What is best?

Question #6. Anybody know where the factory gets that nice mesh chafe guard it uses to run the wiring? Love to get my hands on some of that.

OK, any words of wisdom or warning are greatly appreciated. Again, sorry for all the questions, but anyone who wants to tackle any part of this is welcome to chime in. Thanks so very much!!!

Cheers,
 
Sorry to break the news to you, but I don't think there is any way to use the factory wiring and have a properly done job.
This winter I completely re-wired the DC distribution system on my one year old boat. Some of my concerns were:
The battery cables were automotive grade cable, poorly stripped so that about 10% of the strands were cut off, and not sealed.
Main house circuit was only #10 wire, and not marine grade at that, and also unfused! Feeds to panels and nav circuits are supposed to be sized for 3% voltage drop. I believe this is the reason why others have problems starting their Wallas' unless their motors are running.
The factory 2 bank battery charger will only charge both batteries if the 1-both-2 switch is set to "both" because they only ran one positive conductor to the batteries.
Cutter installed an auxilliary fuse panel, which was originally a 12 circuit, but hacksawed off 4 circuits for some reason known only to them. It also had no connection to the negative bus.
So, my fix started with building a box out of Azek, that plastic lumber, that was installed forward of the starboard battery, which was replaced with a Trojan, group 31, 130AH deep cycle.
Inside that box, I installed a new battery distribution cluster. This was a Honda part number that consisted of separate single pole switches for the house and start batteries, and an emergency parellel switch. The wiring diagram for the cluster had this switch parelleling the batteries, but I could not see the reasoning for this, and instead, had this switch parelleling the laods. This gives me the ability to disconnect a dead or shorted battery, and still have everything operational, or still be able to parellel the batteries if needed. This cluster also includes an automatic charging relay that connects the batteries when the voltage rises above 13.something in the start battery, and drops out at 12.something to protect the start battery. This allow me to simply turn on both batteries and then forget about them.
Also in the box is a 6-circuit fuse box that is always connected to the house battery. This feeds the bilge pumps, the house battery charger back-feed, and the 2 feeds needed for the Link-10 house battery monitor.
The main fuses for the windlass, the original switch panel, and the new feed (#6's) to the new Blue Sea 12 circuit aux panel are here as well as the negative-side shunt for the Link-10.
All of the battery, panel, and windlass feed were re-wired with tinned, type 3 marine cable, (Belden, bought at my local NAPA delaer for less than half the cost of West Marine), coated with anti-oxidation compound, hydraulicly crimped, and sealed with adhesive lined heat shrink tubing. (Also from NAPA).
Did I expect the factory or the dealer to do the job this way? Not really, but as an electrical contractor, I had a vision of how it should be done so that future reliability and safety is not a concern.
As for your boat, this type of upgrade would probably be prohibitively expensive to have a real marine electrician do the work, but the least you should do is fuse the main house feed and check for acceptable voltages with the normal loads on.
Hope I don't bum you out too much, but my 2 cents.
 
First off, that expandable fiberglass sheathing can be found at Jab-Tech and it will expand enough to allow a 3/4" connector to pass through, and then shrink back. It's built like a chinese finger puzzle. The only warning is that when you cut it, use a heated knife or you'll end up with lots of frizzie ends.

GREAT STUFF!

Caveat: I don't have an integrated system, but I do have a 2005 C-22. I have a mix of Icom, Furuno, and Lowrance as you can see from the Jenny B photos. They are all NEMA aware and talk to each other.

The windlass will (should) necessitate running #6 or #8 wire up to wherever the windlass control is located. If the riggers do it like mine, they will grab power at the battery relay and parallel the existing factory wires (ground and hot) up behind the helm to the same terminals the factory power lead uses and then to the windlass breaker. No reason for them to use the fuse panel.

I don't know if you have in-line fuses to each of your components. Usually that's the case. Dunno what Les's elves do, but I removed the inline fuse for the radar, VHF, and sounder/plotter, and wired them separately to the fuse panel using the same value fuses. Instead of removing the inline fuse. I suppose one could up the inline fuse value so only the fuse panel is protecting the circuit, but that's scary if somebody forgets a year or so down the road.

NMEA is pretty simple. I used a marine terminal block behind the helm next to the fuse box.

As to wiring anything on a "separate circuit," I take it you mean from the battery. Not necessary if you find there is no noise or mutual interference between your "stuff." I had none. The only caveat is that should the battery main breaker have a catastrophic failure, you lose everything but the Wallas, but that's true even fresh from the factory. When I ran the windlass wires, I also ran two separate pair of #14 wires from the starboard lazarette to the helm area for future use and "just in case" I had interference. Not used yet. Might use one pair for a stern bilge pump at some point.

The radar arch folk will chime in right about now I hope.
\
Don
 
Oops, another side note or two. The newest marine wiring code sez use yellow for negative DC power leads. May already be mandated. All my post-delivery primary power wiring now conforms to that code and uses marine approved insulation. Red positive, yellow negative.

The Wallas is factory wired directly to the primary battery. Also required for safety purposes. Don't mess with that. Anything else is open to revision.

Final note: Those new (to an old fart) plastic wire ties are fantastic. Use liberally. Such an improvement over what we had to do in the dark ages. (hand made wire looms.) Charlie the Tuna remembers them. :wink
 
I too was told that the wallas was wired direct to the battery, but that was not in fact the case with my boat. You might want to double check yours. Mine is fed from the auxilliary panel and I just make sure that the unit has cooled all the way down and shut off before I shut off the house battery.
 
Thanks very much for all the comments so far. Probably not up for completely rewiring whole boat (or paying someone else for it), but I have to say, my wiring seems a bit better than what Minnow describes. At least I have a full Blue Sea fuse panel and 2 positive battery leads. I'll make sure the main house circuit is fused. I've also ordered some of the cable sleeving. If all goes well, my electronics will be wired and functioning by the Eastern Shore gathering. I think Minnow will be there too, so I'll welcome review and suggestions. Please keep the comments coming as I won't start the final wiring until next week. Thanks again!
 
Back
Top