Wiring Question...

[Gerritt]

Afternoon everyone!

 

I need a bit of advice when it come to wiring up my electronics in the boat... Right now I have my trolling motor on a separate battery and I have my main starting battery. I have all my electronics connected to the main starting battery via a fuse block... I figured if my old sonar went... who really cares... now that I am adding even more electronics to the boat, I want to ensure I have things wired properly...

 

Should I continue to keep them connected to my starting battery? Or should I add another battery and leave my starting battery just for the motor? I would rather not see the battery overloaded, drained or even worse have it popping fuses out on the lake.. should I add another battery in Parallel to the main battery so it is always being charged by the motor while underway and connect my electronics to this battery?

 

I have the space to add another battery so it is not really an issue... other then the added weight..

 

Or would you just leave things as the are? and connect everything up to the fuse block that is running of the main starting battery

 

Thanks for your advice guys!

 

Gerritt.

 

I should mention, I plan on adding a VHF and possibly a CD player in the near future...

Edited January 13, 2008 by Gerritt

[Clampet]

I figure you perty much answered yer own question.

[Guest skeeter99]

well my 2 fishfinders and gps unit, and 2 livewell pumps with timers and cell phone plugged in are all hooked up to my starting battery in my skeeter and have never had a problem ,just a standard 800 cranking amps battery

 

 

plus if you remove your trolling mototr batery for some reason (charging) etc.. it will be a bit of pain to remove the extra wiring

 

 

the altenator in your motor should keep the battery charged no problems (if it has one)

 

you should not blow a fuse, all your units should have inline fuses if one blows it is the unit (or wired incorrectly)

 

 

but remember you always have an out *you can use your trolling motor battery to start the motor in a pinch** I have never had to do it yet

 

just use the main fuse block you are using now

Edited January 13, 2008 by skeeter99

[Gerritt]

Thanks Skeeter.... my motor does charge the starting battery.. my main concern was overloading it or unforeseen surges..this does not seem to be an issue in your case. So maybe I will be ok..

 

Do you notice your graph flicker when your still fishing and you start your motor? Due the strain put on the battery? I know not to hook electronics to the trolling motor for this reason... (Things go screwy)

 

Thanks again!

[Guest skeeter99]

yep I get the flicker sometimes

 

just a slight drop in voltage to the unit say from 12.5 to 12.1 when cranking

 

 

I have seen it in my buddies 60k bass boat

 

and hell even your cars does it if your sitting listening to the radio with the engine off and fire her up the radio flicks and the interior lights go a little dimmer during cranking

 

if you want to fix it put a inline capacitor say a 10 micro farad would do the trick to smooth out the voltage

[douG]

Connect the capacitor in parallel with the battery because it acts like a battery, sourcing charge the same way. I think you would need a much larger cap, 1000 microfarads, rated say for 20 V. Remember that the voltage is dropping because of the current draw that occurrs while cranking. The cap needs to provide all the current for the cranking if you don't want the dreaded droop.

 

That will definitely help with the flicker.

 

On the otherhand, this capacitor is going to be large and pricey - can you live with the flicker?

 

Gerritt, talk to Emil Icefisherman. He has just finished his soul searching, picking his comfort point for safety vs reliability vs complexity and cost.

[fishdawg]

you should be allright Gerritt

 

I am sorta in the same situation - adding some more various electronics to my boat in the next coupla weeks

currently my bilge & livewell pumps, nav lights, 2 cigarrette plugs all in wired in the fuse pannel + my sonar & VHF radio are running off my starting battery. No issues thus far.

 

I'll be adding a horn, electric downriggers & a stereo soon & it will all run off the same battery. I have asked around & have been assured that I'll be allright. keep in mind I do alot of trolling so the main motor will allways be going & keeping things charged.

 

 

My bowmount has its own deepcycle battery, and my bowmount sonar runs off its own gel cell battery.

 

I'l throw some photos up of the completed project in a few weeks for ya.

[Guest lundboy]

The one thing you may come across with a new color finder (like the Lowrance 500 series) is noise. I replaced my x85 with a 332C about two years ago and it was so sensitive that it would pick up engine noise through the power from the starter battery.

 

I moved the power lines from the starter battery to the trolling motor batteries and then I got more interference from the trolling motor! I fixed that by getting six of those clamp on ferrite chokes at Sayal Electronics and clamped them at each end of the power lines and transducer lines. Instantly the interference was gone.

 

Just be sure to keep all of the recommended fuses on the power that the manufacturer dictates.

Edited January 14, 2008 by lundboy

[icefisherman]

Gerritt,

 

Just went through the same dilemma and I am in similar situation to yours.

But I have two deep cycle batteries, main motor, kicker motor and trolling motor.

After a lot of advice I got from more knowledgeable people on this site I've decided to stay with my two batteries and keeping them separate.

One battery to the main motor and powering the AM/FM, bilge, live wells, horn, lights, fishfinder.

Second battery for the electric trolling motor, VHF, and the two electric downriggers.

 

I'll try it like that for a while and see how it'll work for me.

If any problems arise I'll add a separate starting only battery.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Cheers,

Ice Fisherman

[corvette1]

i have four 31 series battires 2 for trolling motor 1 for main motor 1 just for electronics you don/t want any interference

[Terry]

lundboy gave you great advise

it is stray RF the gives you noise and flicker, where form the electric motor or from the electrical system in the outboard and the ferrite chokes work well as do bigger capacitors

 

if you have an aluminum boat it is best to have fuses on both the pos and neg and to not use the boat as the ground

[GNODDY]

lundboy gave you great advise

it is stray RF the gives you noise and flicker, where form the electric motor or from the electrical system in the outboard and the ferrite chokes work well as do bigger capacitors

 

if you have an aluminum boat it is best to have fuses on both the pos and neg and to not use the boat as the ground

 

 

I'm a newbie to wiring and will be in the same position in the spring. What do you use for a ground instead of the hull. Is that why you said to run a fuse on both pos and neg

[Guest lundboy]

I'm a newbie to wiring and will be in the same position in the spring. What do you use for a ground instead of the hull. Is that why you said to run a fuse on both pos and neg

 

 

Grounding to the boat can raise your chances of galvanic corrosion (if you keep your boat in the water), which can ruin an aluminum hull or desolve the rivets. It can also speed up corrosion to your gearcase and props.

 

It's best to ground to the battery or fuse panel. If the fuse panel is grounded to the boat, there won't be much you can do. (I suspect the engine is grounded internally to the engine mount bracket and the negative engine cable anyways, which basically grounds the boat hull to the battery negative). I have never checked this to be sure though.

Edited January 15, 2008 by lundboy

[Gerritt]

Thanks everyone! alot of good advice here..

 

Lundboy, is the place you mentioned in your post for the ferrite chokes?

 

Mind if I send you a couple pm's when I do the install?

 

G