grounding electronics in boat

[lew]

I've currentely got 2 sonars plus a GPS in my boat and tomorrow I'll be replacing the sonar on the console with a new color unit.

 

Right now I have everything grounded to different connections on the fuse panel under the consol but I think I'll change things around a bit and run the ground for all 3 units to the back of the boat and hook them to the cranking battery.

 

If I remember correctly, the wires from the 3 units is all #16, and I want to join all 3 wires under the consol to a single wire and run that wire to the battery. Total run for the grounding wire from consol to battery will be about 18 - 20 feet, so what size wire would be best to use. I've already got a 25' role of #16, but should I go heavier ??

[Tybo]

16 gauge will be fine.

The easy way to join 3 to 1 is to use a cross over bus bar.

All this is a bus bar that has a bar that inter connects all 3

[RangerGuy]

Hi Lew,

 

What's your reason for changing the ground? Does this help with prevent signal noise or something?

 

What colour unit did decide on?

[lew]

Thanks Paul, that's what I figured but wanted to be sure before I made a trip to the store.

 

And RG, I went with a Lowrance X510c to sit beside my Globalmap 7200 and am just looking to clean up some of the wiring under the consol as it looks like a birdsnest under there.

 

Just a bit of house cleaning really.

[bigbuck]

Lew, from what I know about electrical, it's ok to go with a bigger guage wire but not ok to go with a smaller one. A bus bar is a good idea to try to neaten things up. What about some flexible wire covering to help clean up the birds nest (oops sorry, i meant professional overrun........LOL).

[douG]

Generally not a good idea from a device isolation idea, Lew. If one device draws current in bursts rather than a steady continuous flow, the voltage drop from the bus bar back to the negative battery terminal will be superimposed on the other two devices and appear as noise on the battery terminals.

 

You can minimize this by moving the bus bar as close as possible to the battery (ideally, in the extreme, right to the neg terminal and getting rid of the bus bar altogether) or by using a large gauge wire, say 10 or 12 ga.

 

If the current draw from all of your devices is steady, then you won't have a problem, but I think that the sonar pings will show up as current pulses from your battery.