Fish Finder Wiring

[Musky Plug]

Hey guys, my question is, should I wire the graphs into the fuse box of the boat or should I direct connect them to the crank battery? I have just enough space for everything on the fuse box however I've read conflicting reports that when starting the motor it may or may not cause the graphs to power down. If I do connect the graphs to the box what gauge wire should there be from the battery to the fuse box as it would be full at that point. I'm unsure what I should do. If I go the battery route, that would be three graphs and an on-board charger on the crank. Is that too many things? Any info is helpful as this is my first attempt. 

[Steve Piggott]

Picked up some kings browns, and Lakers yesterday

[Garnet]

You should use 6 gauge wire with proper connectors from your cranking battery to a stainless  steel buse as close to finders as possible and avoiding as much other wiring as possible. 

That means don't take electrical tape and ball all wires together with finder wire, don't run to your fuse box ,to small gauge wire and things like pumps lights ,stereo make ghost problems.

Whitby Marine has all this stuff in my area. The right connectors are hard to find.

You also will have to much transducer wire  don't ball up with electrical tape this makes a coil . You can buy plastic panels to wrap and keep separated. I take plastic inserts for spinnerbaits 1 side will have notches just make notches on other side. You could make from plywood.

Now from buse to fish finders I use the thicker bulk spool wire from CTC. I also wrap wire with electrical tape if it's going threw areas with many other wires. I've been told this is minimal but so what.

Almost all high end bassboat installs are 5 battery setups 3 for trolling motor and 2 cranking / accessory.     

You just spent thousands on finders spend couple hundred on good install.   

Edited March 28, 2020 by Garnet

[Fish Farmer]

Wire straight to the battery, it will eliminate your problem. I had the same issue with starting my motor, my machine would turn off.

Since I wired direct problem solved. Make sure the first wire that goes on your battery is the one to your finder.

[Sinker]

Mine are direct to a dedicated battery that just runs my graphs. 

S. 

[AKRISONER]

I just rewired my entire boat last year

Use quality marine wire. and over gauge your wire. There are a lot of charts online that will assist you with determining the appropriate guage of wire dependent on the length of your boat/runs you will be making. Not sure what kind of boat you are running, ideal is a dedicated battery for your electronics, however in my case and a lot of peoples, I dont have the space for another battery so I have to run mine off of my starter.

Some guys swear by running straight to the battery, personally Im putting the protection of a fuse on my thousands of dollars worth of graphs.

Have one fuse box dedicated to your graphs. I personally am running a Blue Sea box 

https://www.amazon.ca/Blue-Sea-Systems-Blade-Block/dp/B001P6FTHC 

Run one heavy line to the box and then straight lines to each graph. As mentioned do not run excess cable that requires you to loop and tape anything. Run your cable runs to the length needed. Also dont use merets or crimp anything together. Solder with shrink tube to make a super clean and more importantly waterproof connection.

When i pulled the old wiring out of my boat the previous owner just used crimps for everything and the level of corrosion on the existing wiring was surprising to say the least! The boat was stored inside and rarely used!

You wont power down your units if your starting battery is strong, the draw on the units is quite low when not being actively used. I guess if your system is really high end and you are running multiple 12+inch screens etc etc you may run into an issue but Im running two helix 7's and a 9 and turning over a magnetoed carburated engine and have no problems at all. I did start cutting my screens when my 11 year old battery was starting to die. But aside from that I have never had an issue.

Edited March 28, 2020 by AKRISONER

[Musky Plug]

3 hours ago, Garnet said:

You should use 6 gauge wire with proper connectors from your cranking battery to a stainless  steel buse as close to finders as possible and avoiding as much other wiring as possible. 

That means don't take electrical tape and ball all wires together with finder wire, don't run to your fuse box ,to small gauge wire and things like pumps lights ,stereo make ghost problems.

Whitby Marine has all this stuff in my area. The right connectors are hard to find.

You also will have to much transducer wire  don't ball up with electrical tape this makes a coil . You can buy plastic panels to wrap and keep separated. I take plastic inserts for spinnerbaits 1 side will have notches just make notches on other side. You could make from plywood.

Now from buse to fish finders I use the thicker bulk spool wire from CTC. I also wrap wire with electrical tape if it's going threw areas with many other wires. I've been told this is minimal but so what.

Almost all high end bassboat installs are 5 battery setups 3 for trolling motor and 2 cranking / accessory.     

You just spent thousands on finders spend couple hundred on good install.   

Is 6 gauge wire to heavy of a gauge? Humminbird website says with the longest runs I should use 12G for both units with an inline fuse, 3amp for the 7's and 4amp for the 9.  Will coiling up the transducer wire and taping the coil together cause interference?  

Unfortunately I don't have enough room to have a second battery for just the accessories. 

 

3 hours ago, Fish Farmer said:

Since I wired direct problem solved. Make sure the first wire that goes on your battery is the one to your finder.

So I would out the graphs on first then the bank charger on top?

[Musky Plug]

1 hour ago, AKRISONER said:

I just rewired my entire boat last year

Use quality marine wire. and over gauge your wire. There are a lot of charts online that will assist you with determining the appropriate guage of wire dependent on the length of your boat/runs you will be making. Not sure what kind of boat you are running, ideal is a dedicated battery for your electronics, however in my case and a lot of peoples, I dont have the space for another battery so I have to run mine off of my starter.

Some guys swear by running straight to the battery, personally Im putting the protection of a fuse on my thousands of dollars worth of graphs.

Have one fuse box dedicated to your graphs. I personally am running a Blue Sea box 

https://www.amazon.ca/Blue-Sea-Systems-Blade-Block/dp/B001P6FTHC 

Run one heavy line to the box and then straight lines to each graph. As mentioned do not run excess cable that requires you to loop and tape anything. Run your cable runs to the length needed. Also dont use merets or crimp anything together. Solder with shrink tube to make a super clean and more importantly waterproof connection.

When i pulled the old wiring out of my boat the previous owner just used crimps for everything and the level of corrosion on the existing wiring was surprising to say the least! The boat was stored inside and rarely used!

You wont power down your units if your starting battery is strong, the draw on the units is quite low when not being actively used. I guess if your system is really high end and you are running multiple 12+inch screens etc etc you may run into an issue but Im running two helix 7's and a 9 and turning over a magnetoed carburated engine and have no problems at all. I did start cutting my screens when my 11 year old battery was starting to die. But aside from that I have never had an issue.

I will put an inline fuse if do the direct connection to the battery. If I put shrink tube over the crimp connections wouldn't it make it moisture proof as well? What size crank battery do you have? As I will be running the same size graphs.

[Fish Farmer]

I run a deep Cycle Battery for starting and accessories on my boat, Except, my 2 X 12's I run my 24 volt elec motor on the front.

[Fish Farmer]

59 minutes ago, Musky Plug said:

Is 6 gauge wire to heavy of a gauge? Humminbird website says with the longest runs I should use 12G for both units with an inline fuse, 3amp for the 7's and 4amp for the 9.  Will coiling up the transducer wire and taping the coil together cause interference?  

Unfortunately I don't have enough room to have a second battery for just the accessories. 

 

So I would out the graphs on first then the bank charger on top?

Yes graphs on first then the rest. 

[AKRISONER]

6 might be a bit overkill just for units. 
 

my battery is up north I will have to get back to you about it’s cca 

theres actually a diagram somewhere about how to coil excess transducer cable to reduce interference. I remember it in my Humminbird manual. 

[Garnet]

Just to give you a little story. A friend bought his boat from a TV host.

Had Hummingbird 1190 front and back he added another 1190 to console.

Complained constantly about interference from other graghs, livewell, pumps  , trolling motor.

Tried all those half ass solution for 2 years then went and got 6 gauge proper connectors and a good stainless panel.

Took care on where wires went and problems solved.  

Send your money now or spend more later. 

[BillM]

Personally I think 6 gauge is overkill, but I've never been in the position like Garnet mentions above.  Doing it once is definitely better then having to do it again.

[Old Ironmaker]

All excellent advice. I sheathed all my sonar/gps wiring with 1/2" conduit insulation to avoid interference from other wiring. Cheap from a commercial electrical supplier. 

[Garnet]

What forgot to mention this boat was marina tech wired to spec Hummingbird recommendations.

Almost all problems with fishfinders are poor installation. 

I like the panel Ark has shown except  the contact screws are to small, because it's dedicated to finders only and fused shouldn't need another fuse, I wouldn't remove factory installed inline fuse but it's 2 connects to add it. 

I buy just a panel maybe 1 size larger screw and run in line fuses on units.

Another point is the TV host guy and the next owner are not electronics guys. My buddy was pushing everything he could get out of them. 

Edited March 29, 2020 by Garnet

[AKRISONER]

What old said, I forgot about that. I wire loomed everything As well. Not only does it probably help with interference, it also cleans up the 6 wires you’ve got running all over the place for your three units.

[OhioFisherman]

18 hours ago, BillM said:

Personally I think 6 gauge is overkill, but I've never been in the position like Garnet mentions above.  Doing it once is definitely better then having to do it again.

6 gauge for a trolling motor OK, it does sound like overkill on electronics.

[Musky Plug]

19 hours ago, BillM said:

Doing it once is definitely better then having to do it again.

Yes I would only like to this once. 

 

2 hours ago, Garnet said:

What forgot to mention this boat was marina tech wired to spec Hummingbird recommendations.

Almost all problems with fishfinders are poor installation. 

I like the panel Ark has shown except  the contact screws are to small, because it's dedicated to finders only and fused shouldn't need another fuse, I wouldn't remove factory installed inline fuse but it's 2 connects to add it. 

I buy just a panel maybe 1 size larger screw and run in line fuses on units.

Another point is the TV host guy and the next owner are not electronics guys. My buddy was pushing everything he could get out of them. 

Should I replace the old panel with the Blue Sea one or should I put it in addition to the old? If I did go that route and add another fuse panel, would I have to add additional inline fuses for each unit? Out of the box they don't come with any. Wouldn't the panel fuses be enough? Wouldn't it be better to have less breaks in the wire? 

 

If I did wire them direct to the battery would having the original fuse panel, 3 graphs and a charger be too many connections on one battery? 

 

 

Edited March 29, 2020 by Musky Plug

[Garnet]

Ark fuse panel won't require inline fuses.

And if you decide on Hummingbird spec wiring it should be good.

I would look for same fuse panel with larger connectors for increased wire gauge .

The panels I've bought are likely 2 sizes bigger screws.

I don't know your area but around here Whitby Marine Supply is 1 stop shop.

To me if you think your trying to get the most out these units it's easy. 

 

[Fish Farmer]

Like I said wire direct to the battery, finder first wire. Call Joslin at Angling outfitters, he'll tell you anything else is called dirty power.

Anybody on here been to his seminars, they say he's God in the fishfinder world. nothing that guy doesn't no about them.