The Outdoor Line Forum

Hey Nelly and Robbo,
I have heard you on the show talk about how critical the power source is when installing new electronics. I have a new HDS 9 touch screen that I will be installing soon and want to make sure it's set up for the best possible results. Can you provide me some details as to the best practices when installing and any details on gauge of wire, fuse placement etc. Thanks
The boat is a 23ft striper walk around and the batteries are in the stern so it will be a pretty long length of wire to the helm.

Hey O&B,
You are right on track with that question and on your way to a successful installation!

A.good power supply starts with good batteries and clean wiring. If your batteries are over three years old, and are of lead/acid construction, consider an upgrade to AGM batteries and if your boat has one battery, consider adding a second or even a third!

I will pull a dedicated electronics positive and ground from the batteries up under the dash and connect them to a distribution or fuse block and you're good to go!

Under-volting your electronics leads to problems in both operation and longevity.

Ample, clean power is the best way to ensure your installation is a successful one!

Excellent advice Nelly, an important component to use is a ACR. This will help to separate your batteries when starting.

Gary

I ran 6 guage positive and negative wire from my transom to a Blue Seas bus under my dash to power up all my house electronics. I also have a breaker between the battery and the buss so I can switch off all of the power to the house at night when I head home.

OWC is correct about installing an ACR between your house and cranking battery. That's a great idear

Depending on your boats power configuratuion this wiring configuration may help you out. In my case I have a GM 350 v8 in my boat and a dual battery configuration. When i hit my start button, the starter engages and puts a large drain on the battery being used to powewr the starter. When that happens the voltage output from that battery can drop to 10 or less volts. Many Marine electronics that is not enough voltage to run the equipment. So what you see is everything turned on GPS is locked on, VHF radio on, Depth sounder doing its thing. You hit the starter and VHF flashes, GPS/sounder unit either shuts down or resets. Now I will show you how I wired my boat. I ran a Dedicated power wire to the dash where my electrioncs are from each battery. At the batteries each battery has a power wire and a diode then I spliced the lines together and ran a single line from the diodes to the dash. When I hit the starter then battery 1 drops below 10 volts, but the diode still holds up the voltages at 12v. Thus the electronics dont get a low voltage and reset. its also better for your electronics not to get hit with low voltage sags in the line I guess....