Clean Up That Rat's Nest Of Wiring On Top Of The Battery [A Re-Post]

[Craig Weis]

The start of this 2009 season the battery and it's complex rat's nest of wiring was cleaned up.

Looking around the junk pile in my garage and finding a bunch of wiring blocks for a typical 660 volt 3 phase motor control starting panel that I use to build, I simply snapped assembled 12 contact blocks together for the positive wires and 12 blocks for the negative wires. Each snapped together block is about 5" long and 1-1/2" wide and sticks out from the plywood less then 3/4". So there small.

These blocks were just wood screwed, one above the other, into the storage side of the quarter birth plywood bulkhead with the battery box an inch away away from the blocks when strapped down.

These blocks have pinching screws...what you do is snip off the old ring connections that use to pile up on the battery posts, shorten the wire to length, strip off the insulation about 3/8" and place into the wire pocket and screw down the tiny screw...locking that one wire into that one block.

All the terminals are festooned together with looped wiring which makes each terminal block + or - .  
A very neat set up. But does expose the wiring. A NO NO if you expect to pass a Vessel Safety Check.

But the cool thing is one stout wire from each block to each battery terminal. No rat's nest atop my battery and a very easy two un-wire battery disconnect at the end of the season. And I guess if any additional 12 volt items are to be added there are extra open screw down pockets for wires to be had. I can't find a use for all 12 but snapped in a few extra 'for the wife and kids'.

I embellished my battery box lid by mounting a ON-OFF quarter turn Farm~Fleet kill switch to it. All power off when the boat is a dock queen with one exception. With the kill switch in the OFF position the + and - wire from the solar cell still trickles into the battery.

Oh and one more thing as well. The top-o-battery box has Farm~Fleet battery charge indicator with three green LEDs for 'full'~'2/3'~'1/3'~and 'red charge' LED indicating a dead battery. So you can monitor your battery use and shut off consumables like GPS, Fish Finder, or CD/radio before running out of juice. Like if you feel that you'll be a little late returning to the dock or mooring ball at night and you feel Navigation lights are a good thing. I have LED Navigation lites as well..
skip.

[Salty19]

Good post, skip.  My 16 has no zero electronics!  And probably will remain this way until I get a burr up my butt and wire up lights.

I found a VERY NICE volt meter that some may want to consider.  It's made by www.datelmeters.com
It's a digital readout with 1 or 2 decimals, available in various voltage ranges.  Some can be used PCB's, others are ring terminal based.
They are available in blue or red readouts.

http://www.datelmeters.com/cgi-bin/webshop.cgi?config=ent-home&uid=ckulavjk12507233415&command=link--dcvoltmeters.html#2-wire

Any of the first 3 shown will work well for 12V DC applications with ring terminals, all have the 3 1/2 digit with two decimal point displays, differences are supported voltage ranges and color of display. 

My personal experince with them on a touring motorcyle over the last 6 years has been great!  They are 100% sealed and waterproof solid state unit, take a very small footprint and are extremely accurate!  They tell you EXACTLY the voltage (ie 13.17 type readouts).  This particular bike has seen it's share of bad conditions from Canada to South Carolina to Maine to Arkansas.  Vibration, rain, self-caused short circuits, freezing and temps over 100F--you name it the bike and voltmeter has done it.

Now I understand a bike is not a boat, but trust me the conditions on a motorcycle ridden all over gods kingdom are harsher than what we see as small boat sailors. I also use one in my 20 year old car to determine the level of alternator health and help me regulate power usage (it's a highly modified turbo MR2 with high draw fans and other electronics). 

I do not recall the power these take to run, but recall is was extremely small (one of their data sheets should tell you). Small enough you could leave it run 24x7.  I have them both switched off a relay using ignition activated wires (like an ashtray light that on all the time when thgnition is on).  For the boat, a simple on/off switch would work just fine. And I would wire it prior to a master on/off switch to see the battery voltage during and after charging without the resistance caused by wiring further downstream. plus it's helps to check for parasitit loads.

[brackish]

I'm done.  This post inspired me to do mine right.  The yard did a very neat job with all the wiring that came with the boat, but I added four new power requirements and resisted the temptation to create the rats nest.  GPS chartplotter, VHF radio, stereo system, and compass all in, talking to each other where relevant.  No visible wiring, and nothing direct wired to the battery.  One added breaker (one spare spot, kinda worked out), one additional five terminal ground strip, a spool of marine grade 16 ga. wire, 50' of marine grade RG-8X coax, a bucket of heat shrink ring terminals and butt splices, a few of those solderless coax connectors, one through deck gland, a couple of rubber grommets, a bag of cable straps, one set of Anderson power poles for a quick disconnect for the motor starter cable, and countless hours crawling into places I didn't think I could go.

Gave up one of two AC outlets (two on a 23 foot boat, what's that about?) which was in a place I wanted a speaker

Just enough room behind that panel for the auto pilot wiring when I decide to go for that.  Kinks, cramps and bruises should subside in a week or so.

Frank

[Craig Weis]

Salty 16, Dserrell, brackish, and fo48...Captains, all have realised the worth at having and maintaining proper wiring that is well thought out, installed, added to, identified, understood and works in sever conditions associated with the nature of boats
Your efforts reflect pride in ownership. I salute such attention to details.

Salty, Thanks for the meter link. It's mighty hard to see the paths of those pesky electrons running up and back over the surface of the wires...note I did not say 'through' the wires. Electrons take the easiest path. Ride like your life depends on it.
skip.