biggest_kid

Yeah I do have some pictures of my old transducer placement. I have since moved it down so that the halfway line of the transducer is level with the bottom of the hull. I have also tilted it down at the back ever so slightly. I do however stress that those first 2 photos were taken AT REST, so transducer placement cannot be an issue. And raging what do you mean by borrow a 12v battery and power straight off that? It is already powered from a 12v battery? Also yes I could lower the frequency to 455, but that would also lower target resolution which I'm not too keen on. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of having access to 800khz in the first place? It should be able to work at 800khz if it was designed to, I should not have to settle for second best.

Hey guys, Recently installed a Garmin Striker 7 SV and it's transducer and am getting some horrible interference. I was wondering if you guys could help me troubleshoot it. The first pic is sidescan and shows a heap of lines/noise appearing at only 3.3km/hr. The second shows traditional and downscan and the same thing but with some missing data this time at only 2km/hr. The 3rd and 4th pics show a wreck and some pylons that I went past to test sidescan, as you can see its pretty hard to make out anything. As you can see it is quite debilitating and pretty much renders the fishfinder useless. I have tried several things to fix it already, none of which have seemed to help. I have all my electrical accessories including the sounder running through a switch panel, and the negatives are connected to a bus bar which runs back to the battery. I do not have a trolling motor or marine radio installed. The outboard motor is currently not connected to the battery as I have not got around to connecting it yet. It should also be noted that these problems occur at anchor aswell, so I'm pretty sure its not a problem with turbulent water or transducer placement. I also tried it at anchor with all other electronic devices off and the motor (which was also off) is not connected to the battery, so does that rule out electrical interference? Or could there still be interference from the switch panel or other electrical wires?

Isn't charging a battery with too low a current bad for it's longevity? I thought that was what the 10% rule was all about? In which case that charger would do me no good as its only 5A.

Mate if you want to do it properly, get a marine grade epoxy. Do not use bondcrete, polyester fiberglass resin, PVA glue, decking oils or anything like that. Something like WEST system epoxy or Bote Cote epoxy. Yes you will pay more for them, but that's because the manufacturers of these products actually put research into them and they work. These premium marine epoxies are better because they have a low solvent but high solids content. Apparently when the solvent used to thin-out (make them runnier) cheaper epoxies evaporates it leaves microscopic pores or 'tunnel's through the finish, allowing minuscule amounts of water in. It might not be much water, but over time it does damage to the wood. It should be noted that water and acetone are common solvents used to thin epoxy, both of which will degas in this way. I recently used Bote Cote to seal a piece of 7mm ply to secure some switch panels to. And my God is it good stuff, I can safely say there won't be any water getting into that wood for a long, long time. Here is how to use it: 1) First cut all pieces to size and dry fit them in place with screws. Do this first because you need to seal all cut edges and holes drilled through the wood well as exposed edges are most susceptible to water ingress. 2) Remove the pieces of wood from the boat and sand properly 3) Use TPRDA, a low solvent thinner + timber preservative in one made from the same company that makes the Bote Cote, to thin the epoxy for the first coat 4) Apply this first thinned coat to the edges of the pieces and all screw holes, making sure it soaks right in - which it should have no trouble doing as plywood is exceptionally porous. After doing the edges coat the faces of each piece as well. 5) Wait for the first coat to cure and sand it lightly 6) Apply a 2nd coat of unthinned Bote Cote 7) A 3rd coat can be applied if you want to be thorough, but according to the manufacturer is not necessary unless the wood will be submerged under the waterline (this stuff was originally manufactured for wooden boat builders to seal their wood, so that should be a testament to how good it is) Now just so you know I do not work for the company who makes this stuff or get paid to endorse it. It's just that I used it recently and think it is an exceptional product and thought I would share to help out fellow boaties. Like I said I recently did a switch panel with it, and was using that as a trial. Well it passed the trial with flying colours and I will now be doing my tinny floor with it too. A wise man once said ''do it right or do it twice.'' I'm not saying the cheaper epoxies wont work, they just won't last as long. If you cannot afford the more expensive stuff then by all means use the cheaper brands, but please do not use bondcrete or any of those other products I mentioned. Anyway hopefully this helps someone who was in the same boat as me a while back (excuse the pun).

Hey guys, Chasing a battery charger for my new 130Ah deep cycle AGM battery (plus mine and my girlfriend's car batteries) and have been doing a bit of research. Was hoping to stick to a budget of $200. Having some trouble deciding so any opinions are appreciated. So far I have been looking at these smart chargers: 1) The Ozcharge 12A charger from battery world for $220 that comes with a massive 5 year warranty! Also has all the stages and what not. 2) The CTEK M200 charger from Edisons (https://www.edisons.com.au/ctek-12v-15amp-m200-smart-battery-charger/) which also has a 5 year warranty for $250 3) The KickAss charger (https://www.australiandirect.com.au/buy/kickass-12v-charger-12-amp/KACHG1212) with a 2 year warranty for $120 What do you guys think? How long do these chargers normally last? Is it worth shelling out for one with a 5 year warranty, or just go cheap and hope for the best (still with a reasonable warranty though)? Cheers

Ahh bus bars, so that is how you connect all the wires? I was thinking you would somehow have to splice them all together, but had no idea how to actually do this. One thing though, my boat is an aluminium dingy with side gunwales. I was thinking of running some waterproofed (and possibly fibreglassed) 6mm ply from underneath the gunny to the floor, cutting a hole in it and mounting the switch panel to that. I would then make up a small box also out of the 6mm ply, fibreglass and waterproof it then to act as a waterproof box for all the wiring to sit inside. This would probably be a pretty tight fit depending on the size of the box, so is there any danger if the 2 bus bars come into contact with each other? That sounds like a recipe for disaster to me, but I'm not sure. Thanks for all the help by the way guys, finally starting to get my head around this process and will look at starting to purchase all the required wiring and crimps and what not soon.

Yeah I now realize I am being a bit excessive with cable gauges, so will tone it down a bit to save costs. Think I will do as Fab suggested, 4mm for the active wires from the battery to the panel, and 2mm from the accessories to the panel (however if an accessory has a heavier gauge, I will match that). Rozza what do you mean about running the negative to one point, and then all negatives from the accessories back to that point? I was just going to run twin-core tinned wire from each accessory back to the panel. Plug the positives onto the prongs on the back of the switches, merge all the negatives into one 4mm wire, merge the positives into one 4mm wire, and run those two 4mm wires back to the battery? Antony I won't be running a single fuse, but rather there is already 3 fuses in place that are pre-wired into the switch panel. So each 15A fuse is essentially protecting 2 switches. So as I understand it, that means one single switch would need to pull more than 7.5A to set off the fuse right? If that is the case, pulling 6A could damage sensitive electronics without actually blowing a fuse, leaving me oblivious to the problem. Have I understood this correctly? Still not sure if I have my head around this fuse situation, and I would think that would probably be the most important part of this whole process to understand correctly.

Someone said to replace the fuses that come pre-wired with the switch panel as 15A is too high and wont properly protect the circuit? Is this true? Also I was going to run an 6 or 8mm positive wire from the battery to the switch panel, and then 2 or 3mm positive wires from each switch to each device. Would this be suitable for the sort of currents I would be expecting? Then for the negative do I run another 8mm wire from the panel back to the battery, which the 2 or 3mm negative wire from each accessory splice into? Or do I run the 8mm negative from the front of the boat back to the battery, which each negative wire splices into? Bit confused here.

Thanks Rozza for all the help, appreciate it mate. Quick question though: where can I buy good quality tinned cable? And what are good quality lugs? In fact where can I buy all the stuff I will need? I'll need tinned wire, spade connectors, butt crimps/connectors for joining 2 wires together, heat shrink, a crimping tool/ratchet Thanks for the thread Fab, helped me to nut out exactly how to do this.

Hey guys, I recently purchased my first boat, and am having an absolute ball with it. It is a 4.3m Seajay Nomad, with a bench seat at the back, cast deck up the front and false floor in the middle. However the previous owner left it out in the sun and weather for years, and so certain components are sun faded and just complete eyesores. This includes the switch panel, fuel lines and just about anything else made of plastic. So my plan is to replace the switch panel, and completely overhaul all the wiring for the boat in the process as it is quite messy and is setting off my OCD. Also, who knows how corroded the wiring is. I have always had an interest in electronics, and so want to DIY this job in order to learn. I have no experience in the field though, so will need some assistance please. I have already purchased a 6 gang, fused switch panel from Road Tech Marine, this one to be exact. It is pre-wired and includes a volt-meter for the battery. I am going to purchase an additional 4 gang fused panel to mount beside it as I plan on fitting more than 6 accessories. The fuses are rated for 15A and I figured this should be plenty? I have drawn up a rough diagram (attached) of where all my accessories will be placed, some of which are already in place from the previous owner. So my questions to you guys, the experts: 1) In order to connect the accessories to the switches, is all I need to do just run the positive wire (red) of the accessory to the free terminal (shown in my second attached image) on the back of each switch? If so what is that connector called? Is it a spade crimp or something like that? 2) What about the negative (black) wires of each accessory? Do they just connect to the single black wire on the back of the switch panel? 3) As I understand it, the blue is the positive for the led back light of the switches, the yellow is the negative for the led back lights and the single black wire is the negative for everything? Is this correct? 4) After connecting each accessory to the switch panel, then do I just run the positive (red and blue) and negative (black and yellow) wires of the panel to their respective terminals on the battery? 5) After some research on other forums, it was suggested to run all positives coming from the back of the panel into one heavy gauge positive wire (5-8mm in thickness) and run that back to the battery, to reduce voltage drop and also to make things neater at the battery end of the boat. Is this necessary seeing as the switch panel will only be about 1m away from the battery? Can this be done before the switch panel, or will that essentially cause every accessory to be controlled by one switch? 6) What gauge wire should I use for the accessories? Or will they already have their own wires connected to their internals, meaning that I have no choice? Is this even an issue? 7) What is the best way to connect wires for optimum conductivity and the least exposure to corrosion? Someone suggested soldering and then heat shrink tape? 8) The fuses are all in rather close proximity, if one of them blows, will it wreck the rest of them? 9) Anything else I may have overlooked that I need to know? Ratings of crimps, ratings of solder wire, etc etc? So as you can see I am a total newbie at this sort of stuff so any help you can offer is appreciated. I apologize if any of my questions are stupid, but electrics are not something I want to take any chances on. Cheers