Adding buss bar and switch

[wgl333]

I am adding a fish finder to my chart plotter and the FF has no switch. I am adding a buss bar to power both and a cuddy fan, and need to switch only the FF. It is a simple on/off switch and I am confused as to how to wire as there are only 2 lugs on the switch....HELP PLEASE!!!

FYI, 1995 Wellcraft Eclipse 236 SC 5.7 Merc, dual battery.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Adding buss bar and switch

Thats all the lugs there are on a single pole single throw switch and that's all you need to turn a fish finder, light, horn, radio, or any other accessory on and off.

Here is a diagram of how current flows through a circuit. Pretend the light is a fish finder.

12 volts comes from the battery, through a fuse, to one leg on the switch, out the other leg of the switch, to the 12 volt lead on the fish finder and the ground lead of the fish finder connects to ground (wherever you find it.). Next question -- why is it you need to add a buss bar? No other accessories on this boat? If there are, you already have one.

 

[TerryMSU]

Re: Adding buss bar and switch

Thats all the lugs there are on a single pole single throw switch and that's all you need to turn a fish finder, light, horn, radio, or any other accessory on and off.

Here is a diagram of how current flows through a circuit. Pretend the light is a fish finder.

12 volts comes from the battery, through a fuse, to one leg on the switch, out the other leg of the switch, to the 12 volt lead on the fish finder and the ground lead of the fish finder connects to ground (wherever you find it.). Next question -- why is it you need to add a buss bar? No other accessories on this boat? If there are, you already have one.

I have multiple accessories on my boat. I assume they came from the factory, but definately no bus bar. It does have a switch/fuse panel in the console, but no bus bar there. It was just wired with a bunch of crimp terminals daisy chaining the switches together. On the other hand, this is less than 16 ft, a tinny, and 20 years old.

More importantly, does the finder not have a switch on it? Use that, no extra switch required. I added a fishfinder and wired it directly to the battery with only a fuse holder in series. Works great with less chance of interference in the FF. The finder in the off position does not draw enough current to pull down your battery. In my case, I pull the FF off the boat when I get home anyway because my boat is tarped and stored outside.

TerryMSU

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Adding buss bar and switch

The POSITIVE buss bar is the daisy chaining of the INPUT side of the switches. All one needs to do is simply extend that daisy chain to another switch and you are done! Here is an example of a true BUSS (both positive and negative). Note that there is only ONE wire on the positive buss! That wire FEEDS the entire panel -- meaning the hot side of all the fuse positions. The GROUND buss provides multiple attachement points for all accessory grounds.

 

[wgl333]

Re: Adding buss bar and switch

The fuse panel is pretty full and I am trying to avoid adding any more mess to the chaos that exists there. May re-run in the future, but that is a down the road kind of project. And Terry, the FF does not have a switch. It is a black box FF that attaches to my Standard Horizon Chartplotter/GPS/FF.

Thanks for the info!