Off-shelf Marine Switch panels ....

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Aren't they absolutely awful ......

Just had to butcher mine and repair it ..... UGH !! I knew I should have thrown it away and built my own ... even have a design already drawn up ...

The Fuse holders are rubbish ... The switches - only good thing you can say is they are lit .... but why do they light up even when item doesn't work ?

For the price I think they are diabolical ......
 
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The switches - only good thing you can say is they are lit .... but why do they light up even when item doesn't work ?



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Not sure what you mean there - surely it would be very difficult to do anything else? I can see a point for the light to be after the fuse but not much more than that - you could achieve the same result by putting the switch after the fuse.
 
Have you looked at the Blue Sea panels. Horrendously expensive but do exactly what you want. Can sometimes find them on the US version of eBay at a reasonable price. I think that JG Tech do them in the UK ( as well as BEP Marine products, also quite good.

Main problem though is the rip-off price. Would be much cheaper to make one yourself.
 
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Aren't they absolutely awful

[/ QUOTE ] Some certainly are. I bought a couple some years ago and the switches were so bad I chucked the whole lot away. I am sure that there are some good ones available and if you want a nice professional looking panel may not be too overpriced but the trouble is that they are never quite what you want.

The swiches light up to show they are switched on not that the equipment is actually working!

Like you I tend to make that sort of thing myself.
 
You can get them made in etched plastic. Still expensive though. This cost me forty quid at a local sign makers but I got the distinct impression he had sent it off to be made by someone else so you I'm sure you could get it made for less. Then the circuit breakers are a tenner each. I used 12V leds from Maplin for the lights and they are wired after the switch.



I agree the cheaper ones you buy off the shelf look awful and aren't that cheap. And they use fuses rather than circuit breakers.
NewPanel.jpg
 
I also made my own from am engraved panel with merlin-gerlin overload circuit brakers and led's to indicate the circuit is powered
 
I am building my own, <u>using fuses</u>.

Fuses don't fail, CB can.

A sensible design would always back up a CB with a fuse, so why not stick to fuses only.

I just don't like breakers, but I am sure you will correct me.
 
A rather sweeping statement.
From a personal point, the panels we made for productiuon boat buildes ( around 6,000 ) are now 10 - 24 years old and the large majority are still going strong, without problems. What faults we get are external mounted panels, from the sun causing UV degregation accelerated by the mounting position. We always used silver plated switches with contacts, and never fuses, always circuit breakers. Tried to avoid switched circuit breakers, they tended to have springs and pivots that rusted, or siezed up in the marine enviroment. Buy cheap, and it soon falls apart.

Brian
 
I agree with your lack of trust of CBs but I still prefer them to fuses.

I reason that I've got about a dozen CBs in the panel - should one fail it is the work of a few seconds to re-route the circuit to another CB. However often it trips you can always reset it. With fuses once it's blown that's it.

I once had a sticky Bilge pump that would occasionally jam and blow the CB - resetting the CB always did the trick but I would soon have run out of fuses had I used them.
 
That's exactly the sort I use and they are rubbish. The bulbs have gone on two switches - I only installed the panels 5 months ago! You can't change the bulbs either.
 
Fuse vs CB ....

Isn't it a bit like comparing apples and pears ? CB's in my humble experience usually trip far easier, at slightest thing rather than the fuse that often survives similar.

I prefer CB's - but due to economies ... use fuses generally....

Now I think the real question is not CB vs Fuse ..... but quick blow vs slow blow fuses ....

But anyway back to the main topic ... the average panel even those recc'd by some are beasts ! The switches are suss, the fuse holders are temperamental, and the bus bars that join common terminals are just rubbish. In fact IMHO - it would be better to link by wire rather than the corroding copper bar that when you try to solder needs so much heat that you risk frying the plastic switch / fuse bodies ...

I would certainly NOT waste another wallet session on another "Marine Quality" panel ...

When I removed the panel from the boat .... 2 wires just fell off where the corrosion had eaten through, but of course you couldn't see that till taking the panel out.

My panel will have a row of screw terminal blocks at side to tidy up the wires ... before connecting to the panel. Unlike the Birds Nest that was there from previous ...

UGH !!
 
It would be nice if the light showed item was working ... not that power was at switch.
It's only a change of design ... switch and then led in parellel to power to item ... if item works LED is on ... if doesn't then item is not working.

MMmmmm maybe I should get some led's and do just that ... switch shows power available ... LED shows item working. Got me thinking now ...
 
Most indicator size LED's run at about 20mA and will not pass the current to run say a Bilge pump or VHF radio. The only I have seen LED's used in this way is in parallel with the fuse with current limiting resistor to show that the fuse has blown.
 
I question the need and advisability of so many switches and fuses.
Many items of equipment have their own on off switch. ie VHF GPS etc.
You need to be sure you really need to have another switch considering you have a main isolator switch at the battery.

Likewise many electronic devices have an internal fuse or don't need a fuse to protect the electronics etc. So the fuse is there to protect the wiring. I f you use fairly heavy wire capable of carrying a large current without burning then a fuse of suitable size can be used to fuse many circuits. ie a 10 amp fuse will carry the current of a collective lot of loads so if the wiring for all the loads is good for 10 amps without burning (not to be confused with size required for reasonable volt drop) then you are protected.
The old idea that if one circuit fuses then the others are still working is a bit unrealistic coinsidering that fuses seldom get blown in service ie on a voyage. You do need to fuse )or CB)all circuits to protect the ship from fire caused by a short causing the wiring to burn.

So less fuses less switches = more reliability.
So Nigel make your own having just what you need in the way of fuses and switches. Unless like some people you just want it to look impressive with lots of switches. good luck olewill
 
Will .... I have to admit I do already follow your way ...

I too consider that the on/ off switch on the VHF enough to do the job - plus a fuse in-line to it.

The only items I have via switch on the panel - are those that have no own on/off switch - as my navtex etc.
This also means I only need a 4 switch panel instead of those humping great Christmas Tree jobs ...

I do feel individual fuses are worth it though ... relying on a general one is ok for main cable ... but each item needs protection. IMHO

Anyway - next weekend - panel goes back .... then its time to sort the connections into a tidy set-up.
 
Re: Will .... I have to admit I do already follow your way ...

Hello Nigel picking up on your previous comments abouty LEDs that indicate item is working.
There are 2 ways I can think of to indicate if an item eg masthead lamp is working ie drawng current using LED. The first is to fit a series resistor the volt drop across which is fed to the LED. So a 1 ohm resistor in a 25 watt lamp circuit will drop 2 volts. Ther LED needs about .7 volt so you need to drop 1.3 volts at 20 milliamps which means you need 75 ohm series resistor to the LED.
Now you don't want to waste 2 of your 12 volts available for the nav light so this is pretty useless. If you only waste 1 volt the current through the LED would be pretty uncertain because there is such a small volt drop in the LEd current limiting resistor.
A better arrangement is to use one of those magnetic reed switches. They are a little glass tube with a wire at each end. In a magnetic field they make contact. You wind a coil of heavy wire around the reed switch about 20 turns 5 mm in diameter. All the current to the lamp flows through this coil which operates the reed switch which then switches an LED on via a standard 12v current limiting resistor. You would need to fiddle to get a coil that will operate the switch but the voltage loss to the lamp is minimal.
This trick can be used to indicate alternator is charging or solar panels are charging. It is a good winter inside fiddling type job to build the coil. good luck with your electrics no I don't actually use this device on my boat I am a KISS man. olewill
 
Re: Will .... I have to admit I do already follow your way ...

mmm interesting .... ta !
 
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From here ??? They don't look so bad imho... and very competitively priced, not too far from your neck of the woods...

-steve-

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I've got two of those and they're pretty rubbish. As has already been said, a couple of the switch lights have already failed - only had them in a couple of seasons and for one of those the boat has been in the garden!
 
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