Rewiring control panel

[sgreenway]

As a winter/spring project I am planning to sort out the wiring behind my control panel.

At the moment it is a mess of wires and chocolate blocks, with the control panel being a single piece of metal with individual switches and LED lamps. When some work was being done on the panel, a wire was accidentally pulled from one of the blocks - caused major issues!!!!

So I am looking for advice on how best to set out the wiring and whether using busbars is the way to go.

I am thinking of:
Maximum size is: 300mm tall (minus space for stereo and VHF radio) x 450mm wide

Current switches I have on my panel are:
Autohelm; GPS; Chart Table Light; Navigation Instruments; VHF Radio; Cabin Lights; Forward Cabin Lights; Cooler

Separate panel for:
Anchor Light; Navigation Lights; Steaming Lights; Deck Light

I would think it would look better to combine these panels into one, plus add a couple of so more switches for AIS, Navtex. I will certainly be getting an AIS Transponder one day, the others not sure if/when but need the space available to accept new electrics.

Included in the panel I was thinking of having a proper battery display (NASA BM1 sort of thing - if that can be used on the engine and domestic batterys) + some sort of engine hours meter, as there is not one currently on the boat.

This will be the first set of electrical changes I will be making and so am a novice.

Any assistance/diagrams etc will be gratefully received. Who knows, if I remember I may take some pictures which may help others not make the same mistakes I will make, lol.

 

[pappaecho]

I am doing just that right now. I made a simple decision to use the existing loom for the original items such as lights on the original looms. All new stuff GPS, Logs radar etc onto a new loom via MCB and switched panel.
I suggest you start wih ll the add ons and clear them onto a professional installation using proper cable etc. I use "lorry trailer cable" which has 8 colour coded core cable, rated at 16 amp per core with a central white cores rated at 32 amps. I use this one as the return, and a busbar which is much cheaper of you buy from electrical wholesaler. I also use "meter tails" rated at 100 amps which are double insulated and colour coded, to connect from the battery bank to the busbars.
I found that once you serarate the old from the newer, and sorting out the new first, the old original loom generally are in good condition, and so only need tidying up

 

[Ross D]

From reading your post it sounds like you need a complete new panel, you can either buy one directly from a chandlery or have one made to suit your requirements, which may end up being cheaper. You need to find a local company who will engrave traffolite, gravoply or something similar. Then simply make up the design and give it to them they will cut out the holes and put on the text the more you do for them in terms of design the cheaper it will be.

You need to buy carling switches (RS sell them bery cheaply) you can buy waterproof ones but they cost around 10 times what the cheap non-waterproof ones do. So I would buy the cheap ones (around 60p) and then replace them when they die. You will also need a fuse holder for each circuit a screwdriver bayonetcap fuseholder (also from RS) remember to buy fuses at the same time (I forgot when re-wiring my panel!).

To make up the panel solder wires connecting all of your fuses together, I used one wire in a loop and simply cut off the insulation at each fuse holder. Then solder additional wires at several points along the loop to help prevent voltage drop. Connect all of these to your positive busbar. I have just rewired our switch panel which was a bit knackered after many years of use, I have attached photos of the front and back (Note: I was able to re-use the panel so it is new switches and fuses and this is all positive wiring it should all be red but I ran out of wire when i was soldering it up so I had to use some black wire).
View attachment 8782

View attachment 8783

I would use busbars for all your connections and bring all of the wiring to the same place. Have a small positive busbar supplying your positive connections on the back of your fuse panel and a long busbar next to the fuse/switch panel for all the negative connections. As far as possible run wires directly from whatever you are supplying back to the busbars. DO NOT have joints or connectors, or lines going out and splitting to feed different things (ie navlights connected together by chocolate block) these are all points where your system will corrode and fail. I am replacing the wiring on my yacht at the moment there are wires connected to other wires, wires that split to feed different things etc.

As far as possible solder all your connections, where you are connecting to a busbar with a crimp on ring, crimp it on then solder the crimp, the same with crimps to connect navlights etc.

Do not be affraid of ripping everything out and starting again, electrics on boats are very simple they look horrendously complicated on an old boat because so many bits get added over the years and no-one ever has the guts to completely rip out all the wiring. Essentially you need a busbar for negative connections, a fuse and a switch for the positive connections and a bit of electrical string going to each thing. Everything else is simply a mess added in by people not doing it right in the first place.

 

[pampas]

Make a list of all the circuits that require a switch then double and you will have sufficient for future exspansion, sounds crazy I know but you will soon fill them up.

 

[Ross D]

One more thing to add, I have one different switch, it is a double pole switch and will be permanently live (ie not connected to the 1-both-2-off switch). This is for the bilge pump, it is a condition of my insurance that I have a bilge pump connected permanently in auto. At the moment I have a shoddy bit of wiring connected directly to the battery in the bilge above the pump with the manual/auto switch simply loafing in the bilge.

 

[prv]

One more thing to add, I have one different switch, it is a double pole switch and will be permanently live (ie not connected to the 1-both-2-off switch). This is for the bilge pump, it is a condition of my insurance that I have a bilge pump connected permanently in auto.

My new panel (currently collecting quotes from engravers) has similar - the bilge pump switch is separate from the main column of circuits. However, it's still a simple on/off switch - it runs the pump manually. The auto mode (triggered by SaltyJohn's solid-state sensor) doesn't run through any switch, and is always on. I couldn't think of any circumstances under which there would be water in the bilge which I would not want pumped out, so having the ability to switch the pump completely off seemed superfluous and open to error. If for some exceptional reason I do need to disable it, I can always remove the fuse next to the switch.

Pete

 

[prv]

Make a list of all the circuits that require a switch then double and you will have sufficient for future exspansion, sounds crazy I know but you will soon fill them up.

Depends how complicated the boat, I guess, and how many high-current items you either already have or cannot possibly imagine getting. It's the gap between "already got" and "would never ever add" that contains your future expansions. And you only really need to consider fairly high-current items - things like adding another instrument, or upgrading to AIS, don't seem to require a switchboard change, as they're fairly low current and will go onto the existing Instruments or Nav circuits.

For what it's worth, this is what I have in the design for my new panel:

Cabin Lights. At the top so it's easy to find in the dark. LED so no need to split the circuit to spread the load. There are only 8 internal lights (4 of which are reading lights) on the boat anyway.
Navigation Lights. I only have one set (at the main hounds and the mizzen masthead) so no deck / tri switching required. The main masthead light will be switched by a relay on the engine circuit (but the light is powered from this one) so again no further switching needed. Hit "Nav Lights" as it gets dark and all is covered. All lights are LED ones with a good pedigree, so not too worried at having only one set. Also powers the compass light, and possibly the engine tacho illumination (relay so it's only on when the engine is). Haven't decided whether I want the tacho light on all the time; might leave it out and just use a torch on the rare occasions I need it.
Instruments. Core instruments, basically speed and depth. Also chart table light, so that the Cabin Lights switch can be used to douse everything else under way.
Radio & Navaids. VHF, GPS, Yeoman, video plotter (latter turned off most of the time as it's too small to be useful and eats power, but handy in confined and unfamiliar channels)
Autopilot.
Fridge This has no switch at all on the current switchboard; no idea where its power is being taken from. Only way to turn it off is to set the target temperature higher than ambient!
Deck Socket Splashproof 15A DIN socket in a protected position in the cockpit. Used for handheld searchlight, and for anchor light (hoisted above the anchor ball). The anchor light is LED and takes minimal power; not sure about the light but probably not 15 amps. The socket is plumbed for that just in case I ever get an electric dinghy pump.
12v Sockets and Domestics. "Lighter" and DIN sockets in various places below, the stereo, and a built-in phone charging facility. Any other low-power belowdecks "comfort" items, should I think of any, would also go onto here (my mum suggested a 12v hoover )
2 x spare I can't design anything without allowing for expansion, but have to admit I can't think what these would be used for. All the typical "large" items would be inappropriate for the boat, and most small ones would fit into one of the above categories and hence join existing circuits.

 

[nimbusgb]

Ahhh. Wiring. One of those jobs that seems to multiply itself as you are working on it! This is a 'before' pic i hasten to add

 

[nathanlee]

Aye, there's nowt like a tidy switch panel.

I've just undertaken the very same project.


http://onkudu.com/fitting-out-kudu/boat-electrical-installation/

The initial stages of the project. Obviously a lot more wires were added, but I put even more effort in to keeping it all tidy. Zip-ties are essential.


http://onkudu.com/fitting-out-kudu/electron-control-gateway/

That's it all pretty much finished.

 

[Tom Price]

"I couldn't think of any circumstances under which there would be water in the bilge which I would not want pumped out, so having the ability to switch the pump completely off seemed superfluous and open to error."

My primary bilge pump is electric (with manual backup) and can be switched on/off BUT is bypassed by a lead direct from the battery and controlled by a float switch so it activates on, with an audible alarm, after excessive water gets into the bilge.

So I have this nightmare of the cockpit cover shredding in a storm, then heavy rain flooding the bilge; the pump comes on until the battery dies . . . and the boat eventually sinks!

Help!

 

[nimbusgb]

As opposed to the cockpit cover shredding, the bilge filling and the boat sinking with a full battery ?

Fit a system that texts you a message when the bilge pump runs when you are not there.

 

[tarik]

Battery text message

As opposed to the cockpit cover shredding, the bilge filling and the boat sinking with a full battery ?

Fit a system that texts you a message when the bilge pump runs when you are not there.

Hi,

Would be very interested in the system that texts such messages.

cheers

David

 

[prv]

As opposed to the cockpit cover shredding, the bilge filling and the boat sinking with a full battery ?

Quite. Not to mention that the noise and visible jet of water (mine exhausts just under the gunwale) might just alert a neighbour to the problem. Tom's audible alarm would be even better.

Pete

 

[nimbusgb]

There are a few systems about. You'll end up spending about £300 for a properly integrated system. Just google 'boat alarm sms'.

I built one myself as a winter project which monitors batteries, mains status, temperature humidity and the bilge pump.

 

[Alpha22]

If you just want SMS alerts, this is not bad for less than £100.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GSM-Remote-Co...ltDomain_2&hash=item2eb16fd819#ht_2559wt_1141

You could use it to fire up the heating, or something like that too.

 

[Tom Price]

"Not to mention that the noise and visible jet of water might just alert a neighbour to the problem."

At this time of year when marinas are like a morgue? What if the boat is on a swinging mooring down the creek OR you live 200 miles away?

 

[NormanS]

. I couldn't think of any circumstances under which there would be water in the bilge which I would not want pumped out, so having the ability to switch the pump completely off seemed superfluous and open to error. If for some exceptional reason I do need to disable it, I can always remove the fuse next to the switch.

Pete

I used to winter in the Caledonian Canal. The boat next to me had a set-up like that, and when his large diesel tank sprang a leak, and his automatic bilge pump pumped it all overboard, he wasn't at all popular.

 

[prv]

"Not to mention that the noise and visible jet of water might just alert a neighbour to the problem."

At this time of year when marinas are like a morgue?

My marina, being at the budget (for the Solent) and down-at-heel end of things has a number of liveaboards who might notice if you're very lucky. I've been to the boat a couple of times recently (to check that ice hadn't blocked the cockpit drains etc) and there's generally been people around on the pontoons.

What if the boat is on a swinging mooring down the creek OR you live 200 miles away?

Still no worse than filling up and sinking with a full battery.

Pete

 

[sgreenway]

Thanks for the guys who posted responses to my actual question.

I had thought just to re-wire the control panel first (as it seems a simpler task to a complete novice) then afterwards set about re-wiring the rest of the boat!!!