Rewiring distribution/fuse panel

[spiller]

At last I have addressed the rats nest of wires (70% of which are redundant) and my methodical disconnection went overboard when the second nest of spiders exploded. There were wires into wires; extra spades brazed on spades. Kilometres of sticky insulating tape etc etc etc.

I ended up ripping everything out and have identified and marked most of the current "live" wires.

However, in my enthusiasm, I did not note the polarity of the tiller pilot ST2000, the Raymarine GPS unit or the depthmeter. (The remainder is all lighting).

ARE EITHER OF THESE POLARITY SENSITIVE??

Positively yours,
No negative responses welcomed,

Ssealantar

 

[oldsaltoz]

I would expect both to be fed with a positive +
If your starter is positive fed it's a pretty safe bet everything else is on board.
Just make sure all the fuses or breakers are before the switches.

Avagoodweekend......

 

[pvb]

[ QUOTE ]
However, in my enthusiasm, I did not note the polarity of the tiller pilot ST2000, the Raymarine GPS unit or the depthmeter. (The remainder is all lighting). ARE EITHER OF THESE POLARITY SENSITIVE??

[/ QUOTE ]I'm not sure what you mean by "polarity sensitive". All of these are going to be polarity sensitive in as much as they'll only work when positive and negative are correctly connected. However, I'd imagine that none of them would be damaged by swapping positive and negative connections - they just wouldn't work.

 

[VicS]

To quote a well know phrase or saying RTFMs If however you've lost the FMs you can down load them from Raymarine.com

 

[davidpbo]

Best to assume they are polarity sensitive and may suffer damage if incorrectly connected. If the wires are not marked in a any way e.g. labelled, striped or colour coded then best way would be to disconnect from unit and use a meter or continuity buzzer to find which is going to the positive of the unit, which as others have said may involve looking at the manual.

Now you are in this state it would be advisable to label the wires. A cheap labeller which will print on plastic tape costs about £20 (stationers or CPC.co.uk), you may want to buy a power supply as well. Tapes are expensive £10 Plus for mine (Dymo).

If I am doing permanent high quality labeling to cable with a free end I use the labeller and then sleeve with transparent heatshrink tubing.

Alternatively Red PVC Tape for the +Ve and black or blue for -Ve and a fine permanent marker maybe covered with transparent tape (Scotch Matt manuscript repair tape readily available from stationers rather than cheap sellotape types which tend to yellow with age)

 

[VicS]

[ QUOTE ]
Best to assume they are polarity sensitive and may suffer damage if incorrectly connected

[/ QUOTE ] Wise, IMHO

 

[Como]

Lidl were selling the Brother "P Touch 1000" label machine at £9.99 on Thursday, they may still have some in if you hurry. Included 5m of tape and a set of batteries.

I agree that it would be best to assume any electronic equipment is polarity and voltage sensitive some may be fitted with reverse polarity protection but I wouldn't chance it.

John

 

[john_morris_uk]

No question of 'probably' as from other posters. These units mentioned ARE polarity sensitive. You could damage them by supplying the 12 volts the wrong way round. Usually Raymarine kit is protected from reverse polarity damage, but the protection in some electronic equipment is a reasonably high current diode which effectively shorts the supply out if you connect the kit the wrong was - and thence blows the fuse/over current trip.

All the Raymarine manuals are available online AFAIK.

 

[qetoo]

I have an ST4000 wheel autopilot that I installed myself. Here is the wiring diagram:

I also did a rewiring job similar to what you describe. Here is what I came up with:

Cheers,

"QE Too"

 

[spiller]

Q E Too.
Thanks for that.
Your photo was an inspiration.
I could just read Blue Sea on the boxes and found the website.
I am using very basic bus bars to connect all the "accessories into each fused outlet, but your "boxes" do a much more professional job.
Any more photos available.

SSealantar.

 

[qetoo]

Here is the electrical diagram:

The two circuits that appear unfused coming off of the 12V bus bar actually have in-line fuses installed.

Here is my battery system:

I had to install a terminal strip where the original fuse-block was installed.

"QE Too"