Wiring Improvements

[galeus]

I have my VHF (DSC) and chartplotter linked together and they work, but the wiring looks a mess.
Interestingly, though they are both S/Horizon units, the wiring is not anymore compatable (in a thought out way) than when I had a NASA VHF.
Not all the wires are used as I do not have need of them.
I must be missing a trick as I'm sure others must do better.
There is a red/black feed to the 12v and a green/brown to the VHF, all in 'thin' wiring. There is a fuse on the black (neg) wire.
Advice welcome on how to make a pro. looking job.

Cheers Richard

 

[prv]

Advice welcome.

Advice on what? You don't seem to have asked any question.

Maybe the picture would make it clearer, but it's not showing up.

Pete

 

[pmagowan]

Not entirely sure what the problem is but if I was trying to tidy that up I would shorten the excess wire and stick a big bit of heatshrink over it. It would change from loads of little wires to one solid wiring loom.

 

[prv]

Ah, now the image has appeared.

A second vote for heatshrink, covers a multitude of sins.

Pete

 

[salar]

I was always taught to have the fuse on the positive side, to protect the devices. To neaten it up, put thin heatshrink over the solder joints in the data wires (too late, you have joined them so use a thin roll of insulating tape) then a larger tube of heatshrink over all the joins to make it look like one wire. If you wanted to, you could further tidy it with convoluted conduit if you can find the split version or curly cable management to wind round it. Then use P clips screwed to the wall to hold the cable neatly in place. If it is running alongside other wires you could simply use lots of cable ties to hold it all together so it looks like a wiring loom. I have just been through this - a complete rewiring of a Harley 25 motor cruiser. Not a pretty sight at this point but it gets better...http://harley25refit.blogspot.co.uk/2014_03_01_archive.html

 

[galeus]

I was always taught to have the fuse on the positive side, to protect the device.

The S/H c/plotter is supplied with a fuse and holder and should be installed on the black wire to protect the NMEA output/input from becoming damaged (so says owners manual)
Thanks for the input; I supposed I was wanting something even better than heatshrink as it is on show on the dashboard. I do cover it with corragated sheath but as the wire splits into 2
it has it's limitations. Perhaps something like a posh block connector which was fixed down and wires run through that?

 

[salar]

I was always taught to have the fuse on the positive side, to protect the device.

The S/H c/plotter is supplied with a fuse and holder and should be installed on the black wire to protect the NMEA output/input from becoming damaged (so says owners manual)
Thanks for the input; I supposed I was wanting something even better than heatshrink as it is on show on the dashboard. I do cover it with corragated sheath but as the wire splits into 2
it has it's limitations. Perhaps something like a posh block connector which was fixed down and wires run through that?

OK I guess the fuse is protecting Data Ground. If your wire is on show, I would encase the cable in braided conduit or something like Label The Cable from Maplins which is a self closing fabric like material. I would not use a connector block for data wires, they are tiny and could easily fracture if they are not soldered and protected by shrink tube. The good thing about braided cable conduit is that it can accommodate wires that split out.