Electrical Distribution (DC) Panel Questions

[c130king]

Glenn,

I will be installing a Yandina Combiner between my two Group 24 batteries. I think this works similarly...no matter which battery I have selected using my 1-2-Both-Off switch, the other battery will also get some juice.

At least that is how I understand it.

So, if I leave the main switch in postion 1 or 2 there is a possibility I could drain either battery 1 or 2...but I can switch to the other, crank the motor, and start recharing with the combiner making sure that both batteries will get charged.

Now I just need to get back to the U.S. for a week or so to get to all these electrical projects underway.

Cheers,
Jim

[markh1f]

Jim,

I ordered the Blue Sea WeatherDeck™ Water Resistant Fuse Panel from Defender #201172 and it arrived yesterday and to my surprise it actually has circuit breakers not fuses. It is exactly like the one pictured on the Defender web site, the button between the switch and the lighted label is a reset button covered with a waterproof cap. It is a really nice panel with 8 15 amp breakers that I should get installed this weekend.
Also the Yandina Combiner works pretty much as you described, it was the first mod I did and really a must if you are going to keep 2 batteries charged.

Mark

[c130king]

Jim,

I ordered the Blue Sea WeatherDeck™ Water Resistant Fuse Panel from Defender #201172 and it arrived yesterday and to my surprise it actually has circuit breakers not fuses. It is exactly like the one pictured on the Defender web site, the button between the switch and the lighted label is a reset button covered with a waterproof cap. It is a really nice panel with 8 15 amp breakers that I should get installed this weekend.
Also the Yandina Combiner works pretty much as you described, it was the first mod I did and really a must if you are going to keep 2 batteries charged.

Mark

Well isn't that interesting. I can't get the bluesea.com site to come up and check out the specs. Never realized it was a circuit breaker and fuse panel. That's good isn't it...double protection or something like that?

Let me know how your installation goes.

Thanks,
Jim

[c130king]

I got the bluesea.com site to open finally...not sure what the problem was. There are two, almost identical looking panels. One is a circuit breaker panel and the other is a fuse panel. On the defender.com website they list it as a "WeatherDeck™ Water Resistant Fuse Panel" but the picture...and apparently the actual item...is the "WeatherDeck™ Water Resistant Circuit Breaker Panel". And the CB panel is $9 cheaper than the fuse panel on Defender.

WeatherDeck™ Water Resistant Circuit Breaker Panel

WeatherDeck™ Water Resistant Fuse Panel ... no CB's to reset

Which once again leads me back to my issue with CB's versus Fuses.

Jim

[tangentair]

My short opinion on CB v Fuse is that I never have to look for a blown fuse or not have the right size handy with a circuit breaker (marine quality, water sealed especially if used in salt environment) and if the over current is large enought to burn up the circuit breaker then my problem is bigger than a fuse will fix.

[markh1f]

Jim,

I was going for the fuse panel because it was cheaper, the bottom line is either will do fine for our application. But if the price was the same or close I would take the breakers for convenience.

Mark

[atzserv]

Jim,

Just to add to the confusion.

Look in your intallation guide from Raymarine. If you can't find it look in the questions section and search for fuse on the Raymarine site. They offer a recommended fuse or CB for all of their units. That is where I confirmed my suggestion about the 25 amp fuse for your autopilot. But Raymarine says if you use a CB then use a 20 amp. What do they know that we don't about fuses vs Cb? One last note. Call Raymarine when in doubt. I have called lots of times for my Chartplotter and autopilot. They are great guys. I have been on my cell phone on the boat, boat in the water working out problems and they are just GREAT. I did register my products online with them but when on the phone with just my name and when we found a problem with the rudder reference tranducer they sent me one right away. No questions asked. I didn't need to return the faulty unit either. Maybe they did a cross check of my address or something to confirm warranty but I was impressed. One day delivery!!.

Gary

[c130king]

Gary,

Looking at the "commissioning guide" and in "Chapter 1: System connections" it states on page 7:

3. Ensure you use an appropriate circuit breaker or fuse:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Fuse = 15 A
Circuit Breaker = 10 A
----------------------------------------------------------------------

This is one of the reasons why I am leaning towards the fuse panel...it comes with 15A fuses installed. The CB panel comes with 15A CB's thus I would need to buy a 10A CB...I think.

Where did you see 20A and 25A?

Cheers,
Jim

[atzserv]

Jim,

Go to the raymarine site and look on the home page and you will see the customer support box. after highlighting it you will see at the far left the find answers selection. once there type in this line it is a direct copy and past from the Raymarine site.

Raymarine equipment fusing recommendations

My manual is on the boat so I can only give you this information as a way to confirm what I remembered when doing the install. But keep this in mind, you are going to be using a wheel pilot and it will be using a dc motor to turn the wheel as needed. The actual consumption of power can be as much as 5 Ah , another thing I remember from the manual. So proper wire size and fuse or cb size would be more important for this project than like say a chartplotter. Raymarine may have changed their opinion on the requirements lately and this is why you see one thing and I see and remember another.

I emailed myself the answer and maybe this will get you to the answer directly by selecting it


https://raymarine.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ ... faqid=1280

[c130king]

I think I will go with the manual for now and stick with the 15A. If my fuse (or CB) is too small and the motor routinely draws more than 15A then it should blow/pop frequently. And if that happens then I will upgrade to a larger fuse/CB.

Thanks again,
Jim

[Québec 1]

Don't forget the in-line 20A from the Battery to the Panel already exists.
15 amp fuse will be fine for all of your branch circuits described, as long as you keep the wire size adaquate, nothing smaller than 14 AWG.
12 AWG will work very nice, overkill for the radio, steaming light, but so what, it's your money we're spending.
A dead short will pop the fuse/breaker and that's the real demon being protected from.

Why not double up some like loads on breakers and save money and stuff to break?
The switches can remain the same.
Have an exterior lights breaker. 15 A
Interior lights and radios. 15 A
Autopilot and pedestal. 15 A
DC outlet. 15 A
Spare. 15A

Opened up the electric panel and this is what I saw!

Seems to me I could double up the radio and the mast light and use the mast head light fuse for the S1 AP.
Could I just connect the S1AP to the wire that is hanging off the top or the bottom of the fuse box?
Also some of the wires are as you can see pre named for speakers and nmea..I wonder where they start at ?

Installing the S1 is a wonderful opportunity to check out all my systems and maybe understand more about my boat.
Q1

[tangentair]

I would not put the lights on the same circuits as the radios, especially if you are going to use fuses. Remember Murphy, you will plug in spot light or turn on a reading light and your wife will have found some way use her hair dryer (or other such load) by connecting it to a light socket and you will be without lights, trying to find a fuse when you forgot to buy more after you used the last one two days ago and ...... do you really want your radios on the same circuit?? You can't even hail a passing boat and beg a fuse from them.

[beene]

Doesn't he sound like he is speaking from experience..... LOL....

Sorry T

[tangentair]

[Kelly Hanson East]

This is actually an important post, in contrast to most of mine.

you have to make sure you put the load (the wire feeding the thing you want to power) on the correct side of the fuse> the best way to do this is to remove the fuse, and make sure the item in consideration is NOT powered up.

If you connect the load to the hot side of the fuse, the fuse does nothing to protect that item and you can start a nice fire that way.

Ist das klar?? (From Munich)