Well, I guess I'm studying electrics for the rest of the holidays...
>>920845
Seeing as you probably got something from the 70's, thats probably been rewired and fucked with by god knows how many owners, gut it and re do it.
Now, that decision depends on how complicated your system is, if its a motor or sail boat, how much you want your electrical system to do for you, what you want to use the boat for, etc.
I found wire nuts wrapped in electrical tape, no labeling whats so ever, solid strand wire, a battery bank in a location where condensation dripped onto the terminals and all sorts of other atrocities. So I gutted everything and completely re wired it. Except for the in mast wiring.
Don Casey has probably the best book on introductory marine electronics I've ever seen. That combined with Nigel Caulders book Boat Owners guide to Mechanical and Electrical and you've got all the information you need.
Personal tips: don't mix battery types, NEVER yank a wire out of its wire run unless you are 100 percent positive you aren't going to replace it, have on hand a ton of different ways to attach an old wire to a new wire, when replacing wires just attach the new to the old and pull the old one out which will effectively run your new wire, ONLY use tinned stranded wire rated for marine use, don't run wires through the engine compartment (incredibly common), move your electrical panel away from the companionway, run "drip loops" before coming to any connection so if any water runs down your wire (even if your boat is water tight, which no boat is, there's still condensation to consider) it drips off the sag in the wire instead of running onto the connection/terminal.
All I can think of off the top of my head, will be monitoring.
And congrats! What did you end up picking up?
>>920930
Upon closer inspection it looks like youve got yourself a small sailboat! Double congrats Anon!
>>920845
wow this is ugly as fuck. get yourself some Blue Sea equipments. worth every penny. I bought some for my car even.
>>920845
Just imagine ripping all that junk out, and rewire it all to an arduino set-up.
>>920938
And this is exactly what you shouldn't do.
>>920942
There's a couple things acceptable to control via Arduino on a boat. It's mostly unnecessary though. Really all that would be nice to automate is the turning on and off of nav lights but that can be done a lot simpler without arduino.
>>920930
>>920932
Thanks mate, I'll have a look thru my collection for those books - I'm sure i recognise the names but haven't read them.
It's a Snapdragon 747, a sailboat indeed! I reckon 1979, but I've no details just stories. She's well built and the engine is a beaut. It's just the electrics that give cause for concern right now.
Bilge pump is out
Outside lights are out
Radio and instruments ok, as are the interior lights.
I've had her a while, just never really looked at the nav lights as I never needed them ! It was going to check the bilge pump that I realized that there must be some breaks in the circuits.
>>920935
Eugh. Image is nothing, whoever made my boards knew what they were doing. I've just let them rot.
>>920938
>>920942
>>920946
I see few advantages to automating such a little boat
>>921008
Are you located in the states?
I don't know your local laws but in the states having spot on radio and nav light functions are crucial. And for safety so is the bilge.
Have you checked over your plumbing at all? I almost sank in the middle of the long island sound last February because the bilge pump outlet hose broke right at the thru hull, so every time chop hit the port side water would come in through a inch wide hole. Thank god I was just motoring or else heeling over would have sank me. Waking up in the middle of your only sleep shift to the sound of sloshing and then the sight of a foot of ice cold water in your cabin is a fucking scary moment.
>>921040
Not the states, but the same rigorous legal implications. I'd want them whatever the laws though!
Seems that radio and hifi are working (and also directly wired to the batteries, so gotta watch them for likely battery drains!)
Plumbing seems solid, apart from not having a antisyphon in the heads pipes. Also, I'm missing bungs so I'll have to add them to the shopping list. Your experience sounds shit - had the same when a cousins' stern gland leaked while we were all asleep. Fucking rentals.
Once the storm subsides here, I'm going to go and start checking light connections with the old multimeter.
I haven't done any homework yet, but a solar panel might be wise to hook up for the winter to trickle charge - would you know should I put the charge controller directly to the battery terminals, or through some other loom?
>>921446
Fuck that man! Don't tie anything directly to your battery, bilge pump is a rare exception.
Battery charging is a fun topic. Really depends on what youre doing with the boat. If you're just having fun on the weekends/not out full time cruising then a small panel hooked straight to the battery bank can be okay, if youve got an actual charge controller more power to you (no pun intended)
Definitely get bungs. But remember a ziplock bag and a ziptie can also work. I plugged the hole with a curtain from the cabin, and ziptied a grocery bag over it all and it worked.
>>920845
>boat electrics
I guess the tropical fish cap is appropriate, then
>>920845
Look at the giant heatsink tab on that to220, gotta love shitty 70s components
>>921658
Okey doek. Yeah, I wasn't going to hook the panel to the battery, but the panel -> charge controller -> battery. Should be ok, rather than trying to add more mess to this electric panel. I'd really be screwed if I fucked up the battery though.
In fact, the last guy just had cheap car batteries on board - not sealed ones. That was the first thing I swapped out in case of leakage - low and behold they did indeed leak! All over me. Goodbye shirt and shoes. Left a scar too, oops.
>>921681
Is that the one on the smaller board?
>>921716
Yeah man. Does the job. Time to figure out what that job is!
>>920845
Looking at that, I'd say it's very out of date. If you put a little money into it, you can get some second hand nmea0183 instrumentation dirt cheap, and at that point it's serial coms (rs422) and really simple to work with
>>921829
Yeah the boat's too small desu. Only worth a couple thousand so no worth a major overhaul. The only electronics I'd add is a GPS and I'd probably go tablet or handheld rather than wired in.
But you're right, it's worth considering
>>921831
Does it have a steering pump?
>>921821
Yeah, the striped thing in your pic there. Tbh it might be shit at this point so you may want to replace it. I don't know how well those dipped caps last over the course of 40+ years, but I know electrolytics would be trash at this point.
>>921821
Give us a closeup of that board
>>920845
My dad had a boat he bought from a guy who lived on it. THe guy put a combiner so that when the batteries were charging, no matter which bank he was running off of both would charge.
He then proceeded to attach the regulator from the alternator to Bank 2, not the common. SO when we were running off of bank 1 for an extended period of time we ended up cooking those batteries because the regulator saw voltage below the required level.
We got lucky and the insurance company believed the electricians story about a lightening strike cooking the batteries and equipment.
Lets just say you should bare careful when wiring it up.
>>921836
Nah man, what boat has a steering pump? None I've worked on anyway. All have been direct connect if with a wheel or else a simple tiller. This boat came with a rotten tiller so I made a new one last year pic related.
What makes you ask? Thinkin about auto tiller?
>>921906
I should just figure out what this all does. You're right though, half the problems might be from this board being toast.
>>921953
Will do
>>921964
Sounds shit, thanks for the warning. batteries ain't cheap, and i fairly rely on them
Hey when did /diy get so popular, posts used to take weeks to move down the board
