Electrical Wiring Assistance Requested

[TheOtherLine]

Putting in an FM radio. Got all the speakers in, wires run etc., but I will admit, I don't know electrical wiring.

There are a few instructions I dont get:

1) It says the boat chassis can not be used as speaker ground.
What? What should I ground to?

2) The memory wire (yellow) must be connected to a permanenet +12v supply. That means any positve on the bus bar right?

3) The power wire (red) must be connected via the ignition switch of the boat. Why?

4) For those with stereos, did you use one of the accesory switches to tie into or do you lose the station memory by doing that?

Any tips would be appreciated.

 

[Bryan 2530]

1) each speaker should have two wires labeled + and - they just don't want you to hook the - speaker wire to ground or negative bus terminal on boat.
Each speaker should have two wires, usually color coded on back of unit.

2)If you hook the yellow to the bus bar you will lose pre-sets when the battery switch is turned off. Previous owner of my boat set it up this way and it is a PITA. I will change it when I have time.

3) I wouldn't do that or you will need your key switch on in order to listen to the radio. Go to positive bar or extra fuse on panel.

4) as long as yellow wire always has power you will not lose stations.

 

[TheOtherLine]

1) each speaker should have two wires labeled + and - they just don't want you to hook the - speaker wire to ground or negative bus terminal on boat.

I guess. I don't get that. The two wires coming from the speakers (+ -) need to be connected to the matching inputs (+ -) on the receiver to get sound. I never knew that speakers needed to be grounded. Apparently one of the wires on the unit is a ground wire and must be grounded, but not to the chassis of the boat. Not sure what that means but everything else is fiberglass. Should I just put a screw in the glass and just run the wire to that?

Appreiciate the tip on the yellow. I will run a wire straight from the battery to the unit.

 

[Bryan 2530]

I never knew that speakers needed to be grounded. Apparently one of the wires on the unit is a ground wire and must be grounded, but not to the chassis of the boat. Not sure what that means but everything else is fiberglass. Should I just put a screw in the glass and just run the wire to that?

No, that would be useless. The main unit should have probably a black wire labeled negative and maybe another wire labeled ground. They both can go to the negative buss terminal and that would be sufficient. Or if there is just one, connect that to the negative buss bar.From the pic it looks like you just have a black negative wire, red power, yellow constant and the rest are speakers. Because most boats are made of plastic, non conductive. the ground is a little different than it would be on a car or your fancy motor bike. Think of the negative on the speaker wire as more of a return than a ground and that should help out. The positive is the feed. (Although electrons actually flow negative to positive but that is for another discussion on a different website) :? :? :?

Appreiciate the tip on the yellow. I will run a wire straight from the battery to the unit.

Make sure it is fused close to the battery just in case.

 

[TheOtherLine]

Bryan,

Thanks, that worked.

When it comes to electrical, my skills would give new meaning to that old Deep Purple rock song "Smoke on the Water". (That's going to date some of you)

Apparently the yellow wire preserves memory and needs to be wired directly to 12v or the red bus that is always on.

The speaker ground on the module (black) I just connected to a terminal on the negative bus.

Then bypassed the ignition and wired the power (red) on the unit to the same wire the yellow attached to. Had both yellow and red from unit connected directly to the battery.

Instructions were in chineese, where they make these units I guess.

I just have to remember to always turn off the radio or it will drain the bat.

Anyway, here's the finished project.

Thanks Again.[/u]

 

[Bryan 2530]

Nice unit, I never saw that before. Can you put CD's in it? IPOD compatible?

 

[TheOtherLine]

1) Can you put CD's in it. No, however you can buy an optional CD player that will hook in if you want to.

2) Can you plug in IPOD. Yes, that's the whole reason they dropped the CD part. They figure most people want to use the IPOD. The unit has an aux/in jack. You can see it hanging from the brain. When I get some time, I'm going to run a permanent wire from on top of the helm station to the aux/in jack so I just plug it it from up top.

Also, I bought the XM radio marine kit so I can transfer my XM heand unit from the car or home to the boat.

I know some guys don't understand having anything on board that doesn't have to do with fishing but, if I don't have some music playing when my wife is on board, she's going to want to talk about......girl stuff. :roll:

 

[TheOtherLine]

I bought the unit on ebay for $143. Put poly planer gunwale mount speakers in the ballroom and the m800's in the cabin. Cabin speakers and gunwale speakers were $59 each on Amazon.com

Sounds great.