Wiring depth finders question

[WaveWacker]

Alright, I've assumed the responsibility of wiring my dad's new Crestliner 1750 Fishhawk. On my Lund I had plenty of extra accessory opening in the fuse panel that I just wired my units into the back of that with the in line fuse as well.

Here's what I'm up against. I'm wiring in power for a Lowrance HDS10 and HDS7 unit. The 7 will have two powers, one up front and one in the back as well (for moving this unit around). Yeah, I know one could easily just run all the power directly back and connect straight to the battery but in the future the structure scan module will be added which needs power as well so now I'm looking at 4 sets of of wires all coming in to the battery compartment. I was kicking around thoughts of installing a toggle swith panel and then wiring the units to that. If possible, I'd like to have one set of main wires running to the panel that would have a main power swith to power the rest of the panel and then the individual units wired to their own switch. This would allow for cutting the power to the units for charging batteries as well.

Am I crazy in these thoughts or is it possilbe? Or, is there something that one can tie all the power cables to and then only have one wire running to the battery? Or, fill me in on what most of you have done.

To be honest, I'm not all that impressed with some of the features in the Crestliner but maybe it's just me being use to my Lund. Not related to wiring but how do the livewells work in a Crestliner? Specifically, does your pump just stay in the whole time? The "livewell" labeled set of wires/plug is hooked up to the pump. There is also a set of wires/plug that has "recirc" labeled on it and isn't hooked up anywhere. Definately a learning curve here to be had.

Thanks for any info.

[Ed Carlson]

What is the CCA rating on the motor battery and accessory line, to start with?

If it is under 1000 CCA...I would upgrade it to 1000 CCA...due to the extra load your going to place on it with the HDS10 and HDS 7. This will get you ahead of a lot of very likely problems down the line.

If you can power the HDS 7 off 1 of the front 12 V batteries, all the better for the front installation. This will lessen the load on the rear battery, and help. If it is 24 or 36 V in the front, be sure to test to be certain your picking off only 12 V.

Spreading out the load is smart is my point, and upgrading the starting battery to 1000 CCA is almost a certainty to head off problems...see this often on larger motors and larger graphs on the same line.

[WaveWacker]

It's probably not a problem but what are the ramifications of pulling juice off of only one of the batteries (uneven draw)? Probably still going to check the cca of the back battery and wire in the back location for the 7 to the starting battery.

Still thinking of wiring everything into a switch panel. Been looking at the one's the big C store has. I'm just not clear on wiring. Sounds like the ones they have you can just run the main ground to a common ground bar and the power to the panel and then just plug your power/red lines into the switches. I'm wondering about wiring it up for having a master power switch. I assume that one could backwards wire one switch in that you'd bring the main power into a switch which in turn when flipped on would send power to the other switches. I'm just guessing however.

What guage wire would one run up to a panel in this situation??

[Jeremy airjer W]

why not just install a fuse panel. Run a main power to it and branch off the power supplies from it?

[WaveWacker]

That's an idea as well. What gauge wire would one run from the battery up to the panel?

[Dale Rueber]

Is this a console or tiller?

If this boat has a console then there are probably wires already there. I have a 1750 walk thru and all of the necessary wires were already run to the console.

If you plan to add a structure scan module I believe that Lowrance recommends that all units be connected to the same battery.

One thing to note is that you will want to run all of the power wires for the lowrance units to the same general location. At minimum you will need to run the yellow wire from each of the units and the structure scan module to the same place because they will be connected together. The yellow wire is used by the HDS units to turn on the Structure Scan Module.

If your Recirc switch is not connected to anything then the optional livewell recirculating pump (i think it is optional) is not installed. The main livewell fill pump is on all of the time that the switch is turned on, no timer on the fill pump. I turn off the livewell fill and turn on the Recirc as soon as the livewell is full.

[WaveWacker]

It's a tiller. There is a wire ran up to the front but nothing that I can see for the back which makes sense as the factory/dealership wouldn't know where you wanted things situated.

So for structure scan to work you need the yellow wires hooked up as well.

Per the livewell pump...So you have a livewell and a recirc switch on your panel then? Only a "livewell" on dad's. So somehow you must have two seperate pumps hooked up to your livewells. Hmmm, something else to figure out.

[Dale Rueber]

There is a good wiring diagram on the Lowrance web page under download/manuals. Look for the "HDS Installation Instructions" check the diagram on page 23. Only difference from the diagram is I assume you will not need the NEP-1.

[Dale Rueber]

You will need to connect the yellow wire on the Structure Scan Module to the HDS unit or run it to a switch to power it on/off.

On my boat there is a Livewell switch that will fill both livewells and the baitwell and a seperate Recirc switch in the rear of the boat. The Recirc switch only recirculates water that is already in the back livewell. The baitwell and the front livewell do not have recirulation connected to them.

[WaveWacker]

Sorry for continuing with the questions but do I then need to terminate (tie together) the data cable wires that aren't going to be used?

I'm still not clear if I need to connect up the yellow wires if I run a power line to the structure scan module. He doesn't have the structure scan now so I'm assuming for the time being that I don't hook up the yellows regardless.

[Dale Rueber]

Do not tie the unused wires together. If there is exposed wire clip or tape them so that they do not touch each other or any other metal or wires. The exception being the shield wire because it will not have insulation.

You do not need to connect the yellow wires until you have the Structure Scan module.

The only purpose of the yellow wire, that I'm aware of, is to turn on/off the Structure Scan module. The HDS units output 12v on the yellow wire when they are turned on and the Structure Scan module will turn on when it sees 12v on the yellow wire.

Technically you would only have to connect the yellow wire from one of the HDS units to the Structure Scan module but that will be the only unit capable of turning on/off the SS module. The other unit would only be able to use the Structure Scan if the unit with the yellow wire connected is turned on. Confused?

[WaveWacker]

Nope, I think I understand completely. If one had to guess what gauge wire would I run up from the battery to a switch panel or fuse panel?

Thanks so much!

[NETim]

As well as the SS, the yellow wire from the HDS should/could be tied to Lowrance's ethernet hub to tell it to power up/down.

[JWB475]

Just an FYI, make sure you use a heavy guage wire. The color units require a lot more juice. In my 04 Alumacaft I ran into trouble with voltage dropping to my bow unit and wound up having to run a heavier guage cable up there...