Wiring depth finder to factory rocker

[madmax75]

Hi guys - I'm looking for a little bit of help regarding the wiring of my new depth finder. I bought a Hummingbird HDR 610 (basic digital depth finder) and I've gotten into wiring it. I'm installing it in my '03 Outback LS which has 2 extra rocker switches on the dash - one is on/off and the other is 3 position, on/off/on I assume. Neither appears to be in use for anything.

Given that, my issue is that I don't know how to wire it up (specifically which prongs to wire to which wires. There are only a + and - coming off the Hummingbird and I know how to wire them directly to the power panel under the dash but not how to incorporate the switch.

Finally, let me say that I was able to run the negative to the power panel and run the positive from a prong on the 3-way rocker but it seems strange to me to have the positive coming off the back of the switches and then still run the negative all the way over to the power panel.... does that make sense - is that normal?

I think this must be easy so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Thomas

[mmandley]

I can take a look at my rockers when i get to the boat today.

In theory the switch's have to have a ground and a power ran to them from the fuse panel.

When you hook the Depth Gauge up it will patch this and when the switch it thrown it makes the connection.

I want to say the Center is Ground and up or down is the power side of the switch.

I need to look to confirm this of course.

But you should have Power coming off the switch as it has to get power somehow.

[Razzman]

Why switch it out of curiosity? Run it power direct / fused to a switched source and it will automatically come on with the ignition and you'll not have to worry about it.

[brain_rinse]

I wouldn't put it on a switch either. But if you do, this thread has a wiring diagram for the dpdt switches. https://forum.moomba.com/showthread.php?t=7690

[madmax75]

Hi guys - thanks for all the quick responses. First, to address a couple of questions, I want to have it switched because I have the shallow alarm set on it (we get out on the James River in Richmond and the depths vary quite a bit and pretty quickly) and when I come into the landing for instance, the alarm is beeping like crazy - I'd like to turn it off.

@mmandley, that would be great if you could have a look and let me know. I guess most of my confusion is really about what to do with the negative/ground wire coming out of the unit. Like I said, it's currently going all the way to the power panel when it seems like I ought to be able to connect it to the switch itself somehow. Also, I assume all the power running through those switches is just the regular 12 volt feed? In other words, they're not just signal wires? Am I over-analyzing the difficulty here?

@brain_rinse - thanks for the link, going to check that out now!

Thanks again,
Thomas

[Razzman]

Hi guys - thanks for all the quick responses. First, to address a couple of questions, I want to have it switched because I have the shallow alarm set on it (we get out on the James River in Richmond and the depths vary quite a bit and pretty quickly) and when I come into the landing for instance, the alarm is beeping like crazy - I'd like to turn it off.

@mmandley, that would be great if you could have a look and let me know. I guess most of my confusion is really about what to do with the negative/ground wire coming out of the unit. Like I said, it's currently going all the way to the power panel when it seems like I ought to be able to connect it to the switch itself somehow. Also, I assume all the power running through those switches is just the regular 12 volt feed? In other words, they're not just signal wires? Am I over-analyzing the difficulty here?

@brain_rinse - thanks for the link, going to check that out now!

Thanks again,
Thomas

Don't quote me Madmax but if i remember you just push a button to silence the alarm on the Humminbirds, at least the one in my last boat was that way.

[philwsailz]

For all, (or most all) of your boat electronics, the ground wire goes straight to a ground buss bar that is separate from the power. It certainly doesn't go to the switch. The only thing you switch is the +12v power side of basically any accessory, including depthfinder.

red wire to the switch, black wire to all the other black wires...

Phil
Kicker

[moombadaze]

I put mine on a switch also-ran the ground to the panel and positive to the switch