Spring Projects: Who is doing what?

[ian ashton]

The new dash lights and depth/temp gauge in the dark:

The gauge has a white back light with black letter/numbers, but they apparently don't show up in photographs.

[ian ashton]

Took the boat out for the first time with the new depth/temp gauge, and I must say, I absolutely love it! Its nice knowing that the water I was wakeboarding in (without a wet suit, or dry suit) was 57 degrees, lol. The depth gauge is much nicer than the unit I had before too, it seems to be very accurate, and very quick - my old one never really got consistent readings in deep water, it was more of just a shallow water alarm than a depth sounder, haha.

At any rate, I didn't snap any pics of the install of the transducer or temperature probe - the transducer was easy, I just epoxied it to the hull in the bildge, right behind the transmission.

Installing the temperature probe was a little different - I couldn't decide how I wanted to do it - the temperature probe consists of a round wire (a little smaller than what you'd have for coaxial cable for your TV), and a small sensor, about 1" x .25" x .375" - this is where the trouble came about. I had to decide between drilling a larger hole, and either filling it, or using something like this to get the piece through the hull as one, or between cutting the probe from the wires, poking the leads through a smaller hole, and re-connecting.

I decided on the latter, with the hope that cutting the wires wouldn't negatively impact the readings. Fortunately, I was right - so I ended up popping a 1/4" hole through the bottom of the boat, feeding the temp sensor wire up through the hole into the bilge, then filling the hole from the inside with epoxy. On the outside (so far) I have covered the sensor with a 10"x10" piece of sheet vinyl (like what you'd use for a wrap) - I need to get under there and epoxy it to the hull, I just wasn't sure this was all going to work so I wanted a less permanent solution until I could get it in the water.

[ian ashton]

Had the boat out last night and snapped a few pictures of my LEDs, I'm really happy with how these projects came out. I love the 'newty' underwater LED - I wish I could remember the brand, I think I want to get two more floods to go along with my sole spot in the middle, I think that would fill out the color in the back.


This was taken at about 6pm, well before dusk - not super bright, but definitely visible:


This was just after sunset, still kinda light out but kinda dark:

^^This was taken in about 3' of really merky water - so much so that if you look into the water you can't really see the bottom, just darkness.


Another picture of the interior LEDs:



As with all things, this just makes me want to add more! I've got several more "pods" and strips to install, so I'll keep updating as I add them.

[bergermaister]

That totally rocks Ian! Do you have the cupholders by your glove box lit up as well or did that seem like it would be too distracting at night?

I received my orders from Oznium and Superbright a week or so ago and a few more SMD strips are on their way via ebay. Got a bunch of the cupholder style ones and some more of these in the chrome finish. I already have a couple in the cabin and really like them so adding more.



Planning on having the cabin pretty well lit and something in each compartment, maybe even the cooler. Also considering a strip shining down from the tower if it doesn't look too tacky. I can't do the inside lip under the grill of my Polk cabin speakers so I can't copy you there like I was hoping...

Probably won't get around to installing them all until the ballast project is completely done and tested, which will hopefully be by month's end. I'll definitely post up some glowing in the dark pics when I get it finished up!

[ian ashton]

My boat doesn't have cupholders by the glovebox, at least yet. Not sure if I'd put them there or not, it seems like they'd reflect pretty badly off the windshield, especially if I have it tinted. Maybe cupholder rings would be best for that location.

[iwaterskihard]

I installed a hot water shower in my boat this past weekend. Wasn't too hard except we had to deal with pouring rain as we had the boat all apart and spread across my buddies lawn. Should be hitting the water with it today hopefully to give her the 2011 maiden run and get the temp on the shower set up! Then look out fisherman! LOL

[ian ashton]

I decided it would be a good idea to get the ACR wired up, since I've just been running both batteries in parallel all this time - anyway, I think the ACR is broken - it was an 'open box special' at West Marine, and with it all wired up, nothing happens. Both batteries remain connected, regardless of voltage, during starting, all the time. No action on the LED on the unit either.



So I think I'm going to take it back and exchange for one that (hopefully) works.


Anyway, this setup won't last long, I just ordered some circuit breakers and distribution blocks and I'm going to put everything on the right side wall (ACR, battery switch, which is still not yet installed), distro blocks, breakers, and fuses), similar to Razz's setup. Also going to up to 1/0 instead of the 4AWG.

[newty]

Ian looks good bro! Let me know if you want more, I still have access to the transom lights.

[cab13367]

Ian,

Sorry for asking this but are you sure you have the acr wired correctly? How do you know that they remain combined all the time? You say you've been running both batteries in parallel. What exactly do you mean by that?

You say the LED does not light up. Are you aware that the acr waits two minutes from the time it detects a charge until the acr closes (and the LED lights up)?

Also, if you have the stock alternator, you don't need anything larger than 4 gauge from the acr to the battery or switch.

Al

[ian ashton]

Ian,

Sorry for asking this but are you sure you have the acr wired correctly? How do you know that they remain combined all the time? You say you've been running both batteries in parallel. What exactly do you mean by that?

You say the LED does not light up. Are you aware that the acr waits two minutes from the time it detects a charge until the acr closes (and the LED lights up)?

Also, if you have the stock alternator, you don't need anything larger than 4 gauge from the acr to the battery or switch.

Al

Re: always combined- I used a multimeter and measured voltage at both terminals, and it was the exact same in all scenarios.

Re: batteries in parallel - the positive terminals combined and negative terminals combined - the way your 2 stereo batteries are wired.

I believe I have it wired correctly: terminal B to my stereo battery +, terminal A to my start battery +, batteries grounded together, ACR ground direct to batteries, SI to the ignition switch cranking wire (used your guidance and verified with a multimeter)


I did know about the 2 minutes after start thing, I tried it a bunch of times. Today I'm going to run a different wire to the ignition switch and see if that fixes it - thinking maybe the wire I used got pinched or split or something.