Wiring gauges on a smaller boat in series ?

[bang4dabuck]

I am installing new gauges on 17' Whaler (Katama). The console is very open and kind of small. With the idea of trying to avoid a "ball of confusion", I was planning to wire them in SERIES. I am installing 2 Temp gauges, Tach, water pressure and an ammeter. I was going to jump the red, black and blue wires from one gauge to the other and from the last gauge (Tach) to the ignition switch. Will this create inaccurate readings or any other problems ?

thanks

 

[Kender]

Re: Wiring gauges on a smaller boat in series ?

Your power and ground wires can be run like that, the blue wire maybe. If the blue wire is supposed to be for lighting up the gauge then yes but if the blue is your signal wire from the sensor then no. Just be sure to change the fuse for the gauges to the total of fuses from all the gauges. OR what you could do is run a wire to a fuse block for power and break out the power wires to each gauge individually so that each is on its own fuse and then the ground and light wires can be jumped in series the way you want. This way if one gauge fries out and blows the fuse the others will work. If these are standard marine/automotive gauges then upgrade the main power wire to the fuse block according to how much is hooked to the fuse block. I would up the ground wire for the gauges to a 12awg or 14awg if you have a ground block under the helm or 10awg if you have to run 10ft or so back to the battery.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Wiring gauges on a smaller boat in series ?

Each gauge does NOT need to be fused separately and creates very unnecessary amounts of wire to deal with. The daisy chain method is preferred. Gauges are also powered from the ignition switch ("A" terminal") so they become active when the key is on. Powering directly from the fuse panel would require adding a separate switch to turn them on and off. This is NOT preferred. Your car doesn't work that way and neither should your boat. If you have a fuse panel you do not need 12 or 14 gauge wire to the gauges. That is way overkill, harder to make the short daisy chain connections and 10 gauge back to the battery would be costly and again way overkill. 16 gauge is very adequate for instrument wiring between gauges and the fuse panel. Power from the battery TO the fuse panel is typically 10 gauge with a 20 amp breaker or fuse at the battery. Go to the "stickies" at the very top of this forum and look at the "Generic Boat Wiring Diagram".

 

[jimbo3123]

Re: Wiring gauges on a smaller boat in series ?

Each gauge does NOT need to be fused separately and creates very unnecessary amounts of wire to deal with. The daisy chain method is preferred. Gauges are also powered from the ignition switch ("A" terminal") so they become active when the key is on. Powering directly from the fuse panel would require adding a separate switch to turn them on and off. This is NOT preferred. Your car doesn't work that way and neither should your boat. If you have a fuse panel you do not need 12 or 14 gauge wire to the gauges. That is way overkill, harder to make the short daisy chain connections and 10 gauge back to the battery would be costly and again way overkill. 16 gauge is very adequate for instrument wiring between gauges and the fuse panel. Power from the battery TO the fuse panel is typically 10 gauge with a 20 amp breaker or fuse at the battery. Go to the "stickies" at the very top of this forum and look at the "Generic Boat Wiring Diagram".

Yes, it is OK to jumper the ground and common wires between your gauges.
However, this is an example of parallel wiring. If you were to try to actually wire them in series you would have trouble.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Wiring gauges on a smaller boat in series ?

He was pretty clear in his description of what he would do and wiring them in series was not his intention. When talking at the system level the gauges are indeed in parallel. When talking about the +12 volt leads, they are in series or daisy chained. Same for ground and the light circuit. When talking about the wires collectively, it is again a parallel network. Don't you just love "politics"?????

 

[TerryMSU]

Re: Wiring gauges on a smaller boat in series ?

Silvertip...

As a degreed electrcal engineer with over 30 years of experience, I am in agreement with Jim. I have seen this forum crawl all over someone who refers to the deck as the floor of the boat. However, in all fairness, I can see your description being accurate. Certainly, the OP was quite clear in his description.

TerryMSU

 

[RickJ6956]

Re: Wiring gauges on a smaller boat in series ?

C'mon guys ... it's parallel wiring. The fact that the physical wires are daisy-chained (jumpered) to the same terminals from one gauge to the next is a matter of convenience that avoids having to run individual wires from each gauge to the terminal blocks.

bang4dabuck, series wiring would mean that you would connect the ground of the first gauge to the positive of the next, and so on. This is not want you want to do.

You had it right except for the word series.

So, which is it: Deck or floor?

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Wiring gauges on a smaller boat in series ?

Again -- when talking about the "system" nobody is disagreeing. When talking about a single wire whether it is the +12v, ground or the light, it is a series or daisy chain connection. Picking nits -- yes. The original poster knew what he was doing but used the term "series" instead of "parallel". So lets just let this one go as he is probably on the water and having fun and could care less what we are now discussing\.

 

[JB]

Re: Wiring gauges on a smaller boat in series ?

Terminology can sink you. Be sure you get it right (or is that starboard??)

 

[bang4dabuck]

Re: Wiring gauges on a smaller boat in series ?

My bad.

Had not thought about the fact that my gauges (Faria), all have spade connections for lighting and my water pressure gauge has only 2 connections and they are both spade (lighting and a ground for the lighting). I guess I can basically make a harness with 5 blue wires and hook them altogether with one big terminal to hook up to my running lights. This switch is right in front of my gauge cluster so I don't think it will be too bad. Sound all right ? I will still need to run a separate ground for my water pressure gauge. My tach is all Deutsch connector.

So I will run my +/- in parallel from my tach (Deutsch) to my temp to my other temp to my voltmeter to my ignition.