Windlass Wireless Remote

[lawrence_craig]

Hi guys,

I had recent issues with my wired Lewmar windlass remote which resulted me in putting a temporary rocker switch by the anchor windlass.

I now want a better setup and was looking at wireless remotes. The wired rocker has 3 wires:
1x 12v+ and 2x wires going to a solenoid for up/down I’m guessing.

Would the below remote control box work with my current system? What would I need to do additionally?

Appreciate the help in advanced.

[noelex 77]

On our previous boat I used one of the very popular eBay wireless remote controls. These are incredibly cheap at only about $20 (or less) and most people report great success with these units.

However, I found they were less than reliable. I don’t know if they did not last long simply because we anchor almost 365 days a year, or if the switching mechanism could not cope with the higher current of the solenoid on our larger than typical anchor winch, or perhaps I was just unlucky, but I had several units fail and gave up in the end.

There were also some other minor shortcomings. Even a very brief short button press would operate the windlass for long enough to pull up a foot of chain. Not ideal when trying to “park” the anchor, or flip the anchor on the bow roller. The batteries for the remote were also an unsual size, hard to find, and expensive. Finally the range was a little poor if the receiver was installed under the deck (this is on an aluminium boat, which acts as a Faraday cage).

However, they are fantastic for the price and most people find the reliability acceptable.

For our new boat I fitted one the wireless industrial crane remotes. This fixes all the shortcomings I outlined above. The price was about $120.

The wiring is much the same in both cases and not difficult to do.

[Davo1404]

I have fitted the exact same ebay one. It's brilliant, but as the post above states one press & it pulls around 300ml of chain. The battery is 12V so a bit harder to source. I have a wooden deck & the remote has around 12 meters range.

[Matt Johnson]

I purchased two complete systems of the egg shaped remote from eBay for around $40 total, but I'm still using the first one with no signs of failure. It does take some getting used to the slight delay and run time Nolex eluded to. We just stop it when it's a few inches from being tight on retrieval and tie the anchor off to the pulpit to set it on the roller.

https://www.amazon.com/Anchor-Remote.../dp/B00C0SQE0K

Matt

[EmeraldCoastSailor]

Today I installed a unit from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It seems to work fine with only one anomaly; it drives the Lewmar windlass faster than the wired remote. I wired it in such a way that both the Lewmar wired remote and the cheap wireless work.

Any ideas why the windlass would operate faster with the wireless unit?