2 ground wires one terminal

[darylat8750]

Originally Posted by SeaSon

Wow, there are some feisty folks here. Death from a battery? Hold on to the 2 terminals? Hmmmm, neither is right in my book.

Actually, if you are across a battery and your body is sweaty, you sure as heck will feel it. Takes about 3 seconds and then EOWWWW! Trust me, this ain't book learnin'. Just lean your sweaty belly against a piece of bare metal on your car while laying a wrench on the positive terminal. Or lay across a house battery bank in a Central American summer.

But kill you? Only if you have a disease that prohibits you from feeling burn pain. I call BS.

+1 I've layed a sweaty arm on my 800+amp house bank positive bus while hooking up the negative bus and felt enough of a tingle that I wouldn't have been comfortable leaving it there. But no death by 12 volts here...

[ramblinrod]

Originally Posted by reed1v

Ever hear of short circuits? Wet bodies and Ohm's law? Just breach the skin and see what happens. Or a cut that is wet. Now there is death staring you in the face. The reality is that on boats you got very wet environments, wet bodies, and probably a good chance wires will puncture the skin somewhere on our unfortunate sailor. Thus the advantage of a common ground, a gui system, and appropriate resistors. So far have not even mentioned amplifiers, shore power, nor inverters.

OK, so obviously you are joking.

Who hasn't stuck a 9 volt battery on their tongue to test it?

(And we're thtill here today to thay tho.) ;-)

OK, nuff of that 12V electrocution nonsense.

In all seriousness, while 12 Vdc is not going to electrocute anyone, if you mishandle it, it could certainly burn your boat to the waterline.

Ramblin Rod

[bcguy]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

Attached is the basic principle. You can hang all kindsa bells and whistles on it, but do yourself a favour and keep it simple.

TrentePiedsAttachment 118612

Thanks for the sketch TP. Think I'm gonna use it. Nice discussion though re hazard posts. I took the advice from an old salt here about splicing into the ground wire leading to the battery. He is bald... I wonder. P.S... could not interest my lady in the pin/nipple thing.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by bcguy

..... P.S... could not interest my lady in the pin/nipple thing.

Lead by example my friend...., lead by example

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Wotname?
I rely on your experience in these matters. Do the needles really have to be sharp? I've only got some old dull rusty ones. Will that still work? Or can I use the bamboo ones?

Nah, rusty no good - ferrous oxide is an insulator as is bamboo; stick with sharp shinny ones (pun intended)

[sartorst]

I was about to stop reading this thread, but now it is getting interesting

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by Wotname

Nah, rusty no good - ferrous oxide is an insulator as is bamboo; stick with sharp shinny ones (pun intended)

But you really need to use AC current. Honestly, 12V DC just doesn't have that delicious "tingle".

[Brewgyver]

Originally Posted by bcguy

Thanks for the sketch TP. Think I'm gonna use it. Nice discussion though re hazard posts. I took the advice from an old salt here about splicing into the ground wire leading to the battery. He is bald... I wonder. P.S... could not interest my lady in the pin/nipple thing.

The sketch shows a manual switch, but not the more typical hand/off/auto type that most boats with bilge pumps actually use. The off position can be handy when you hear the pump continue to run when it shouldn't. Also useful when testing to see how long it takes your pump to empty a full bilge. Here's a BoatUS article for reference. As this is a boating safety issue, I'm certain they wouldn't mind the link.

[hellosailor]

The off position is also handy if you suspect there might, just might, be some propane or butane or other convenient explosive gas moving about the boat. FWIW.

[Brewgyver]

Originally Posted by bcguy

Thanks for the heads up on the crimp method. Just to clarify. I take a positive and negative wire from the 12v battery and attach these to the positive and negative terminals of the Rule, bilge pump switch. (snip)

BCguy, what kind of switch is this? Most of these switches are a simple float type, normally open switch, with only two wires to connect to. If you connect positive and negative to a switch of this type, you would have a dead short when the switch closed.
There are switches that have positive and negative connections, but I haven't seen one from Rule.

[bcguy]

Originally Posted by Brewgyver

BCguy, what kind of switch is this? Most of these switches are a simple float type, normally open switch, with only two wires to connect to. If you connect positive and negative to a switch of this type, you would have a dead short when the switch closed.
There are switches that have positive and negative connections, but I haven't seen one from Rule.

...Thanks for your interest BG. Pics of Front/back of switch and pump attached. The pump itself has 3 wires (auto, manual and ground). The switch has 6 terminals. Two are taken up with a jumper wire. The right side back of the switch has a fuse to which I will attach a positive wire. On the left side of the switch is the jumper in the middle, auto above it, manual below it. To the right of these 3 terminals at the top is the negative terminal. After reading these posts in this thread I "plan" to connect the ground wire of the pump to my negative bus and run a positive wire from the switch to my positive bus (after connecting manual and auto wires of the pump to the switch. I will put a 5 amp fuse in the line just behind the positive wire of the switch (says that on top of bilge pump). I noticed that the fuse in the switch at the positive wire is 20 amps (fyi). I plan to crimp and heat shrink connections. I will not be wiring the pump directly to the battery and will not be splicing in the pump ground wire to the battery terminal negative wire (as advised per posts). And thanks again all who posted...

[bcguy]

"After reading these posts in this thread I "plan" to connect the ground wire of the pump to my negative bus and run a positive wire from the switch to my positive bus (after connecting manual and auto wires of the pump to the switch."

..... I meant to say:

....... connect the ground wire of the pump to the ground terminal at the switch and run a positive wire from the switch ....etc

[Brewgyver]

Ah, you didn't mention that you're dealing with an AUTOMATIC bilge pump. Guess I should have been able to deduct that from your description of the pump having three wires.
It's always best to start off with an accurate description of the item(s) in question. From the responses, it's pretty clear that I'm not the only one who thought you were talking about a float switch, as opposed to a bilge pump panel switch.
Anyway, you're on the right track now. Didn't the panel switch come with a schematic?

[bcguy]

"Anyway, you're on the right track now. Didn't the panel switch come with a schematic?"

... Just a standard multi language sheet showing positive going right to a 12 volt battery and then auto/manual to a switch completely unlike mine and then ground wire ending at a grounding symbol

... thanks for the help

[TrentePieds]

@BCGuy #1

If you haven't figgered it out yet, here's how you wire you Rule 750 in real life.

My sketch shows the complete circuits with nothing left to guess at :-)

Cheers
TrentePieds